Pink Martini

It's been awhile....wow. Time goes so fast these days.

Last Tuesday evening, we went to Gallo to see Pink Martini.  One of my best-est wonderful friends at work is obsessed with this group so we went with them to see what the group is like.

If someone had said I'd be listening to music sung in Japanese, Croation, Italian (just to name a few) and would love every single minute of it, I would have said you were crazy.  I'm a lyric person.  The words get me.  But this time, the music got me.  It was just fantastic - an 11 member 'band' of flawless musicians and eclectic music that they want to preserve (think 'big bands' of the 30's and 40's at times - but not all like that ); music they've composed.  It was phenomenal and I'm so hooked.

Thankfully, my friend and her husband made CD's for me of most of the albums.

I'm listening to "Hey, Eugene" over and over at the moment - if inclined, you can find it on You Tube.

That was a very fun evening already a week ago -

Tonight is a board meeting then a week of workshops and meeting off site.

I've arranged to be off M-W-F of next week (hopefully) to spend as much time as possible with B. .  He arrives this Saturday!

Work is going well.  A monthly meeting (usually 3-4 hours in length) was cancelled and I made good use of the time by culling out my office.  I plan to continue that process today and have two big projects to get 'finalized' before the winter break.

So far, most of the presents around here are apparently 'for me'.  Of my own doing.  Argh!

I'm leaning towards a big scavenger hunt for the boys and then they can shop on their own and/or with us after Christmas?  I hate to spend a ton of money on clothes and stuff they may not like and/or that I could get for a lot less after the celebration.  It's always hard these days - adult children gift giving is an art.

Only problem with that plan is H.'s biggest 'want' is a fairly expensive 'gadget'.  But then maybe giving him money to use for that will illustrate that another less expensive 'gadget' would serve the purpose and cost around 1/3 of the other?  Time for him to make these 'hard' decisions 'cuz he's an adult.

All of our outdoor decor items failed at the same time so J. and I headed out to shop Saturday.  Costco provided a couple of options - but they were big and bulky and expensive (even on the 'clearance' price).  We bought some lights at Target but the had no 'lawn' stuff.  Wal-Mart (it pains me to admit) had tons of stuff and for less than we would have spent at Costco, we got tons of stuff to add to our lawn collection.

The tree is up and so pretty with just lights - but we'll get some ornaments on it this week.  I hope.

I'm 'late' (for me) so I'd better get showered and head out.  Hoping to return home this afternoon for a couple of hours.  A break before the meeting would be lovely.