A Miscellaneous Easter Monday

I have been a rather neglectful blogger as of late.

Here are my excuses:

• From Thursday night to Sunday afternoon, I have played, conducted and sung at five church services. Which included everything from Mozart's "De Profundis" motet to Handel's "Hallelujah" Chorus, two trumpets and anywhere from 10 to 30 choristers depending on the service. It was glorious and rewarding, but tiring.
• I have approximately 200 assignments to mark (US = "Grade") from my two courses at U of A, and one final exam to set.
• I have a board meeting tomorrow night, and a budget meeting on Saturday, where I have to present my season for 09/10 and all expenses involved.
• My wife and I are currently preparing to sell our house, which includes a list of painting, repairing and various cleaning activities. (Today, our black cat, Sarah, walked through the white paint tray. Paw prints through on the hardwood and coffee table had to be cleaned). She still has white highlights in her fur. I kind of wish I had a picture to show you. It's actually quite funny now - not so much earlier.
• Golf season is quickly approaching. Mild weather lately has melted what is left of all the snow we have, and the grass is turning to the greener colour needed. Windows have been opened, sunroof has also been slid back. The driving range nearest to our home opened last Friday! However, the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is SNOW (10-20 centimeters is predicted). Oh well, the clubs are still in the basement for now. Probably a good thing though (see point two and three).

I Hope the Easter season has treated you all well - I promise a more fruitful output of posts in the next few days - both here, and on the new ChoralBlog (more on that later).

Blogging topics in the back of mind that you might look forward to:

• The much anticipated blog about conducting competitions, and the challenge of grading conducting assignments in the college and university environment.
  
• a new approach to marketing concerts, with ... beer.
  
• my obsession with American Idol this year (have you heard Adam Lambert? My predicition - the most famous person to ever come out of the American Idol camp - even if he doesn't win - which would be an incredible failure on the part of the American viewers)