Violin Recital

Liam had a violin recital on Sunday. Since January he has been going to a different teacher and he has come along really well - not sure if it is the new teacher (I think so) or now he is a little bit more mature (that too!) but he is now much better than he was. I can guarantee that this won't be his career but at least now it is tolerable to listen to.

He played (solo) "O Come Little Children", and yes Liam does sound better than the midi at that link. Hopefully we'll get a video online sometime. The entire group played the Suzuki classic, Twinkle, Twinkle.



Afterwards there was a really heavy rain shower that Liam enjoyed.

Concubine

In an effort to try to keep up with Ryan's collection, I have acquired a new concubine. She is a Cervelo P3 time trial bike. She is sleek and fast. I bought it off a clubmate who bought it about a year ago but only ended up riding it a couple of times. A TT bike is kinda specialized so I probably won't ride it more than 500 miles a year even if I ride it a lot.

The alien helmet and skinsuit is coming soon!

Happy Mothers Day

The weather cooperated, this year I had a glorious Mothers Day. I received an early Mothers Day present from Kieran and Liam and continued to get nice artwork from Liam every day after school. The gift was an ipod and an ipod radio receiver, now life is very good at the gym. On Sunday, Vien took me out for brunch and Kieran cooked dinner. After dinner, we went for a short walk around the neighbor. A nice day indeed.

Chapter Books

Just like his teacher promised, Liam's reading has made great leaps forward over the last 6 months. He has now graduated to reading "chapter books" like Lions at Lunchtime. What is nice is that he likes to go to bed a little bit early and reading to himself for a while before sleeping.

Sunshine

Well it finally did end. We had a glorious weekend of early summer weather. Jeannette was supposed to come visit and Cynthia had a full weekend of fun planned for themselves, so Liam and I decided to have fun on our own and go backpacking. Unfortunatly, her daughter, Lia, got sick so Jeannette wasn't able to come, but the guys went camping anyway.

Our first choice was full of boy scouts, so we found a hike in campsite in Castle Rock State Park that is available on a first come basis - of the 25 sites, only 4 were taken, so this looks like a great option for impromptu trips.

Liam carried his own backpack with his sleeping bag and clothes. It was a 3 mile hike each way to the campsite, with some "scary" scrambling over boulders. But we both managed to do the hike without too much complaining.

Then Sunday evening, back at home, we fired up the bbq for the first time since last June (didn't bring it to the apartment) and enjoyed dinner and the dimming light out on the patio.

That's more like it.