So what did I do this weekend? Well, Saturday was 'clean the new tubas' day. Basically, all of my instruments were already in pretty clean shape.....of course the bass trombone and euph as they are brand new. But my F stays clean despite a lot of use and the EEb was virtually untouched.....just needed some oil and to wipe off the dust!

But the CC (aka, 'Roberto') was a different case.......he was filthy inside and out. So I decided it was time to give Roberto a spa treatment (of sorts):

Ah yes, soaking in the mineral bath (aka 'Dawn' detergent)



Then a nice rub down on the massage table (aka, cleaning off gunk on the dining table after soaking in the sink)



And finally a short nap out in the sun by the pool (aka, drying on the deck by the pond)

After playing in the water all day, it was time to get buffed and polished on the workbench and then all lubed up. I would have had some pics of the final reassembly, but my hands were covered in grease, oil and silver polish. Long story short: 'Roberto' is now all shiny and clean and still plays like a million pesos! Must have been all those margaritas and chips & salsa.......yikes!

Well, after a long few months of trying to decide what to do with my life, I came to the conclusion that pursuing music as a career was not going to work as I hoped. So in deciding to not further my musical studies at the Masters' level, I decided that I needed to sell off the one instrument that I no longer needed. It really is a fabulous instrument and I loved playing it, but it was too much money for me to have tied up in something that wasn't going to be used.

I was really fortunate to work out a trade-in deal with a shop in Baltimore that I have been dealing with solely for the past 7-8 years now. The level of service and knowledge there is unmatched and the owner happens to be one of the foremost orchestral tubists in the US.....and one heck of a guy! His whole staff are top notch and they do some amazing work in the repair shop.

So I'm now the proud owner of a few new instruments and a few that are new to me:

(from left to right):

B&S F, Meinl-Weston 2165 CC, Miraphone 1261 EEb, Meinl-Weston 451 Euphonium and Getzen 1052FDR Bass Trombone

These instruments completely surpassed my expectations and reminded me that I've got a lot of practicing to do to make these horns sound as good as they really can!

The B&S was the only instrument I owned before yesterday. Everything else came home with me from Baltimore like this:



I now the maximum amount of instruments I can haul in my '97 Civic!!! I could probably get my F in the passenger seat, but I had Will Divers with me (thanks again for the ears and the input on the horns!!)

I honestly couldn't be happier at this moment with the outcome of yesterday's trip. I hope that someone buys my old Yorkbrunner soon because it is a mother of a tuba and needs to played in the back of some orchestra soon....just wished it could have been me who was playing it.

But for now, I've got all my basses (haha) covered for my playing and teaching and hopefully I'll be able to maintain a fairly busy and active freelance career in addition to instructional design.

We had a meeting yesterday to talk about developing a course for the same masters program that I'm looking at starting this Fall....Advanced Educational Psychology. And I must say that I'm very excited to jump into it. I don't have an prerequisites, so I may need to do a little catching up on my own this summer, but I'm getting more and more interested in this new field. It's strange, looking at all of these new concepts and ideas and trying to think of music as my hobby and not my sole focus. But at the same time, it's very exciting to start thinking of some new ways to develop and deliver content.

I had a discussion the other night with my good friend, Ben, and we talked about possibly developing an ear-training program online. I think there are some things out there already, but I'm going to look more into this idea this summer and see what we can come up with. There are a lot of academic music courses that are currently only taught traditionally in the classroom that I think could be easily transferred to an online format.

Academia is so stuck in the old-world school of thought that the only way to learn is by going to a classroom with 30 (or 300) other peers and listening to a professor read their notes off of a PowerPoint presentation. Why not offer that online? There are many courses that we deal with that are just like that and MANY students are reaping the benefits from an asynchronous learning environment. This IS the way of the future. Will it replace universities as we know them? Certainly not. But will it give opportunities to more students (and potential students) to learn and improve their lives? Certainly YES!

In other news, I just got a call to play 'La Traviata' in Charlottesville in May. I'm very excited about finally playing this wonderful opera....and this again affirms my decision to diversify my playing to other instruments. Palm Sunday and Easter are coming up and I'm playing some really good tunes with a VERY good quintet in Roanoke....also excited about that!

Hope all is well wherever you are...

This is what happens when someone leaves too many empty boxes in their office.....unsupervised.....

Introducing "The Robo-dessa 2000"

As Odessa and Jonathan near the birth of their child, I decided that we should construct and begin the training of a temporary replacement for Odessa while she's gone on maternity leave. Nothing can replace Odessa, but this will at least keep the office morale high as we anxiously await her return........but that's not for a few more months, so we can at least look at this thing and laugh!

So I've finally gotten around to posting (hope I haven't just jinxed the upload) some pics from my time in Manchester, UK last year. I had a really great time and met the most amazing people while I was there. Honestly, I do miss it. I got used to the rain and the pub food. But I miss the beer, the curries, the great music, my band......but mostly I miss the people that became my friends.

Long day here of feeling like poo.....stupid allergy season is back and I've just been absolutely wiped. Hopefully I'll get a break soon.....

Anyway, enjoy the pics and hope all is well in your world!

Wow, today's weather has been CRAZY!!! Last night we got an awesome thunderstorm...I know, because I had a crackin' headache that wasn't allowing me to sleep. But it was sooo cool to see lightening and thunder again......I have missed it.....

Then today was mostly nice until about 4:30 when I came out of the school in Bedford and the wind was about 50 mph!!!! I was getting thrown across the parking lot with my horns and had a heck of a time getting them in the car. Then....I looked up towards the Peaks of Otter......and man was a serious storm on its way. So high-tailed it outta there to try to get ahead of it. But it was just one after the other the whole way home. Got stuck in traffic in Troutville behind a jackknifed semi......ugh. Tonight we still have 30 mph wind and it's cooled off considerably

Had a nice long talk with a good friend today about his teaching experiences and the current state of public education. I had the same conversation with another friend of mine a few weeks ago as she was passing through town. There seems to be a growing trend in this country for the teachers to have less and less control of things in the classrooms. I'm really bothered by the fact that public schools have gone from places of education to affordable, public daycare. It seems as if most parents don't really care about what the children do at school as long as they're out of their hair at home for a few hours. And if teachers confront the parents, it gets escalated to an administration that backs the parents and not its own teachers.

I'm quite troubled as well by the fact that a growing number of parents JUST DON'T CARE--and if you make any recommendations/comments, they take that as an insult to their parenting skills. Remember the days when you treated your teachers and other adults of authority with respect? What ever happened to manners? Where did this disease of entitlement come from with these kids these days? Am I just becoming a grumpy old man now?!?!

These are NOT the direct comments of my educator friends, but merely an observation that I've noticed over the past several years. I used to really want to teach music, but I just don't think I could handle the BS that goes with it. I take my hat off to anyone who can step into a classroom day-in and day-out for the most undervalued job that we have in this country.

Well, last night was a really good time with some of my favorite peeps of all time! I was really happy to have such a strong showing for the closing ceremonies to the '31 Days Games'. Downtown was painted well.....

It all started off with a toast with Mom, then PK's....and it was all downhill from there

Today has been a bit rough from last night's festivities, but it was good to wear shorts and actually work out in the yard again. Then some dinner/chillin' with Mom this evening......a much needed break.

Here's a cool gift I got from Julia last night:

Tara was nice enough to inscribe one word to sum up the evening.....

(Click on the Etch-a-Sketch for more pics from last night)