My sister-in-law, posted about a website called Wordle. You enter your website or blog address at it creates a little....well.....Wordle. Here’s mine:

The elections are finally over. Back to our normally scheduled lives.

Today is November 4, Election Day; the culmination of two years worth of ridiculous commercials on television and radio by both Republicans and Democrats. Here in Iowa we have the first caucus. When we moved here in May of 2007, political ads were already being run. Kate and I are so excited to not see any of these ads for the next 24 months. I wish it were longer, but it doesn’t look like any future election will be more subdued than this one.

Perhaps the most balanced time in my music education was the first three years of my undergraduate degree at the University of Northern Colorado. I spent equal time playing etudes, excerpts, solos, band and orchestra music, and jazz. I was taking musicology, theory, acoustics, and other music classes. I remember feeling at the time that I was getting a good, well-rounded education. I am at the point in my collegiate career where I spend the most time playing solos and excerpts, no time playing jazz, and almost no time playing etudes (except to demonstrate in lessons). I take one or two classes per semester (as is appropriate in graduate school), but I don’t particularly enjoy them as I once did. I feel that I would be pretty happy in a conservatory setting. I have effectively transformed into a trombone jock. D’oh.

Today I drove down close to the river. I had Kate’s camera with me and I was just checking out how the restoration was going. I came across a piano that had been utterly decimated in the flood back in June. It is heart wrenching and beautiful at the same time. I am not a great photographer, but I did my best. Here are a couple that I thought turned out pretty well.