otis at the houston children's museum

A room just for the small ones.

January has almost blown through and I am still in December

It seems like December just started and now it is the end of January. How did that happen? Jack and I both are caught up in the Cedar Fever season. Most years it does not hit me very hard, but this year is evidently a doozy. I just want to stay in my chair and not move. But we don't have that luxury. In fact I have a meeting in 20 minutes and just had two of my colleagues call to say they are sick and can't go and can I cover for them.

I get to see Kelly this weekend - unless he reads this and says I'm not going there if everyone is sick :-). Phil said he might drive through sometime this Spring. Now I just have to figure out a way to see Diana. Of course she is busy with Ginger GoGo doings, but we may have to try to get together anyway.

Hope everyone else is fine out there.

January Colorado Snows

A few photos from Phil's Friendly Neighborhood (say that five times really fast)

Only Minus 10 below

Phil here. Between football, friends, every-other-day swimming (a mile and a half usually) and the cold, have been either busy or gathering my winter energy in swimming and lots of readings.. I could put up snow pictures...and I might but here are some warmer ones..

Scotland sounds like a nice land to visit. I was talking with someone this week about it.


Is Jack going?

Cold, cold, cold

I know the rest of you are also getting this cold spell. They said it would be down in the low 20s last night, but it didn't get that low. I think it may have gotten down to 29 or 30, but it still felt cold. More tonight. The cats are glad because they got to stay in last night and will probably stay in tonight if they can behave themselves.

My other bit of news is that I am going to Scotland in June. I have been wanting to go for a few years, but kept putting it off. One of our local musicians, Ed Miller, is both Scottish and a folklorist. He does a tour once a year over in Scotland and I signed up for the one this year. We will start in Edinburgh, go to Perth, and points Northwest, spend a day or two in the borders and then end up back in Edinburgh. Most nights will be with local musicians (a few I know already from the American Folklore Society and the Ballad Commission). I am really looking forward to it and have started reading some of my Scottish ballad research again.

And that's about it for now.

My drum

As promised, here are pictures of my new drum. It is a chinese tom-tom, and (thanks to Jack for looking it up for me while I cooked dinner) here is a link if you want to learn more. Apparently it was popular with jazz drummers for awhile and Jack remembers that the drummer for the Jim Cullens band in San Antonio had one last time we saw them.

http://www.pas.org/experience/onlinecollection/chinesetomtoms.aspx

Happy New Year

And I will continue to work on responding rather than reacting this new year, as well as other things meant to help me along the path.

Wish I had some fun photos to share on the blog, but the only pictures I have taken lately are some of Matilda, since I have put her up for sale on Craigslist.

I'll tell you what - I will take a picture of my new drum, courtesy of Phil Ward, and tell you a little about it tomorrow or the next day.