Happy New Year!

Feeling a bit maudlin tonight, as I think back over this year - not a bad year, but not anything particularly great. I guess I'm having my midlife crisis or something. Anyway, I thought I would recap, just for myself...
January - nothing much, symphony concert with Fountains of Rome awesome oboe solo
February - quintet recital, my first faculty recital at NIC (Mozart, new gold jacket!), chamber concert Quiet City
March - Carousel with the big boys ($$$), Yakima for birthday parties, band concert, univ orch concert, symphony concert
April - Mozart concerto, quintet gig (last one), univ orchestra concert
May - symphony concert, opera (Hansel and Gretel), univ wind symph concert, student oboe recital
June - Seattle for christening, summer pops concert, band concert,P visits, to Tetons for C
July - two weeks of Sondheim musical "Putting it Together", Fireworks concert, bassoonist gets married, Jim's birthday
August - more summer pops, Onalaska, Long Beach, Cannon Beach, C visits
September - school starts!, opera Madama Butterfly, Grampa comes to put in floor
October - Grampa C visits, symphony concert, univ orch concert, D turns 6, Halloween (guard)
November - cousins come for late b-day party, to Gramas for T-day
December - symphony concert, univ orch concert, band concert, big bell thing (Wizards of Winter), Messiah, Wicked Wodka party, Grama and Grampa H come for Christmas

Seems like a lot of my life revolves around what I'm playing...Listening to the New Year's Eve concert on PBS of Swan Lake - big oboe piece, hopefully we are doing it next year!

sick sick sick

The last week of 2007 I am paying for my good health! I have not been out of the house since my parents left 3 days ago, but I'm hoping by tomorrow I will be able to party a bit (New Year's Eve and all that). Usually we celebrate with our friends on the east coast so we can go to bed early (9:05 is good). Would love to have some neighbors over but don't want to pass on the plague. So far we have watched a lot of dvds, and Victory at Sea on PBS. D was facinated, guess I'd rather he watched that than the Super Sugar Saquaches Go to Town, or whatever the awful cartoons are now.

Happy New Year!

Birthday party

Well, my nephew is now 9 years old - and we went over 200 miles to make sure of it. Actually I had planned an anniversary (7th!) surprise for Jim which I didn't mention because occasionally he reads the blog. But since we were going to Far-Off-Town, I thought we could dump D with my mom and dad at their hotel, and Jim and I could stay at the snazzy b&b with the fabulous chef. It was a great success, the rooms were lovely, the food was divine, and the no-kids hours were awesome! Fun fun fun. But now I'm ready for some serious Christmas activities with my mom and dad, who drove to our town to spend Christmas (yay!)

Jilliology?

Let others know a little more about yourself, re-post this as your name followed by "ology."

MOUTHOLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. The Ceasar salad dressing at Casey's. But I will take Balsamic vinegar anytime.

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Maybe Arby's, Schlotsky's or Subway.

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. Wolf Lodge. But Outback is fun if I'm in that kinda mood.

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. 15-20%.

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A. oatmeal, steak, chocolate of course.

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A. pesto chicken

Q. What do you like to put on your toast?
A. nothing, I like dry toast with eggs.

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. don't have wallpaper

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. 3


BIOLOGY

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A. Right handed

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. One small child (c-section)

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A. same child. or furniture, moved a lot this weekend for party

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. no

BULL[CRAP]OLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. I think not.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A. I actually went by Gillian during high school, soooo much cooler than Jill. But I am good with Jill now.

Q. what color looks good on you?
A. Red, but I usually wear blue or black.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Not that I remember, ask my mom.

Q. Have you ever saved someone's life?
A. I give blood...

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. I don't think so

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Just a kiss would be ok

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. Not normally, but if I were starving and it was the only feasible way to feed my family I would. But I can't see that happening.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Sure.

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A. Probably, doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Can't imagine anyone would pay that kind of money to take nude pics of me!

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
A. How hot?!

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. No, unless circumstances were extreme (war, they were killing my family etc)

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A. Lint.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A: I didn't get it, but a few parts were funny

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A: Fake hardwood, and ancient orange shag carpet

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A: Stand

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A: Yes; what are spouses and kids! Uber-roomies.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A: two, both coppery colored.

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. Didn't quite stop and got pulled over (warning, thank God)

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: self actualized

Q: Who is number 1 on your top 8
A: Top 8 what? Top 8

LASTOLOGY

Q: Last Friend you talked to?
A: Carolyn.

Q: Last person who called you?
A: Linda.

Q: Person you hugged?
A: my kiddo

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: 15

Q: Season?
A: Fall.

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A: my friend from dc

Q: Mood?
A. somewhat annoyed (what's new) as I have again cleaned the kitchen (dinner which I didn't even eat) and washed and folded everyone's clothes ALONE. grrr.

Q: Listening to?
A: Dave.

Q: Watching?
A. Dave n Oprah

Q: Worrying about?
A. What I will do for bells tomorrow (no idea what we're playing)

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: Yoga

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A: Watch the little dude on Christmas morning.

Q: What's the last movie you saw?
A. Dirty Dancing

Q: Do you smile often?
A: Not excessively, but I think more so than not.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: Yes.

Anniversary

Wow, this is our 7th anniversary! And we are even still happy! At least I am. And I think Jim is as long as I don't talk about selling his precious baby cars. I just wish I could park somewhere in the 8 car garage (which is full).

Last night was our "wicked wodka" party - I think this was the 20th anniversary! Of course I have only been to 7 of them - but I think this was the funnest yet. Lots of people came, and Jim deepfried TWO turkeys. Apparently the 2nd one was a mistake, he was trying to do too much and it fell into the vat of boiling oil. But there was plenty of food, and various drinks...lots of different vodkas. I decided to try making Oprah's Favorite Pomegranite Martinis, and they turned out great! I also tried about 1/2 shot of double chocolate vodka - kinda weird tasting. That is all I had, but then we got out all the instruments. We have several trumpets, a piccolo trumpet, lots of penny whistles and fluty things, a clarinet, a french horn, various fake decorative horns that make noise (no valves) and a keyboard. Those are the things I let anyone play. Then friends had brought at sousaphone, an accordian and a serpent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_%28instrument%29
Fun fun fun, I will post pics of me playing the serpent later. It is great to play because you can actually play any pitch with any fingering (well, almost).

D was great with lots of kids to play with. They mostly just hung out in a large clump in the basement, with the bigger ones gabbing and littler ones building train tracks. A grand success all around, although it would be nice if the christmas elves came and cleaned everything up.

Today I had to get up early to play in church (see other blog) and tonight I have Messiah, but we went out for lunch with our neighbors after church. No better way to celebrate our anniversary.

Par-tay!!!

Tomorrow is the Wicked Wodka party, sort of a hybrid of something Jim started back in the day (20 years ago??!!!!) and now it is more of a calm thing, but don't stay too late. At some point (after the vodka) all the instruments (not the oboes of course) come out and a horrible noise is made, mostly by people who have never played before except at this party. Then they call the people who didn't show up and make noise. It is kind of funny, but maybe this year we can do something real? I have lots of actual musicians coming and easy carol books in every key!

But more to the point, I am cleaning! Those of you who know realize this is a huge undertaking. Jim has actually shut the roll=top desk (miracle) and the counters in the kitchen are mostly bare. Most of our friends haven't seen the kitchen with its new floor etc, and the new furniture downstairs. We won't be having the big screen tv out, but I'm sure he will show it to all the guys.

Other issue is the snow. We are supposed to get dumped on tonight, and I am worried about people getting here. I'm also worried about ME getting out and home for my rehearsal tomorrow! Getting down isn't so bad (although I've seen people go right off the mountain) but I will be taking my tall Sorrels just in case I have to walk back. That would be a big pain. And I doubt anyone would want to hike .6 mile straight up to come to our party. Will try not to stress about that.

Christmas tree!

We went to get the tree after the great bell choir extravaganza. Since the party is Saturday I figured we should wait as long as possible before getting it, especially since we didn't have any time to do it before that! Of course we always go out "on the land" to find a perfect tree...but we can't take ones that are out alone because we want them to grow; and we want a fir tree NOT one of the more abundant pines. Our neighbors always get a pine tree and they can put 10 pound ornaments on the limbs - but they have a vaulted ceiling. If we got a pine it would look like - well like this!

This is Ds tree, apparently we have watched Charlie Brown Christmas special too many times.

Snazzy party!!!

Thursday was Jim's Christmas party for work, which they held at the snazziest hotel in town. Probably wasted on a bunch of engineers, but I really enjoyed getting dressed up (in navy blue for a change!) and Jim looked very nice in his tux. Of course most of the other nerdy guys didn't dress up much, but that's ok. They had lovely food and drinks, and the big symphony (which I don't play in) has their Christmas Tree fancy raffle thing at this hotel every year, so we walked around and admired the trees (extremely elaborate, with things like African safaris that go with them).

After dinner they had prizes to give away (after the long speech about how great they are doing); and dancing. Last year for the first time ever Jim actually danced with me - and he said he would do it again this year (yay!). He even remembered to tell me I looked great! Perhaps he is coming down with something... But mostly I danced with the ladies from the table, they were a fun bunch and most of our men were pretty firmly planted in their chairs. The "fun committee" lady even offered one of the guys a $150 gift certificate to Home Depot if he would just get up and go out on the dance floor, but he wouldn't budge. Stubborn engineers.

Only badish thing was the dj, pretty bad music choices and so loud you really couldn't hear to talk - although as Jim pointed out you could go in the hall (very fancy big hall with tables and food and stuff) and talk there. It was fun to do a fancy thing, but now I'm set for the year (or longer!)

And even more....snow

Seems like a theme, we are getting lots of white stuff. Our big hill nearly got me tonight - I had to back all the way down (praying no one would come) and get another shot at it, was actually shocked that I got all the way to our place, because the first run seemed to be going as well as you could could hope. But here I am. Must go down again as tonight I have a concert - but Jim has dress rehearsal for band and so we will go together (make him drive!) It isn't exactly perfect because I have to wait around after he drops me off, but I'd rather do that than drive up the hill myself again!

Other thing, D is with the neighbors, who kindly (miraculously) offered to take him tonight while we rehearse/concert. Sadly, their place is another 1/2 mile up the steep hill, and they have 4wd (which we don't in the car)

_later_
Concert is over, hill is driven up (scary!!), child is home and in bed! And I have an appointment downtown at 7am. Should be great, can't wait to slide down the ice slick. Right now it is melting, but I bet it is going to freeze before morning. Anyway, I am lusting after Subaru Outbacks (4wd) and garage space (yes, all 8 garages are full of unusable cars). *sigh*