Drums and Space, Guitar Picking, Pianos, Cartoons, and Thanksgiving

N had his first drum lesson over at the music store and there were two good things to come of it. First, he loved it. In fact, when asked about it by mom, I heard the word "awesome" being employed. The second good thing was that the instructor said that it went well and we could continue. I'm guessing there was some reservation about age and attention issues, but he came out of it saying that N "clearly had it going on upstairs" and that he was very focused to the instructions. You gotta love it when people say nice things about your kids. Plus, N was too cute for words when he came out, the excitement was palpable. We picked out a new pair of sticks, the teacher, AH, said we should forget about kid's sticks and get a real grownup pair, which I think N got a kick out of, and all the way home he and A got to practice their drum riffs on the back of my head.

Yesterday A had her guitar lesson, and she is doing so well. Now I'm completely biased here, and mixed in with a little wishful thinking, I can't help but think she has music in her blood. A natural, if I dare say so. I could be completely delusional, it wouldn't be the first time (what parent isn't?), but music seems to come so naturally to her. It warms our hearts (me and R) to no end. She's learning some pretty complex stuff, more than I'd ever known. Serious finger picking on some fairly complex songs. Impressive stuff

On the subject of instruments, a neighbor is giving away her piano and we expressed interest, though we haven't seen the thing. If it's in good shape, we'd love to have a piano in the house, especially if it's free. Moving it would be a bear, and now that my Mentor is leaving, even harder because his amazing truck was made for such excursions, but that's what happens when you hesitate and can't make up your mind. You lose out on golden opportunities. We'll see what happens.

The weather has turned sour but I can't complain because we had a stretch of good weather and I was able to work on the barn. Either way, it's not too bad because there is going to be a cartooning seminar and the guest speaker is a graphic novelist. The kids love cartoons, and A in particular loves making them. The humor and wit in them is fairly sophisticated, and I think it could something she could develop greater interest in, but we'll see. There is going to be a kid's workshop on cartooning, and some of her friends might be there, so it'll be fun no matter what.

Finally, the idea of a vegetarian Thanksgiving was brought up. My first thought was no way, we have to have a bird, though we usually cook a chicken because turkey's are too darn big. Either way, we love whole poultry/gravy routine, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a cool idea. The kids would probably prefer meat, but you figure Thanksgiving, like all meals, are just a formality before dessert, so we can always make up for any shortcoming with ice cream or pie. Stay tuned for more developments on this one. Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Daniel Wilson and Mike Johnson for the pics.