Wow - busy weekend!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while (if anyone's actually reading this) - I just haven't had time. The last several days have been completely full.

I spent Thursday evening at Anita's, where she fed me dinner and we spent a few hours spinning and yakking. I had gotten her a Navajo spindle at an antique store in Jamestown (while Rachel and I were on vacation), and she spent the evening trying to learn how to use it. She actually had a few yards of decent yarn by the end of the evening. I'm glad I gave it to the right person.

On Friday, after a busy day at the library, the family gathered at the college for the bands concert. Brian is a member of the flute choir and the symphonic band, which were the first and last of four groups to perform that evening. The music was quite enjoyable, but there were some rude people behind us, letting their noisy small children eat chips during the flute choir's set. Rachel and I were rather irritated. Fortunately, the jazz band, the brass ensemble, and the symphonic band drowned them out. We were out quite late - I didn't get to bed until after 11:00.

Saturday, I had to get up at 5:45 in order to get the bookmobile to the High Desert Church for a health and safety fair. Two of our teen volunteers showed up to help out. It was a pretty busy day, after a slow start, and I counted 367 visitors in 4 1/2 hours. The weather has really warmed up, so I had people visiting just to sit under the air conditioner for a few minutes, including Sparky the Firedog, who I felt really sorry for. After the fair, I had a couple of hours to kill before my concert, so I finished the book I was reading and went to the college to take a walk. At the end of my walk, I saw a campus policeman and another guy poking at a snake on the grass. It turned out to be a large, handsome gopher snake, and after determining that it was quite mellow, I offered to take it out into the desert for them. The cop insisted that Animal Control was coming out to pick it up, so I gave up and went back to my car. By the time I drove back to the main parking lot, they were gone.

Our concert Saturday evening was a success. We sang several opera choruses, accompanied by the orchestra, and three of the sopranos sang arias. About half of us were dressed as opera characters - Rachel, Brian, and I wore our Ren Faire garb, and we loaned out outfits to three of the other College Singers girls. I wasn't able to use my music because of the way we were crowded on the risers, so on the few pieces that I needed hints on, I looked over the shoulder of the girl in front of me. I only screwed up once - I hope no one heard it. I didn't hear any serious mistakes anywhere. On Tuesday, we'll probably get to hear the CD of the concert - then we'll find out for sure.

We missed having Jacob there - he's got such a strong, confident bass voice that the other guys tend to lean on him. But he was busy working as the musical director for Shenanigans, a local youth performing arts group, and couldn't get away. We all went to see their final performance of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" on Sunday after church. It was surprisingly well done, both the acting and the singing. Jacob provided the voice of the book, as well as acting as sound man and special effects. After the show, we all went to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream, then home.

Today, after basically having no weekend, I was back at work from 11 to 8. Fortunately, it wasn't a bad day - busy, but no problems. Right now, I'm sitting at home typing. Rachel's on the other computer typing up a silly story and reading, Jacob is alternating between playing the guitar and annoying me with the extra wireless keyboard he has set up to communicate with this computer, Caasi is sitting with Rachel, and Joseph is listening to his daddy sing and play. I'm waiting for Brian to come home from rehearsal. Oh, there's Brian now - and he's caught a small glossy snake. Caasi's not happy about it. And Rachel's all excited - the cats caught a male Wilson's warbler, and Rachel thought it was a mouse at first. She made quite a noise when it started flying.

Well, the bird is outside now, and the snake will be there soon. Everything's calming down, and I'm going to have dessert and get ready for bed - unless something else happens.