Miscellaneous Other

This post contains some fun pictures from the last month or so. By themselves they hardly warrant a blogging (not that that last post did), but together, they might be worth something. Anyway, here we go.

I bought Matthew a little bouquet of daisies for his birthday and this blossom had an interesting irregularity.



I accidentally broke one our pilsner glasses and it looked kind of cool under the kitchen lights.



Natalie was walking around with a little blanket, sucking her thumb, and looking a lot like Linus from Charlie Brown.



This is Leah's hair after two days of not brushing it, and one shopping trip wearing her coat's hood. I briefly considered transitioning her into dreadlocks, but thought better of it, and finally bought some leave-in cream that, to my great relief, works wonders!



A couple of weekends ago, Matthew and I got to attend an amazing concert put on by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Matthew's folks not only looked after the girls but they also gave us their tickets for this show.



Matthew and I have attended great concerts before, but this one, especially the first half blew our socks off. The program included Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra and Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. The second piece was performed with a second, smaller ensemble in the back corner of the stage. That smaller group echoed many of the themes of the larger group, often with the added interest of mutes. It was an extremely emotional piece and it was a treat to watch as the performers swayed and lurched with their bowings and their faces contorted in tortured and exhaulted expressions. Goosebump city.



It was one of those performances where we felt like we were in the right place at the right time - some magical event that would transform our lives in some way, and that the rest of the world missed. It was that cool.

I found a portion of it on YouTube. Obviously, it's not the same, but maybe you can get a hint of what it was like. (I just realized that in the last ten seconds of this clip, the violist begins his first solo in the movement. I remember seeing him strike out against a hushed ensemble and thinking, "Go, Viola! Go!" It still gives me goosebumps.)