I’m not dressing up this year. I have in the past but I didn’t feel like making the effort this year to find a costume. Maybe all my creative juices have been sapped!

I had a great trip to Phoenix to visit my niece Athena. She’s a darling, must be the genes…

Why yes, I was wearing shorts. It was nearly 100 degrees in Phoenix. How people live there I don’t know.

We also got to see Cheyenne Jackson perform with the Phoenix Symphony. It was so not my cup of tea but I suppose it was different. The audience seemed to love it though. And we had a lot of good take-out from various places around Phoenix. They have great Mexican food there.

Since getting home it’s been business as usual—I have a few more concerts coming up that require rehearsals, plus new music with Jen (we are looking at a bunch of French Sonatas) and new music with the Quartet. Oh, and Jen and I are working on the details of producing a CD of our recital—we want to sell copies of it in order to raise money for a charity. I’ll tell you more about it later, but basically as a breast cancer survivor she wants to give back to those who helped her and as a friend of a breast cancer survivor I’m all for it. Currently I’m debating over how many memory slips/mistakes are acceptable on a live CD…I know I’m not perfect, and performing is one thing, but I’m trying to decide if I want everything on the CD.

This picture cracks me up. I look like I’m playing side-saddle or something..and while I WAS it was as part of a short demonstration of the opening chord of Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet. I was standing to talk and then sat down briefly to play the chord.

Side note: I currently have ANOTHER cold. I guess all the stress, traveling, and germy students are catching up to me. On the bright side, this year I won’t be getting the flu since I got my first flu shot ever a few weeks ago!

Target knows how to put on band-aids! That sucker stayed on through a run AND a shower. Another side-note: I haven’t quite gotten used to having health insurance that actually pays for things. I couldn’t believe my insurance covered the flu shot!

Plans for the weekend include hiking, maybe a bike ride, and lots of work around the house. This is the last weekend before my band tour really gets going and I want to take advantage. Of course, being sick is putting a damper on things but I’m trying to ignore it for now.

What are you doing for Halloween?