Open Season

Darby's health was better today, but she wasn't 100%, so we took it easy, just catching a movie, Open Season. It wasn't bad, but also not as good as I thought it might be. All the funny previews were still funny in context, but parts of the film were a bit overboard or just senselessly wacky, even for the kind of movie it was. Sony did pretty well with the CGI and had a real chance to compete with Pixar, but the overall plot was weak, though still mostly entertaining. So, see it as a matinee if you can't wait, or in the dollar theater if you can.

Fixed winshield and sick Darby

Got my windshield fixed today from those Houston rock chips. MUCH cheaper than expected. Two rock chips only thirty bucks to fix! Can you believe it would have been more had I filed an insurance claim? Wierd.

And Darby was ill today. No fever, but coughing and a sore throat. Hopefully she'll improve in time for weekend activities.

It's over

Without SERIOUS help, it's over. The Phils are going to let me down yet again. A third loss in four games is NOT favorable to a positive outcome when you have directly competing teams like the Dodgers scoring 19 runs after being down by three. We just can't compete with that, and unfortunately because of that, probably don't even deserve it, as sad as it is to say. That doesn't mean I won't still cheer them on, or that I won't be happy to be wrong, but "winners want the ball when the game is on the line" (I know, a football movie, but the point stands), and we're just not performing like we want the ball.

PTC

Parent teacher conferences were today, and went largely as expected. Darby got all kinds of praise, though she's missing a couple assignments, and "surprise" she talks too much. She's a very likeable kid so the teacher, having moved her three times now, is having trouble putting her somewhere she won't talk so much, as she gets along with pretty much everyone.

Shelby has many missing assignments (some of which we witnessed her do but have disappeared into Shelbyland), no surprise there , and many focus issues, though it's been getting better recently (might have just taken some time to get used to the way the new school works) says the teacher. There are volunteer tutors available so we put Shelby on the list to get some extra assistance as she can always use it.

While it does seem like Shelby is doing better, I don't see how she can pull her grades up all that much by the first report card. I'm just hopeful at this point that she can salvage the semester.

AAAACK

Phils... PHILS! Again you kill me.

All you had to do was win every game through the end of the season (that's all), and the wild card would be yours. You had a one game lead, and without a loss, it would have pretty much been difficult to lose the playoff berth. But no. You couldn't hold on, and now we're tied again and need a little help.

So listen up... you can't lose. Anymore. At all. You must win every single game this week, and hope someone else loses one or two (problem is everyone is hot right now). PLEASE, don't let us down. We don't care if you get swept in the playoffs. We'd just like to see a playoff series out of you. After three straight winning-record 2nd-place-in-the-division seasons, we'd like to see some progress. That's all. Not TOO much to ask, eh?



Update, 27 Sep
Am I the only one glued to any sports-score source in reach? It's been a particularly exciting late baseball season and early football season. But those Phils... it's like they're killing me and then shocking me back to life and then killing me and then... I feel like I can't get back to full strength because my body knows at any next moment it could live or die on a whim. But I love it. Mostly.

Thumped

There was a whole lot of thumping going on today.

First, Darby's softball team lost both of their games today, 20-0. The first game wasn't pretty at all, for Darby or the team. Darby had several miscues, then fell trying to catch a pop fly while playing left-center, hurting her arm.

The second game, though not reflected in the score, was much better. We actually (and surprisingly) held the other team to just a few runs for a couple innings before they blew it wide open.

Darby played second and had several really good plays, but got injured again by a hard hit ball. The ball made a bad hop, hit her in the wrist, and then bounced (off her wrist) up and hit her in the ear. She was clearly hurt, but had the presence of mind to grab the ball and throw it to first. Unfortunately, the throw was a bit high and the girl playing first didn't have the range make the play (not to blame the other girl, but it bounced off the top of her glove... another girl with slightly more range might have made the play, which would have been an amazing put-out for Darby). We had to put ice on Darby's red ear after the game. She also had a headache and went right to sleep after her shower (unusual).


Shelby also had her share of thumping today, but in the form of bad grades. As suspected, her conveyed thoroughness in getting her work done was a rouse. Her teacher expressed in the progress report that work often goes home with Shelby but doesn't make it back to school. And her grades reflected it as well. Two Fs. Yes, TWO EFFS. And also a D, a C, a B, and an A. So basically she ran through the alphabet, but with two Fs in place of an E and an F. Now she's pretty much grounded from everything. No more fencing until grades are up, that's for sure. We (the parents) are rather frustrated, because we ask her everyday whether she completed her work and if she brought any work home to complete. She has said no, and we've been giving her the benefit of the doubt. Obviously we were in error.

Sunday picnic and Sunday (night) school

The first half of the day was typical in most regards. Sunday school, church, and football. But this evening the girls had a "Fall Festival" picnic thing for their school. One of the PTA parents lent their 40-acre farm to the effort, which was nice. The girls had a good time, and I got to casually observe the kids with their new friends from their new school. It all went pretty well.

We left a little early from the picnic so that I could go back to the church. They're having an Adult education class on Catholicism that I thought I'd attend, or at least sample. Kind of a Sunday school for adults, but not quite full-up CCD, which means it was mostly benign. The thought was that attending would help me maybe answer some questions the girls may have as they progress through their faith, since I hardly remember anything from the required theology classes back in Catholic high school. It wasn't too bad (plus there was free food), and the historical aspects were particularly interesting, and so I'll probably attend at least the next few classes. Or for as long as they let me hang out in the back of the room without bugging me. They start making me get all involved and I'm ejecting on one.

Wedding interrupted

Took the girls to breakfast this morning, as I don't typically have them on Saturday mornings, followed by a visit to the park. We hadn't been to the park in awhile and the girls let me know it. So they got to spend over an hour playing, which should hold them off for a bit.

It's funny to note that Darby had a little incident while at the park. A couple was having their wedding at the nearby pavilion, and Darby was ringing these chimes at the playground so loudly that it was apparently disrupting the wedding. Someone had to come over and ask her to stop. So somewhere in someone's wedding video is a pause while they ask my daughter to knock it the heck off.

It was about time to get out of there anyway, so we left and caught the movie Everyone's Hero. It was decent as far as overall quality (excellent for the kids, no language issues, and a great message), pretty funny at times, though it was also a little hokey in parts (for adults). But it was a baseball movie, so I was forgiving. I thought it was interesting that it was being directed by Christopher Reeve at the time of his death in 2004.

After the movie, I finally got around to taking the kids to the Oklahoma History Center. Had been wanting to do that for awhile, but hadn't gotten around to it. It's a neat place, though I think they need a few more exhibits. They did a good job at covering even the bad parts of Oklahoma's history, but I still felt like there were a couple things missing. The kids love museums (but ironically hate walking through them and while they always express excitement when arriving they start complaining not long after getting started), and there were A LOT of interactive touch screens and games for the younger ones. Looked like an expensive place to put together (and maintain), but I'm glad we're doing it. It's also really cheap to get in, so I definitely recommend everyone in the state check it out if they're in the neighborhood.

Public progress

Darby got her first public school progress report today, and I'm pleased to report... all As. Not too surprising.

Shelby says she won't get hers until Monday, so I'll have to do an update then, but hopefully she's not doing the silly kid thing and hiding something so she can have a fun weekend. You smirk, but she's done it before.

I wish, but there's just no way

I know how they came up with this number, but there is no way in heck that there were 12,572 people at that game last night. The official capacity for the park is 13,066, and it sure didn't seem like another 500 people would fill the place up...

On the flip side, that number will make us look VERY good to MiLB, in terms of continuing to hold that event here.

Quickest Tucson trip ever

If I told you I was at a Tucson Sidewinders game, you might think I was in Arizona. But not today. Today Arizona came to me. Er, to Oklahoma City anyway, in the form of the Minor League Baseball Triple-A Championship game. Being a former Tucson resident and enthusiast, I was rooting for the Sidewinders all the way, and they didn't let me down.

I was slightly disappointed in OKC's turn-out at the game. While it was fairly packed, it wasn't the sell-out I hoped it would be. I'm also an OKC enthusiast and consider it important that we show up in force at national events hosted here so that they'll keep wanting us as their host for future events. This particular event was televised on ESPN2, and got plenty of press coverage leading up to the event, so I'm sure we should have been able to fully occupy the place.

It was a good ballgame, low-scoring until the ninth inning, and we did a better than average (though not spectacular) job with the entertainment. Probably the coolest thing was the snow in the outfield. In the grass just beyond right field they had a snow machine and had covered half the grassy area with the stuff so that the kiddos could go tubing. Well, kind of. It was a rather small area to get any serious tubing done.

I picked up Darby early enough to get us dinner before the game while her sister was at fencing, and then we went to the game. She actually paid attention to the entire game, so there is hope for her yet. Unfortunately, we had to skip softball practice to attend this event, but I figure she and I get extra practice in when we can, and this is not a common event, so probably we were okay in our attendance.

First game (almost not worth mentioning)

The league Darby is in only has four teams this season (there were 10 or 12 teams in the Spring). Turns out three of this season's teams were the first through third place teams last season. Whereas Darby's team was the sixth place team last season (prior to Darby's membership). So, looks like we're in for some defeat all season long. And it got started tonight. 15-0. It's a 12 and under league, and if I didn't know better, I'd say all of our opponents tonight were 12, whereas most of our girls are 9-11. The size difference is amazing. We're playing amazons. Pretty much all of the other team's hits were in the outfield, though I don't think we made it there hardly at all (Darby did, but it was caught). Only one of our girls even got on base, and that was by barely outrunning the thrown to first. She eventually made it to third, but there were three outs before she could score.

Darby, who played second base all game (I was surprised by that move), did pretty well in the field, with two good put outs to first. She did make one throwing mistake, but it was of no effect in the end. In her only at bat before the game was called, she had a would-be-good-solid-hit-against-any-of-our-last-year-opponents to the outfield that was unfortunately caught. In fact, last year that would have been a multi-base hit I believe. Ugh.

The positive thing (if there can be such a thing) is that this should really challenge our team, so we really should get dramatically better by season's end. However, thus far anyway, we are no challenge against these other teams, so they shouldn't get much better, except when they play each other.

Softball schedule

Darby's softball schedule has finally been set. I've posted the game times on the calendar... first game is tomorrow!

Not so pleasant end to an otherwise excellent adventure

So maybe it was a bad idea to stay another night in Temple. Not only did I forget to set an alarm thereby not leaving nearly as early as I had planned, but I ran into rain, VERY heavy at times, through most of Texas and parts of Oklahoma. It also didn't help that I took the wrong highway back, which meant having to deal with Dallas traffic instead of Ft. Worth traffic. Dallas traffic is much more stress-inducing (especially in rain so heavy you feel on the brink of death), which meant a very non-smooth rest of the trip.


At least the Phils won again today (and it figures Howard hit a homerun that counted), though I got back in time to see the Eagles get nails put in their coffins.

I'm just glad to not be driving anymore. 1,028 miles in 48 hours, while not the most I've driven in such a period of time, is still enough to wear you down pretty good. It will take me days to fully recover.

Call me Tank (no, not really)

(Original title: Phils rocked it in Houston, but with stolen joy from Howard)

So why call me "tank"? I say don't, actually, but my college buddy that accompanied me to the game today insisted that I mention this back-dated college nickname. He seems to think my ability to not have to relieve myself for extended durations is abnormal. "Your tank is bigger than mine" he says, and as such it is the inspiration for my newest nickname. I disagree and think his lack of this ability is not normal, but I also don't think it's worth further attention. (Update: For the record, I drove the five plus hours from Temple, TX to Oklahoma City without stopping for a potty break)


We got up quite early (particularly for a Saturday) for the trip to Houston. We were pretty worried about making it on time with all the potential unknowns. Turns out it was a pretty good idea to have been so early for more than a few reasons.

As there are no interstates that go from Temple to Houston (without going WAY out of the way), we took state highways the whole way. Fortunately, the Texas backroads were kind to us on this day. My previous experiences with said roads were not so pleasant, making today's experience a welcome change.

Getting to the vicinity of the ballpark was not too much of a problem, though we couldn't get as close as would have liked because a parade (Fiestas Patrias) was blocking our way, and we just didn't know the downtown Houston streets well enough to go "off mission" with our route. So we parked in the closest parking garage, had an unexpected inappropriate incident (with something that starts with p and rhymes with corn), fought the parade crowds, walked about four blocks, and there we were. We effectively walked all the way around the park looking for the will call window, but once we found it, it wasn't long before we were in and cooled off thanks to the A/C inside the closed retractable-roof ball park.

Minute Maid Park is an awesome facility. I very much enjoyed my time there. Perhaps my only gripe is that there is no interior upper deck access. We were early enough that we were able to enjoy a full sit-down meal before heading to our (very bad because of the last minute decision) seats in the upper deck. We walked around for longer than what should have been necessary to find a way to get upstairs only to learn that we had to exit the A/C in favor of external ramps that lead to the seemingly less cool upper deck. Even though our seats were up there, the view was nice, as you can see in the pics I posted to the Picasa album (the closer pics were taken from down below near the end of the game).

The game was pretty amazing. The best of both worlds. Six plus innings of pitchers dueling, following by a nice offensive break-out by the Phils to win the game. Myself and the handful of fellow Phillies fans I saw at the park were quite pleased that the Phils performed so well (I was particularly glad my trip was not a lost cause). My one disappointment (with the game) must remain that I didn't officially see Ryan Howard hit a homerun. Technically, I DID see him hit a home run, but it was ruled a double at the time, and that call stood. But the very umpire that made the call later stated that he called it wrong, following a review of the replay video. Grrr. Didn't he know I drove five hundred miles to see that homerun?

After the game we were helped out traffic-wise by the pre-game-ending evacuation of Astros fans. It didn't hurt also that we were parked a few minutes away. By the time we got back to the car and hit the road, we had a real easy time getting around. If only I didn't get a little lost trying to find the highway. But that was short lived and we were back on our way before we knew it. At least until we saw the electronic road signs that read "major accident, [highway] closed ahead". This could have been a devastating event for surprisingly smooth trip up to that point. But we got very fortunate that when we got off the highway to find an alternate route, there were enough signs to get us back on the right road on the other side of the accident.

With the exception of a slight delay as we looked for and acquired something to eat (and ignoring the fact that I nearly smacked our waitress in the butt... on accident of course [those who know me know that I'm a hand-talker]), the remainder of trip back was pretty smooth. I did get two rock chips in my windshield -- a very angering incident -- but that didn't technically impact the overall trip.

I was supposed to drop my friend off at his place and head back to OKC. But after more than 7 hours of driving round trip, quite a bit of walking, and more college reminiscing than you can shake a stick at [read: WAY to much laughing at ourselves], I am zonked, and have opted to stay another night in Temple. Not sure it will prove to be a wise choice, but I just don't see how I can make the five plus hour drive back.

Don't worry, the fun goes on without me

Just so the blog doesn't seem to be all about me this weekend, the girls are having their own fun without me. Darby went to a sleepover birthday party on Friday, where all the girls at the party had headshots taken by a professional photographer. The photographer advised us to send Darby's picture to a few places because she has that "All-American look". Kinda funny (since she not exactly All-American).

Today the girls spent pretty much all day at the State Fair of Oklahoma. Starting the day out at the ice capades, and continuing with rides, games, and food for most of the day.

Halfway to Houston

In Temple, Texas for the night. The drive here was not very pleasant. I got out of OKC way later than originally desired. Got stuck in rush hour traffic south of OKC. Then got stuck in Forth Worth accident traffic. It was just over five hours here, and more than three hundred miles. My mapping software suggests it will take 3.5 hours to get to Houston tomorrow, so we're tacking on an extra hour just to be sure.

The Phillies won tonight (against Clemens!), so I have high hopes for tomorrow. The opposing pitcher has a 6+ ERA, so I'm hoping for a not too difficult victory. AND, San Diego has to lose, which I think would tie us for the wild card.

I would drive five hun-dred miles...

So I've decided to go to Houston. I got me some tickets, and I will be there for the Phillies vs. Astros game at 12:45 on Saturday. It's going to be a heck of a trip for one ballgame, but I'll be diverting slightly to a friend's house in Texas tomorrow, making the trip on the order of five hundred miles each way. Anyone want to tell me I'm NOT a diehard Phillies fan? This will make two Phillies games for me this year. One in Philly, and one in Houston. Now, Phillies, for my thousand miles of effort, you'd better NOT disappoint. You didn't let me down at all in August, so I'd be appreciative of repeat performance.

CBP deserves better

I have some disagreement concerning the placement of Citizen's Bank Park (CBP) on this list. Mostly my issue is with the apples/oranges comparison done by SI. While sure, this was a "fan value" initiative, and so based on feedback from fans, how many of those fans have visited how many of those other ballparks? Now, I'm not one to speak as an expert, because I've hardly been to a significant number of the ballparks myself, but I HAVE been to #1, #2, #5, #9, #11 (oh yeah, we didn't make it), #13, #14, #15, #16, and #19. So, as you can see, most of my ballpark experience comes from "top half" parks, meaning I don't speak entirely out of my butt on this issue.

My issue is this... were fans asked "how good is your park in these areas" or "how good is your park in these areas WHEN COMPARED TO ALL THE OTHER PARKS". Those are two distinctly different questions, and I'd wager many fans would at least tweak their answers somewhat if they knew there was a skewed comparison occurring. And I say skewed because the psychometrist in me (yes, I had computer psychometrics in college) knows there's no true standard of measure for many of the criteria between parks. And without that, it's very difficult to make a valid representative comparison.

I know, I know, that one Anaheim reader of my blog is like, oh heck, you just want CBP to be #1 rather than EIF (oops, it was Edison International Field when I was last there in 2002) Angel Stadium. But no, that's not the case. In fact, I'm not saying CBP should be #1 at all. But, having been to both parks, I do feel CBP was a better experience than my experience in Anaheim. That said, I'd also say that the overall experience at Camden Yards was better than at CBP. So, I'm not saying CBP is best, just that it deserved better.


Update, 16 September
Add #17 for me, as I went to Houston today to check out MMP. AWESOME! And also much more deserving of a better rank.

Season pushed back a week

Darby's softball season, which was supposed to start on Thursday, was pushed back to next week. Will update the calendar when I get info. Darby had a good practice, only one noticeably bad throw, but good plays otherwise.

Happy birthday, mom

Sorry I couldn't be with you on your birthday. But I'm glad you got to see sis, and that you got my card on time (was worried about that). Hang in there. I know all the sad news coverage on your birthday is bringing you down.

Tale of two Phillys

Eagles, thank you SO much for not making me eat crow by having to face my cubicle neighbor, a Houston fan, with a loss to the Texans. You guys had me somewhat worried at first, but pulled it out nicely, and man were there some nice moments in that game. Keep that up for the rest of the season and I'll love you forever. I am upset at one thing, though... I'm going to be in Philly on a Sunday during football season for the first time in a long time (November 5th) and is there any chance I'll get to see an Eagles game? NO. It's your ONLY bye-week of season. WTF!??!!!?!

Phillies, you're killing me. KILLING. ME. I'm gnawing my own fingers down to nubs watching each and every pitch over the ESPN.com gamecast (while watching the Eagles game on TV), hoping you guys will get back in the game and help yourselves out in the wildcard race. I'm not asking for much here folks. Just. STOP. LOSING. (so much). Please. Ugh.




p.s. Jacksonville, please please please please please smash the oozing crap out of the Cowboys. Pretty please.

p.p.s. Thank you Jacksonville!

Can my kids BE any more weird?

Sure they can. But man, they've got to try real hard to prove it.

After going back to the mall for a second straight weekend to get yet more stuff for Shelby with her gift cards, we stopped by a McDonald's to get a couple ice cream cones. First, while waiting for the cones to be made, I caught the girls on my camera phone in video mode in a rare moment of getting along. Ever since they've started Rhythm and Movement class at school, they've been dancing with each other during idle moments with enough floor space.

Not ten minutes later, while eating her ice cream, Shelby decided that she suddenly had to visit the restroom, much to my dismay (because she was maybe a quarter finished with her just-purchased ice cream). Here's a video clip of her potty dance (note at the end, Darby trying to snag the leftover chocolate coating that fell from Shelby's cone).

Finally a tolerable route

I finally found a route from school to practice that wasn't riddled with bumper to bumper traffic, and that allowed us to grab a bite to eat while still making it to practice at a decent time. Ironically, the route is all city streets (not a highway to be found for miles). And while the route is plenty congested at points, it's all very tolerable and not nearly as bad as previous routes I've attempted. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke, as they keep moving practice up on us (due to reduced daylight), so it will get increasingly difficult to make it to practice on time.

How to have a good Thursday morning

First, you mustn't be running "not quite as on time as you would like" (termed as "late" in some parts of the world). In particular you must not be doing so for a second consecutive day, because this is generally frowned upon, thereby increasing your stress and frustration level while you attempt to restore good graces in the eyes of the rest of the world, or at least your children.

Also vital to the successful execution of a Thursday morning is drawing the logical conclusion that on "strings day" (referenced more formally as the day String Instrument Class is held), everything will occur at no more than half speed. In particular, the morning drop-off line will crawl while youths of various sizes wrestle with the removal of, in some cases rather large (perhaps bigger even than said youth), string instruments from running vehicles without the assistance of a parental figure. So, when choosing your days to be not nearly ahead of schedule, I recommend avoiding strings day as a candidate. In my observation, strings day will throw any well-oiled morning into the hamper of mornings-worth-forgetting, so I recommend excessive diligence in one's approach to such days.

Lastly, your daughter must not forget her viola book in your auto after you've dropped her off at school (with barely enough time to have breakfast). The non-forgetting of things  is vital to the well being of a Thursday morning. Failure to ensure your child's completeness of stuff removal when being dropped off is a recipe for the certain doom of any day of the week, much less the most not-quite-Friday-but-so-very-close day of them all. Having to return to the school on such a day (and under conditions noted above) will quite certainly de-pleasant-ify your morning, if not your day.

Down by three

As recently noted, I have an opening on my team. Well, the official job posting (PDF Version) is finally online, so please apply if you're a good fit. Thanks!

As though that weren't enough, over the last week I've watch my eight person team dwindle down to five. After losing the above programmer, I (expectedly) lost a short-term employee (who has been reassigned to another team), and then I lost another programmer to an illness that required hospitalization. Sheesh!

Hopefully I'll get my hospitalized programmer back soon, but I suspect it will be a bit before I fill my vacancy. I am supposed to get another three short-term team members, BUT, they'll only be with the team for a few months, AND they're working a very specific function... remotely (from Virginia), so they won't exactly fully integrate with the team.

So much for Italy

I was rather excited about the prospect of going to Italy next summer. I acquired a passport, had already paid some money for it (which will be refunded), and was about to purchase travel insurance. Instead, today I learned the trip was cancelled due to a drop in interest following a minor itinerary change. I'm told the trip will eventually be rescheduled, but we all know how those things go. So until it happens, I shall remain disappointingly optimistic.

Honors for Darby, for Shelby... not so much

Darby learned today that she made the honors choir, which had their first class today as well. There are already a few performances on their calendar, which I'll be adding to our calendar soon. I just hope she gets to play some piano, too, as we were promised (would have applied for a different honors track otherwise).

Shelby, I was told by her teacher, is having focus issues and is already missing several assignments. So she'll be missing recess tomorrow in favor of study hall. Shelby Shelby Shelby...


At Darby's softball practice, they put her at first base much of the time, which was a relief (she's been in the outfield the last couple practices), and she did pretty well. There will not be a tournament this weekend (contrary to what I have on the calendar), and the first game will be in two Thursdays, though I don't yet have a time.

Shop til daddy drops

We have a birthday party to attend tomorrow. So, after and early rise this morning, getting some breakfast, and stopping by the bank, we went to the mall for eleven year-old girl gift ideas.

We had been browsing the mall for a couple hours before finally settling on something, and then we decided to catch a movie I had no desire to see (How to Eat Fried Worms). I SO could have done without that. Having a less than sturdy stomach and all.

After the movie, we got some lunch, and then we had more shopping to do. I promised Shelby we'd spend her $50 Limited Too gift card. Only problem was, many things were half-off, so really it was more like a $100 gift card. Holy moly. You have no idea (okay, maybe you do) how long it takes a girlie girl like Shelby to decide how to spend a hundred bucks in the defacto capitol of girlie girl stores. We were there for almost another two hours. Can you believe it? I can't. Still. And it was a tooth and nail fight just to cut things off at that point.

So after darn near six hours at the mall, it was rather pleasant to escape. But the worst part is, we have to go back. We were given "bonus gift cards" that aren't valid until after the fourth of September. ARGH. Maybe I can recruit mommy to partake of the next shopping adventure.



Update
I forgot to mention a very important part of this story. Shelby, in her quest for girlie goods, asked me.... "daddy, can I get a bra?"

My reaction cannot be described. You had to have seen it to appreciate it. Needless to say, my nine year old daughter did NOT get a bra. Ugh.

Pulling strings

The girls have to pick string instruments to play. At their school, all kids are required to play two instruments (eventually). Their choices are violin, viola, cello, and string bass. I was going to have both girls play violin (seemed the easiest from the logistical standpoint) to start with, but there was some objection. We were then going to try cello for Darby, which I was not terribly keen on. So I called the strings teacher and asked if there was anything in particular that she would prefer, based on demand. She explained that most people pick violin or cello, because that's what they know. She said hardly anyone picks viola, because they don't know what it is. I later also learned that a good viola player can pretty much get a full ride to any college with a music program because there are so few of them. So that was it. Viola it would be for Darby. Violin for Shelby.

I left work a little early this afternoon and took the girls to the music store. I was going to buy a violin for Shelby and rent a viola for Darby (because she will only be at this school for one year and then we'll have to see what happens at the next school). However, the music store staff recommended NOT buying a violin for Shelby until she would fit a full-sized instrument. At the moment she fits a quarter-sized violin.

A hundred and fifty bucks later, we had ourselves some (rather expensive to replace if they are damaged) rented instruments and related supplies. And man are the girls excited. They've already watched the introductory DVD that came with their music books. And they want to tinker heavily with their instruments, but I'm weary of breakage before their first full strings class next week, so I'm enforcing some constraint. Just until next week. I mean, I don't think it's terrible to want them to show up to the next class with functional instruments.

So now it's not just piano, softball, and fencing that we have to keep up with, but also violin and viola practice, and maybe dedicated lessons for Shelby. As she's never had any sort of music instruction, I'm worried about her uptake of the topic, so I may stick her in violin lessons if the teacher feels she could use the extra outside work. Even though there is much music experience in her family (trombone, baritone horn, and percussion on her father's side, saxophone, piano, and guitar on her mother's), there is no experience with a string instrument of this type, so we can't help her the same way we would if she were playing something we've experienced.

Much is left to be determined. But we're just getting started on this journey. Wish us luck.