Dada (not the movement)

Believe it or not, in 16 days I will be a father! Or at least sometime between then and now. Or maybe later than Jan. 15, but it's safe to say that we will have the new arrival sometime in the next month or so. I can't wait! ENP really likes the name Gabriel, and I have to say that I do as well. Other choices were destroyed by negative experiences (e.g. Hayden, who ruined the Star Wars prequels along with George Lucas, "Aiden" which sounds like "Hayden," and "Ethan," which was a top-10 boys name in 2007 and also one of the freaky Others on Lost). Any other suggestions from my two readers? Time is running out!

The nursery is all done, bags are packed, and I have been practicing like a fiend at home for most of the holidays. And I am really excited about all things Spring--the baby, a whole new spin on life with ENP which should be awesome, playing the Svoboda concerto with USO (if you haven't heard this piece, head over to Tomas Svoboda's site and give it a listen--it's amazing), the Daugherty concerto with Symphonic Band (I wish MD would come up with better titles for his pieces; see other posts for details), a new concerto being written for me by Steve Hicken (http://listen101.blogspot.com/), a heavy TSO spring season, lots of visiting guests, and continuing to obsess about my students and basic world domination.

Until next time, enjoy the creepy eyes of our wily feline quadruped as she surveys the damage from Christmas and ponders her new fascination with human food.

Happy Holidays

Finally, after another national tour and the end of the semester (although I still have Nutcracker to finish up), I have a chance to post for the two people out there who actually read this. I am so excited about the upcoming weeks: my incredible wife has been carrying our son for months and we'll finally meet him in about a month or so, it's the holiday season which means lots of fun hangs with friends, and it also means cramming notes for two upcoming concerto performances, and relearning percussion music for appearances at Indiana University and Louisiana State.

I'm most excited about the boy, though. ENP and I have spent fun times finding things for him, and my amazing students and some friends hosted two amazing baby showers for us. Very cool.

And finally, it's just over a year until the new Star Trek movie comes out, and of course not long until 1-18-08 (aka Cloverfield) and the new Batman sequel. Speaking of, we're seeing I Am Legend tomorrow--mostly for the new Batman trailer.

Until then, have a great holiday season and I will post new things for every comment I get. Enjoy!

P.S. The picture is the front half of the room in which we performed our PASIC showcase concert in November--this is from the dress. It was PACKED and people went bananas afterwards--I have never been so proud of my students!