I've not been communicating much for the last couple of weeks, as we've hit the new year running at full speed. Since we got home from WA, we've collectively:
caught up with several friends (Anna, Chad, Nimue)
reorganized the pit of chaos in the bedroom (Chad and Anna)
snuck in a day trip to ski at Sugarbowl (Anna, Nimue)
done our respective first slow ridge climbs of the year (Anna, Chad)
caught a cold (Chad)
gave up and cleaned up all the slimy leaves in the front yard that weren't drying out (Anna)
I've also had several rehearsals in the new Bing Auditorium at Stanford for the Music Department's opening concert; I snuck Chad and Nimue in for the Early Music Singers rehearsal earlier this week since it appeared to be impossible to get tickets. EMS is singing Gabrieli's In Ecclesiis with the Whole Noyse; several of us are also doing the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and the Ravel Daphnis et Chloe Suite with the giant choir singing with the Stanford Orchestra -- and, as I found out last night, a horrible school anthem "Hail Stanford, Hail!" dating back from 1893. How I could sing with the school for 20 years and never run across that, I don't know, but I could have happily remained in blissful ignorance... The new performance space is quite visually stunning, and seems to have a decent acoustic. They're still putting the finishing touches on (sealing the floors and the like) before this weekend's opening concerts.
I also got out for a hike at Picchetti Ranch this morning and ran across the model for MacBeaky -- most amusing, as he probably would have let me pet him if I tried. I settled for taking a couple of pictures. Happy New Year all!
