the things i've done (recently)

before christmas began i got to go to GF, ND to visit the folks and friends. it was really fun, but definately not long enough. went to see Borat, Tenacious D, and Eragon. all fun to see. got to see a close to locked version of 1 in 9 and am very excited to see what comes of it once it is completely finished and entered into some festivals (by the way, Mike S., if you read this, my sister in law says you should enter it into the Tucson film festival, and she will be your street crew spreading the word.)


Christmas was very good to me. i was granted the opportunity to update both of my computers at minimal cost. for my laptop i went from a 1.6 ghz 17" powerbook to a 2 ghz 12" intel macbook. for my desktop i went from a dual 1.8 powermac G5 to a dual 2.7 powermac G5. i can't wait to see how many instruments i can run at that speed with 4 GB of RAM.
with various other things including an iTunes gift certificate, a Dane Cook HBO concert DVD, also a speaker system dock for my iPod (for the bathroom), i made a good haul. then, as if it couldn't get much better best buy had a one day 50% off sale on all HBO dvd's. so we got all Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Carnivale. wow. so much to watch, so little time. school begins again on the 8th, and now i have to do well. i ended up getting a 4.0 for the first time ever in my life, so why stop now.


christmas at the inlaws. good times. no conventional turkey/ham here. nope. straight up lobster/shrimp/steak. i was ready (if you can't tell.)


we went for quite a few walks, mainly to work off all the garbage i ate, and all the sodas that went down so easily. didn't see any mountain lions, or scorpions, or black widows, or rattle snakes, but i did see a roadrunner (no coyote) and a lifetimes worth of cacti.


Sabino canyon. if it was just a desert i wouldn't like it, but when you add a dash of mountains anything is possible. would i ever move here? only time will tell (and a great offer from the U of A.) i won't say no.


the lefse grilling master. using my black magic to draw the mojo out of the potatos. perhaps one of the most important of the five parts of magic.


then it was time to take a dip in the 52 degree pool. AZ in winter is about as decent as you can get.

1 quarter down, 29 left to go.

wheeeeee. that was fun.

first quarter of directional learning (school with a goal) in the books. 6 days until i can access my grades, but i'm going to go "professor Trelawney" all over this and predict a 3.999 average.

i have a couple days of relax time until i fly back to Grand Forks, ND to visit family and play some Gears of War with my cousin, and my brother (online).

then when i get home from that i leave for AZ to celebrate baby Jesus' birth with the in-laws.

so basically i have a month off in which to get a little ahead of the game. i plan on working on my piece for 8-part choir. also working on a few cues for "1 In 9" (especially if i can meet up with Michael S. on my adventure to the central plains.) and also studying up on string quartet.

if either of my two blog readers are going to be in GF from dec. 11-20 give me a shoutout and we'll go and have some paradiso spinach dip.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

this is a pretty cool little vid.