Vrooom Vrooom

Ahhh, the Daytona 500. I ought to be sleeping on the sofa instead of writing, but I am slightly preoccupied. Why? Because there is meowing coming from the back room and I keep trying to coax my new buddy out from hiding. I think he is afraid of the tall ceilings though, and for awhile he pulled a Vegeta and hid behind the washing machine. More about him later though...

Last night was almost tragic. I got 1/2 way to town and realized that I left my phone at home so I had to go back, and when I was on my way home earlier in the day the refuel light had come on. So, by the time I got back to the house to get the phone and pulled back onto Bluff Rd the fuel estimator read 10 miles. Not good. I set cruise on 60 flat and prayed the entire way to the circle K on the corner of Bluff and Atlas. Somehow the meter stayed on 10 miles the entire way, and I got fueled. Needless to say that made me late for the start of USC Concert Band, but I came in the middle of the second piece. (No programs left though, so I can't give a song list.)

But, Pat Wiley, the commentator for these concerts for as long as I can remember, came out and started talking about "Andante and Hungarian Rondo" as this great bassoon piece, and to my amazement - it was better than just a piece featuring the bassoon section of the band - the new bassoon professor at USC was the soloist. Peter Kolkay was great. I was very impressed. It is not every day that you get to hear an awesome bassoon solo. The piece they played after that was the Overture from Candide, :-) LOVE that piece. It is what I conducted for exhibition my second summer at USC drum major camp. Awesome piece, and they played it very well. They concluded with a long piece that I cannot remember the name of but should. The entire USC Chorus joined them. I can sing the last movement of it - everyone knows it almost - but can't figure a way to type it.

The Palmetto Concert Band was good as well. I have a program of theirs, but it is in the car and I am too lazy to go get it right now. Mike Jones, my West Florence band director, played in the ensemble as I expected as well as some peers of mine that I went to high school with or USC band camps with. What I need to do is figure out how to get in playing with that group. That would be VERY cool. Thinking about e-mail O'Shields about it.

Ended up eating at Grilled Teryaki for dinner last night after the concerts with Eric and then he and I met up with SJ over at Jakes for a few beers. We closed the place down at 2am. It was good to see SJ. She kept yawning and Eric was giving her a hard time about it - quite amusing actually.

Had some Bfast at Lizards Thicket this morning and then did some more cat searching. Ended up back at Pet's Incorporated, and about 3:00 "Zeke" arrived at the ponderosa. I don't like that name though. Once I get a good pic of him I will put them up and you guys can help me pick a name. I am thinking "Parker" right now. Not sure why, it just seems good to me.