back!
Mood:  bright
I cannot believe it's been two months since my last post!! Then again, we did spend basically the whole of August in Australia, and July popping around other parts of the world - NY for our friend Chris's wedding, Scott to Austria and Spain for business, and my friend Shanna and me to Sardegna for a quick little R&R.

Now we're full on in the fall schedule. This week is the annual Winzerfest in Bingen, and we stopped by yesterday for a preview. So far, the 2003's have been quite rewarding :)

This past weekend we stayed in, enjoyed the down-time and caught up around the house with laundry & stuff. I read Dan Brown's Angels & Demons almost in one sitting, while Scott conquered x-box's XIII as well, in almost one sitting. In between, I managed to squeak out a batch of chocolate chip cookies, yummmmmmm

Both Scott & I are pretty buckled down for work this September. He's recently found a brass quintet that invited his playing, and Sinfonietta Mainz rehearsals should start any minute now, rounding out our performance activities. Other commitments include scott's private student and his KKM Dromersheim playing. We're both also taking private German language lessons now.

In between it all, we're full-on with wedding plans, scheduling remaining vacation days for all we want to do, and drafting the thanksgiving dinner menu! I can't believe it's september already.......

Europaische Meisterschaft
Woo Hoo Congrats Greece!! Although personally I thought their game vs. the Czech's was much more of a nail-biter with the silver goal to win, them keeping Poland to no score in their own back yard last night was truly something. Hey, Germany's just happy that their trainer works with one of the local teams HERE ha ha :)

Check out what we've been absorbed by: http://www.euro2004.com/

ok... even longer...
Haven't posted in a while because, well, quite frankly I don't even know if anyone ever reads this besides me..... will try to be better regardless :)

June is packed, and over - but felt it lasted the "correct" amount of time, not flying by like Feb - April did. We celebrated the 1,250th anniversary of our town, Scott showed DurkHorns at a weekend workshop, we painted our living room, shared in the confirmation of our friends' daughter, and spent a beautiful and relaxing weekend in the Black Forest.

I will write about it all in an upcoming mass e-mail, including photos online that I need to post :) but for now just wanted to share that my old jazz guitar teacher has released his first CD!!! With some great guest artists and his own 7-string style, should be a blast! Check out the MP3 of Track 1 - "I'm your Huckleberry" at http://www.dougproper.com/music/7thsense/1_Huckleberry.mp3

Enjoy!

long time!
Been battling bronchitis (don't you love alliteration) the last two weeks, and seems it's finally lifting. The weather is starting to really warm up now too, although I believe it's been more mild than last year at this time, as the vineyards are a little behind.

Thursday is a public holiday - Christi Himmelfahrt, or the Day of Ascension, 40 days after Easter. Has it been that long already? In our town, Christi Himmelfahrt is also "Father's Day" but really not - I prefer to call it more like "Man's Day" since it is defined by the action of men ditching the women and children in their lives to spend the hours drinking themselves into a tizzy. I think some bonding happens in and around that as well. Scott chilled out with the guys last year as he was here alone, and he is part of it now so will attend this year too. Oh well, have to find something to do all by my lonesome on this day off when everything is closed and the other women are minding their children while their men "free" ... old world social stereotypes are kind of a drag sometimes ...

quick one...
Happy belated Easter to everybody :) We spent last weekend visiting my aunt in Rimini, and had a beautiful time. Rehearsals for up-coming Mainz and Dromersheim concerts are happening, filling up evenings & weekends, but we're managing to squeeze in celebrating Dietmar & Sigi's birthdays, their daughter's first communion, and attend an NFL Europe league game! The Spring weather is still trying to climb out and it's just about there, so we're enjoying that as well. Happy birthdays yesterday to my mom & Scott's sister, Heather, and to our friend Maarit on Sunday!

April !
well, seems I've been pretty consistent here with notes at the end of each week, coincidence :) I will try to be more regular...

last weekend we attended a concert in Sponsheim. Dromersheim has a new conductor, who also directs the Sponsheim group, so we went to check it out. The conductor is young (25?) but very clear, animated, congratulatory, and perceptive.

our rehearsals have been weekly now with the Sinfonietta Mainz, and I had a string sectional last week (another one next week..>) Last night the whole group played through every piece, start to finish, for feeling. The first horn player is from Wiesbaden (across the river) so they've got strong leadership in the section. Scott says the violins aren't really projecting their unified sound yet, so I will do my part to work on that. My struggle last night was conforming to the bowing markings, and still reading five or six flats with accidentals. Ugh. It'll come...

There has been an exhibition going on for a few days in Frankfurt for musical instruments. Scott attended on Wednesday to place some orders with suppliers and scope out some new ones. We'd like to go back on Saturday together, as he felt there was so much more to see, and I'd like to see ANY of it :) He also will be meeting with potential DurkHorn dealers from Spain and Hungary, so we're crossing our fingers for those to come through.

We've had spring-like weather all week, just under 20 degrees Celsius (under 68 Fahrenheit) and light breezes. The vineyards are starting to look more "alive" with the grass growing, and we're coming up on the time I first visited Scott here last year - the last week of April - so it's starting to look more familiar. Amazing.

happiness abounds
Two (more!) engagements to announce happily:

My first college roommate, Shannon, to Allen. A moon-lit, April wedding in Florida is planned for 2005.

My awesome neighbor (from Stormville days) Beth, to long-time love, Chris. We're so happy for you! I believe an October '05 date is in the works?

Congratulations to everyone :) and those on the way:

Our close mutual friend, Chris, to Valerie, in July '04 on Long Island, and Roger Bacon (Scott's dad) to Ellen Hughes in August '04 in Upstate NY. Further, one in our small town here - our friends Eric & Melanie, also this August. Busy busy planning!! I'm so excited for everyone! :)

another week gone by...
well, it's been another extremely busy week, but looks like the weekend is promising a little break. Last weekend, Scott finished up his concert commitment with the Ingelheim group, culminating with a glowing paper write-up (and photo!) I'm working on scanning the article so I can send the accompanying photo to everyone, otherwise the article linked to the paper online is without pictures.

I was able to see the first half of the Saturday night concert on my way home from my all-day class in Frankfurt. The program was interesting, and the group did execute it extremely well in my opinion, although I am not crazy to begin with about arrangements of orchestral pieces for wind ensemble... and the version of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" overture that Peter chose didn't really win me over. Scott's new horn is beautiful however, and the section as a whole was stand-out.

So I had heard about Frankfurt having a football team... as in, American Football. Sounds like "minor league" level but I'm told it's still good and a lot of fun, and seems there are some games over the next few months so I'm going to try to look into that and make it happen. I think it would be a blast!

es ist Freitag
Well, this past week has been extremely busy, and the weekend promises more of the same! Scott has been busily preparing (almost daily) for the concert series this weekend. He is managing to squeeze in participation in a Dromersheim wind ensemble concert this evening, and squeeked out some social time with the fellas wednesday night for football club. My week has been absolutely consumed with work (everyone in the department just returned from an event in Tenerife, so workload picks up...) Tonight I have an exciting evening planned as I will be preparing for my GMAT study course this weekend in Frankfurt by taking a mini-version of the test.

We are very much looking forward to Monday when we will meet up with Sam & Frauke in the afternoon, it'll be so good to have some "downtime" at that point! Also, it'll be "Happy Birthday" to my sister :)

Tuesday is back to "normality" and Scott's wind ensemble rehearsals. I have been invited to a Tupperware party that night! Who knew?

It seems like at that point, things should come at least slightly down off this arc they've been on, and maybe Scott and I can even have a meal together again :) Very much looking forward to that day ...

work update
Hi all, quick post to say there was a small, promising, wonderful stride made at the Musikhaus yesterday, Scott hooked up a dealer in the UK! No idea what kind of market it'll yet turn out to be, but all indications promise a good match with the head of hornsaplenty.com... stay tuned :)

Also, fun political quiz after Super Tuesday: what is your political philosophy? (Proudly proclaiming itself to be the world's smallest political quiz.)

http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html