I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…

I may not have made this clear, but even though I currently live in Washington DC (and do indeed call the District of Columbia my home), I was born and raised in Kansas City -- Kansas City, Missouri, NOT Kansas City, Kansas.  The big city not the little one.  The one where the numbered streets run east and west, not north and south (that's Kansas City, KS).  And as we sit here in DC today, awaiting a day of 103 degree heat, I find myself thinking about heat waves long ago in the place of my Midwestern origins. I will out myself -- I am old enough to remember living…

I have the great blessing this morning to waking on a Sunday when, I just get to go to church -- you know, like one of the congregation.  I love participating in the worship as one of the leaders; I love singing in the choir;  but sometimes I just like to sit in the congregation and worship. [caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Patterson and Amalie Frank"][/caption] And today, for me, is a day of memory.  I used to belong to a church that had at its helm an 85-year-old ministerial spitfire named Amalie Frank.  Amalie taught me many things, both positive and negative (the strength that she showed in her…

I will confess -- yesterday became a day of little jobs. That is usually a sign of two things in my life:  procrastination....and panic. It usually means that there is some large, transformational event on the horizon.  In this case, the large event, at least, is my trip to Spain.  And yesterday, my procrastination took the form of this:  everywhere I looked, I saw some small job that needed to be done so that my housemate and dog would be most comfortable while I was gone and not on site to attend to their every need (hopefully, before they can think of it--my obsession, not theirs). I plastered a small…

Most of my time this morning will be devoted to working on the music for my upcoming trip, but since I really need to turn in my paper and project from my class before I leave, I thought I would devote the pre-breakfast hours to getting the paper started. You may have already guessed, but I have been trying out a lot of my ideas right here. And so, this morning I have returned again to Dr. Saliers as I work on the introduction to my paper, "Social Justice Themes in Opera:  Speaking Truth to Power".    Excuse me, but for most of this post I will be doing the blogging…

Today, I have done the very best that I could to simply not think any deep thoughts whatsoever.  That is usually a challenge for me.  But today, when we only just dodged the 100 degree mark for days upon days in a row, it wasn't a huge challenge. Besides, I had to deal with the effects of the heat on my life:  I had to start car shopping. [caption id="attachment_281" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Goodbye, faithful servant of 10 years..."][/caption] Yes, the time has come to replace our beloved 14 year old Mazda Protege.  The heat, she done done it in, in the language of Liza Doolittle.  That and too any trips…