Another good day: The kids worked at the barn this morning, while I led the choir at Rockville UMC, and they did very well.

This evening I spent quite a while giving the kids their violin and piano lessons. Then I sent out a notice to all the brass players I know regarding openings for the GC Session international brass choir. And I finished up by installing a little more memory and a faster wireless card in my new laptop.

I didn't wear my contacts today.

I'm feeling like this is a less-than-inspired journal entry, and I apologize for that. But it seems important to make the effort anyway. Inspiration can strike another time.

Oh yeah, a new version of Konfabulator is available!

Sabbath is a Happy Day

Overall, this has been a wonderful day. This morning a friend brought her violin students to play at our church. She had asked me to play cello with the group, as she had a student playing the first movement of Vivaldi's Spring, and a group of students playing the first movement of Bach's Double Concerto. I haven't been playing cello very long, so an opportunity like this is a really big deal for me. She also permitted me to read the bass line with the Seitz 2nd concerto, 3rd movement, and with Borowski's Adoration. What a blast!

After church we ate a leisurely lunch and had a nice chat with an old friend. Then we came home and put together a picnic supper. Our friends the Greenes hosted a lovely potluck picnic supper event near the FDR memorial in DC with many of our favorite people in celebration of their educational accomplishments. It was an excellent close to a wonderful day.

Of Choristors

Last night I conducted the choir rehearsal at Rockville UMC. My good friend DG is the organist there, and I've played violin for them occasionally, including the last few Christmas Eve services. And I led the choir for a rehearsal and service earlier this year.

Last night's rehearsal turned out very well. The ranks were pretty thin when we began. But by the end of the evening we had 12 or 13. The anthem for this Sunday is a setting of "Come Thou Fount." We also read through a few other numbers and did some prep work for Sunday a week away.

Following up on other notes: I'm wearing my contacts again. I brought some drops today, but I haven't needed them yet. And I finished Italian I lesson 8 this morning on my way to work. Buon giorno!

On wearing contacts

For some reason I've fallen out of the habit of wearing my contacts day in and day out. In Atlanta, and for the first year or two after moving here I wore lenses for three and four days at a time.

I ran into a communication error with my optometrist here. He and I failed to connect on the desire for extended-wear lenses, and I've somehow wound up with daily-wear replaceables. For a time I thought they were "the same thing," and wore them like I had before. Then I got sick a few times, and my eyes got tired, and I pretty much stopped wearing them at all. Now I've been trying to make myself wear them again.

It's been something of a kick-start process. I really don't want to bring the supplies to work, so I jumped into wearing them for about 14 hours per day. For the last couple of weeks I wore them every other day. I wore them last weekend, and actually left them in overnight between Monday and Tuesday of this week. Today my eyes are tired, and I'm wishing I had brought some eye drops to work with me.

On Finishing Something

This morning I finished Pimsleur's German II lessons. It's nice to feel like I've reached the end of something.

What next? Well, in the short-term Vicki snagged the Italian I set from the library. But I see that Pimsleur offers a German III set, which our library system (Montgomery County, MD) does not have. I've also checked the Howard County system, to no avail.