Day two of no pictures on blogger again... So much for every day.

Finally...

Yesterday I tried running pictures through Picasa... wrote up a long post... and then it didn't upload.

Here is the picture for the day before yesterday:

Our house has the chicken pox. This is what it looked like just after installing insulation and just before putting on the final coat of whatever to make it look purty.

NO PICTURES

Blogger won't let me post pictures... sorry. I'll try again tomorrow.

Revival

In an attempt to revive this blog, I am starting a new project. We'll see if I can post a picture every day from our daily activities. The picture may not be posted on the day it was taken... but hopefully it will reflect something that is happenning in our lives.

Picture number one:

Playing the cymbals for four hours every day at work can take its toll. No worker's comp... no band-aid break... no nothing. This is what my finger looked like after I had cleaned it up a bit. I still can't get it all of the cymbal...

(This post is dedicated to Anna Watcher-of-bloody-disgusting-things Peipon)

Quite a Concert...

"Toshimitsu Tanaka is one of the most prolific composers today in Japan, with a repertoire of over eighty compositions for all media. Notable among these are the tetralogy of Requiems for orchestra - The Grave, Gunzo, PATHOS, and maze - spanning twenty years, from 1972 to 1992, and his diverse percussion music, from the Sadlo Concerto for marimba and orchestra, commissioned by Peter Sadlo of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, to Personna (a competition for roto-toms and marimba players on one side, and, on the other, percussionists in traditional Japanese demonic masks, all playing one large gojinjo daiko Japanese drum."

I played the Ukrainian premiere of 'Personna' tonight. It's very complex and it usually would have taken a month or more for us to put something like it together... I had less than two weeks to learn it and only few days to put it all together with the other people playing... and the composer (who is for Japan what Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov were for the USSR) was in the audience.

I'm pooped...

But it's over... Ukraine has know heard Personna and I can finally get a good night sleep.

Hold on to your Honey

It's DONE!

If my calculations are correct, it has been about THREE MONTHS since Dasha and I have had a home. Workers kept promising finish dates, but the would pass by with no finish in sight.

Finally... Dasha and spent the night in the house. No workers... no anybody.... just us, and we're home. Light... check. Water... check. Hot water... check. Internet enabled computer... check.

Tonight was the first night we spent the night. Grandma (she lives on the first floor), Dasha, and I (we live on the second floor) 'christened' the house last night with a little bit of scotch whisky. Mmm... mmm. Still a lot of work to do here... but at least we're HOME!

(This is an old picture... I'm too lazy to go outside and take a picture of the completed house)

Anouncements!

Anouncement number one: As Mrs. Taylor suggested, I am planning a wedding reception for Ben and Linnea here in Ukraine. Mandatory attendance is required from the bride, groom, and their families. Just let me know a date that works best for you all...


Anouncement number two: Our builders told us that our house should be done within a week's time!

Righteous hatred

I just want everyone to know... I HATE the fact that I missed Ben and Linnea's wedding. I survived not being at Jack and Stacey's even though I was concocting schemes to get there up until the day before their wedding. Seeing as how I had "successfully" missed that wedding, I figured I could handle missing Hannah and Patrick's, Noah and Katie's and Ben and Linnea's.

Wrong...

It must be that while Jack, Hannah and Noah are very dear people, I really don't know Stacy, Pat, or Katie very well.

But Ben and Linnea are TWO very special people... getting married... on the same day... to EACHOTHER!

I don't like it... not one bit.

I'm jealous that Ben gets to be part of the Shelton family... That his in-laws are Mr. and Mrs. Shelton and that Jack and Jared are brothers... in-LAW. I'm jealous that Linnea gets to be part of the Taylor family, too. I'm jealous that only one picture (360th, I think... it's in my favorites folder) has me in it... and that even in that one I'm stuck behind Matt's phone... etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

Blogging...

Blogging really isn't very interesting from someone else's computer. Being at mom and dad's, Dasha and I have been using a combination of different computers. I've been back to work as well. There really isn't much to say.

Besides the Philarmonic, I've been giving drum lessons to a kid from our church as well as to the son of the dutch ambassador.

The house is still being built. It's finally getting closer. Over the past couple days we've been picking out toilets, sinks, kitchens, bath tubs, bidets, etc. etc. etc. Way too many choices... and they're all pretty permanent.

But, we're trucking along... gettin' er done.

Back to work...

It was inevitable... it had to happen. Summer is basically over for me. Today was my first day back to work. Four hours of rehearsal every day... six days a week, for the rest of this month...

Then the concerts start...

Then the tours.

It looks like I'll be going to Japan at the beginning of November and Warsaw, Poland at the end.

11 months and 30 days until next summer vacation.

Sorry, mom

I was trying to come up with some good captions for the blog... the only problem is that the possibilities are ENDLESS:

"Not Again!"

"We understand, mom. It was a long flight."

"It happens to the best of us."

"I just LOVED the chili!"

"You know, adult diapers are a 3 million dollar a year industry."

The truth is, mom was sitting in a chair and someone else spilled diet coke on to it.

Moving...

For those of you who don't know: Dasha and I are in the process and moving. This is Dasha:

"When You're moving your whole world becomes boxes. That's all you think about is boxes.

'Boxes, where are there boxes?' You just wander down the street going in and out of stores.

'Are there boxes here? Have you seen any boxes?' I mean it's all you think about. You can't even talk to people because you can't concentrate.

'Shut up I'm looking for boxes!' Just after a while you become like really into it you can smell them. You walk into a store... 'There's boxes here. Don't tell me you don't have boxes! Dammit, I can SMELL them!' I'm like I'm obsessed. 'I love the smell of cardboard in the morning.'

You could be at a funeral. Everyone's mourning crying around, and you're looking at the casket. 'That's a nice box Does anyone know where that guy got that box? When he's done with it do you think I could get that? it's got some nice handles on it.' And that's what death is really. It's the last big move of your life. The hearse is like the van. The pale bearers are your close friends the only ones you could ask to help you with a big move like that. and the casket is that great perfect box you've been waiting for your whole life The only problem is, once you find it you're in it."

Fun...

I don't know why exactly... but this picture really made me smile when I saw it...

Thank you, Annie.

The Weddings

This is me at Ben and Linnea's wedding. It's the only shot I have of the wedding. I am seen here at four in the moring (Ukraine time) trying to make that special Skype call to Matt Robin's phone and talk to Ben and Linnea while they were cutting their cake.

Here I am again at Noah and Katie's wedding. They had me standing WAY in the back (Ukraine in the back). I couldn't even see sthe action or say hello. And the service at the reception was horrible. I'm standing there in the Noah shirt (you'd think they would know I was in the fan club) and no one even offered me a drink.

Those who were closer report that they had a great time. Dasha and I will try to be there next time.



P.S. Sorry I have no pictures with Dasha my date... I don't think she wanted this type of flattering picture taken of her and published.

"I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
And stops my mind from wandering
Where it will go
I'm filling the cracks that ran through the door
And kept my mind from wandering
Where it will go"

Squirrel goes on rampage, injures 3

I couldn't NOT blog this...:

BERLIN (Reuters) - An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.
The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.
With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.
The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.
"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."
The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1432171020070614

John Piper is BAD

I found this randomly and thought it was entertaining... especially for all the Piper fans out there.

Design

Some of you may know that Dasha and I will be moving soon to a little house right outside of Kyiv. It is a duplex and the second/top floor will be ours. It is still being built so everything will be done the way we prefer. The question is... how do you decorate this type of area?

These two picture (above and below) don't match up. Ours will be closer to the top plan than the bottom as far as where that door is.
So what do you do with all these slanted walls?

If anybody knows or has ideas... comment!

The Weather

It's been a whopping 11 days since my last blog... and what do people talk about during uncomfortable pauses in conversation? The weather...

I just thought I would mention that while the projected high in Salisbury, MD was 65 degrees farenheit... the high in the Kyiv (the froozing former soviet union) is 88! (If you could make numbers 'capital' like letters I would have done it.)

And now you know... the rest of the story.