Happy New Year, to those who celebrate it! I should do one of those end-of-year memes, but I just don't feel like it now. =P

To the five Asian readers who were no doubt curious: Operation Eat an Asian Pear from yesterday was pretty much a success. Well, half a success because I only manager to eat half of it today. It was pretty good, but a different texture than I was expecting. Also, contrary to most of the suggestions, I ate the skin with it. It just wasn't possible to peel it while at work.

tango's entry from earlier today got me thinking about Veteran's Day. I'm probably mis-remembering, but I can think of at least four relatives who served:
My grandfather (mother's side), United States Army
His brother Abe, United States Army
His brother-in-law Paul, United States Air Force
My grandfather (father's side), British Eight Army (North Africa)

Since I haven't posted much and may not be able to send out lots of personal greetings, I'll just say Happy New Year! to everyone who might be reading.

And thanks you to everyone who sent me a virtual gift around Christmas!

Unbelievable... people actually seem to be doing real work today. The few people that are here, of course. No one's going to be here Friday, myself included.

Shana Tova to the two Jewish people who might be reading their friends list. I was bad and went to rehearsal last night instead of services, but I'm leaving for Beth Am in a few minutes. I haven't decided about Yom Kippur there or going back to Hopkins, to which I haven't gone in about 2 years.

I don't mind Passover so much, even the "eating matzoh all the time" part. The problem is that I'm so used to eating bread and other baked goods that matzoh just isn't filling. According to the box, one sheet is only 120 calories, but the only other nutrients supplied are carbs. It'd be great for people on a diet (not Atkins, of course), but even topped with butter, jelly, peanut butter, or roast beef and cheese ;) I'm still eating one every two hours because I get hungry again. The other problem is that with my hectic rehearsal schedule this week, I've had no time to go to the store for things like meat or potatoes, which make up the bulk of a Passover diet.

Oh well, it's only a few more days. Hey look, I got bows in the mail!

Re-posting this from tidesong, since she didn't make it public....



I should also mention here that good people of Jones Soda have not only made both a Christmas and a Chanukah holiday pack of sodas, but they somehow managed to make the Christmas Ham Soda kosher: [link]

As has been the tradition for the last two years, I went back home to play the July 4th concert with the orchestra there. The twist this time was that my brother was also coming back to play, fresh off his own concert season. The program was almost identical to the ones from the last two years, and even the same ringers were back. This year, no one from the 1st violin section bugged me about my tuning technique, nor did we play in the stadium or under a giant tent. There was just enough threat of rain to make the director call the concert indoors, which meant inside the local hockey/multi-purpose arena. That development alone was enough to make my mom decide that we'd all go to either New York or Baltimore (or somewhere else) rather than risk having to play this horrid concert again, and inside the run-down arena.

There was one funny moment, though: Running into my old high school music teacher at the rehearsal, because her five-person a cappella group was performing with the orchestra. She was totally shocked to see not only me, but my brother, after 12 and 15 years, respectively.
Speaking of whom: My brother is a chatty drunk, and unbearable when he's waiting to hear back from a woman. He already knows this, though. :P

I wouldn't have thought so, but apparently you can make a halfway decent turkey sandwich on matzah. Mustard helps.

Wow, who knew there was more than one weather-prognosticating groundhog?

Anyway, I guess Phil's prediction of an early spring jives with the latest dire warnings of human-caused global warming. Of course, he's been pretty inaccurate.