• Sunday Night at the Beach 2017: Meet a Friend

      YaYa’s very good friend from music camp happens to live in Wisconsin (which is pretty crazy since music camp is on the International Border  of North Dakota).  Her family happened to be up the North Shore of Lake Superior for the weekend for a family trip, and on the…

  • The Banana

    She’s one quirky girl, and makes me laugh almost every single day. It takes a special kid to look over at her parents who are having a wee bit of a tiff about the correct procedure to fold up the sun umbrella on the deck and sing so sweetly and…

  • The Cougar Chase

    I only had ONE runner at the Cougar Chase this year!  The Banana unfortunately was plagued by another injury to a tendon-like thing in her ankle and wasn’t able to run the 5K like she had hoped.  Mr. TOF ran the 1K race at a fast and furious pace.  He’s…

  • Fresh Audio Perspectives

    Around here there seems to be some sort of live music making going on most of the day each day.  If I’m not practicing, I’m listening to a kidlet practice or a student play at a lesson.  Because I’m easily overstimulated by lots of sound, when I’m doing something that…

  • What I Learned in May

    Just this last weekend I tried sliced grilled beets at a friend’s house.  Trying a new food is a rare thing for me.  I have a lot of food aversions, and I am often very anxious about trying something new.  When I do try something new, I almost always don’t…

  • Royalty at the Rose Garden

    Last Friday YaYa had a dance recital, and our neighbors half way down the street came along for the performance.  I had to drop her off about an hour and a half before the performance, so we headed to our absolute favorite pizza place, Vitta Pizza.  It did not take…

  • Visiting the Wooden Boat at Park Point

    In the ten years we’ve lived here, we’ve only stopped to play at this boat one time before this week, and that time was long, long before this little guy was born.  Every time we drive by it, I think, Oh, we should stop there and play some time, but…

  • The Ceiling

    She said to me, “Sometimes, when not a lot is going, on I just like to look up at the ceiling and find pictures in the wood.”  Our family room has a wood plank ceiling, and there are dark brown knots in the pine. Actually, I often do the same…