This and That.

I'm going to eat Tapas tonight. And listen to Flamenco guitar, because I have tickets to Jesse Cook, a musician brought to boulder by KUNC, Public Radio.

I spoke with my daughter today. She said she got tired of spinning beads into her fuchsia yarn and so wound it up into a ball and is now spinning without the beads. I get to see her Friday though I am told the exchange is going to be a challenge for her other Ohana. The grandma grapevine said this to me.

The twin waves cables in Barbara Walker's 2nd treasury are beautiful, gorgeous, I love them, and they give me that feeling of having accomplished something worthwhile. I brought them on the bus today and it just tickles me to work with red silk against a public transit backdrop. I feel like a princess. Not bad for a woman my age to feel like a princess once in a while!

My 82 year old grandmother sent Moto a $50 check for his 2nd birthday, and I had originally decided to file it with the others, thinking that is way too much money to spend on a two year-old's birthday present, but I learned after, that my brother used his daughter's check to buy a wading pool, and so I ordered Moto some musical instruments.

Now is where I am going to go on and on about how music lessons have changed my life. Not my lessons - ms. thing's lessons. Each day (when she is actually living with me instead of the summer-time kid-heaven horse ranch her dad now owns) she opens her violin case, rosins her bow, attaches her shoulder rest. If her notes are out of tune, we pull out the tuner and I hold it while she makes some adjustments on the fine tuners and then we start the practice. It usually starts with a couple of easy review pieces, then we go to the newest skill she is "allowed" to do, having graduated to that skill from a previous skill she mastered last week. (Have I said yet that her violin teacher is a goddess? She is.) After practicing the new skill, we take half of her review pieces and polish, the next day we do the other half. I'm not going to say I'm 100% disciplined with this, but the girl can play the violin. I swear. She sounds amazing. If I do say so myself, and I do.

We started this four years ago come September. Moto is 2. So from the very first day of his life, he has heard all of these pieces and I will tell you he wants to get his hands on that violin so bad he could just pee his diaper. Sometimes he does! So I'm totally going to take these instruments I bought for him and start up a routine just before violin practice. I thought of this yesterday as his eyes glazed over watching Sesame Street for the umpteenth time while I lie there like Jabba the Hut on my bed. Wouldn't he rather play with:







So I'm looking forward to having these in a case, cerimonially taking out the case and watching his excitement, demonstrating the instrument's sound, and then giving him his so we can play together: having a real practice routine with Moto with these instruments. (I bought two of each so we can play together.) We are going to have a blast. Thanks to my grandma :)