dogwood overlook loop at the beaver dam

When we got to the trail, the gate was closed, so we hoofed it up the hill to the trailhead. I was really impressed by the stairs at the beginning, good job boy scouts! Once we really got underway, I had to check frequently with my guide book because the trail wasn't very clear, and there were very large gaps between some of the markers. There were several spectacular views of the lake since the leaves aren't on the trees yet (other than some early bloomers.). We got attacked by a few swarms of mosquitos when we hurried by the bluffs at roughly the halfway mark. Eventually we followed an old road and followed it back to civilization where a redbud was in full bloom. (unfortunately, the dogwoods haven't started blooming yet. Maybe we'll get to go back when they are on display)
It was a nice hike to get going again (1.5 miles supposedly), and Holly enjoyed it enough that she is interested in hiking again, so I'm looking forward to that. Here's hoping that hike is soon!

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Christmas break

I'm officially on Christmas break! Coming back from Midwest and having to teach 2 more days wasn't all that fun, but at least its over. I look forward to sitting around with holly, pumpkin, and grady, and doing as little as possible. Maybe start a fire, maybe fix some food, but mainly just relax and enjoy my week and a half away from students. When I get back from the break, I have to hit the ground running with BIP. I only have 30 hours of scheduled rehearsal time until our contest. That's not a lot of time. Well have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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Friday

I had my last ful day today. We started at the artists cafe, then I went to several clinics. After those I did a little shopping at macys and bought a new suit. It's pretty awesome, an early Christmas gift from Holly. Then we went to Lawry's, and sadly, it wasn't as good as I remembered. The singers were cool, but the prime rib wasn't very prime :( well I come home tomorrow! 2 more concerts, one more artists cafe, and another flight, then we get home and its time for a Carroll county community orchestra concert. Hopefully I will be home in about 22 hours! Just so you know, I took a video of the people singing at lawry's so you could see them in their period costumes, but it isn't letting me put the video on here for some reason.
It's Saturday morning now, I have to pack, then we will hit artists one last time, then the center grove percussion ensemble (im really excited about that one) then we'll head home.
If you've been reading these, I hope you don't feel like they made you dumber, and maybe you enjoyed some of the pictures.
Well... goodbye.

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Thursday night.

The CSO Brass was amazing! Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor was spectacular, Linconshire Posy was ridiculous, Crown Imperial was imperial. Totally worth the money! Makes me proud to be a brass player.
For the palen dinner, we ate at Tavern in the Park. It was delicious. When we were walking back, if was snowing, though I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture. Tomorrow will be a light day, I'll probably listen so some music and cruise the exhibits.

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Thursday night.

The CSO Brass was amazing! Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor was spectacular, Linconshire Posy was ridiculous, Crown Imperial was imperial. Totally worth the money! Makes me proud to be a brass player.
For the palen dinner, we ate at Tavern in the Park. It was delicious. When we were walking back, if was snowing, and the city looked really pretty. Tomorrow will be a light day, I'll probably listen so some music and cruise the exhibits.

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union high school percussion ensemble.

This morning I had the pleasure of watching the union high school percussion ensemble. (after another delightful breakfast at the artists cafe, of course) They were great! They played an awesome tune my Jim Casella called "Cyclone". It was awesome. The group was filled with all-state caliber percussionists, and they played great! They also played Matt Savage's "into the village" with savage standing in on djembe. Then they played a lot of good tunes, including an awesome Indian tune (as in the country of India) where a student rocked out the tablas. It was great. Now I'm waiting for a clinic to start about teaching kids to compose, then the CSO Brass! Then the palen dinner. It's a big day. Later...

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Wednesday wrap-up

So I had chocolate chip pancakes at the artists cafe, they were great. Then we got to Thursday convention center late, so we snuck into the first performance without out name badges because we hadn't gone through registration yet. The group was awesome. It was some various chamber groups from the presidents own marine band. The clarinet choir was nuts. Then I ran to the first percussion clinic of the convention, and the little girl at the door wouldn't let me in without my nametag, so I had to go wait in the crazy long line, and I ended up missing the first 10 minutes, but the remainder of it was really good. Then I wandered around the exhibits for a few hours. I thanked the guys at Row-Loff and had my picture taken with them, (they're the elves), then I met the drumming legend Matt Savage and talked with him about his new percussion piece Into the Village, and talked to him about how I got to share a cd with him because I was on this year's Row-Loff cd too. He was a really cool guy. He is the one in the white shirt with me in the Pro-Mark booth. Then Hodge and I talked with Michael Markowski for quite a while at the Manhattan beach music booth. Sorry, no picture for that. Then we saw the presidents own marine band. They were awesome. They played the world premiere of "Passages" by Scott Lindroth. That was really cool, but the best piece was their transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird. It was spectacular. I tried to get a picture of them, but its pretty lousy. Sorry.
After all the music, me, Hodge, Stevens, billy, and jenna went to gino's east for some pizza, that's where the picture of all the words on the wall was taken. Then unfortunately, my phone started to die, so my flash wouldn't work, and the picture of the pizza came out kind of bad. After gino's, we were walking back to the hotel and some guy walked up to us and basically forced a shoe shine on billy, and stevens, and then swindled billy out of $30. It was crazy. I'm going to be sure to give Billy a really hard time tomorrow. Wow, I just looked at the clock, and its midnight, I've got to go. Later...

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