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Pedometer Tango

We are having an unexpectedly nice patch of weather this week... sunny and in the upper 70s. When I arrived home from work (a bit earlier than usual as I am trying to be more efficient at work to give me more time for other pursuits), I went on my five mile walk (for those of you more inclined towards the metric system, that is a little more than 8 kilometers). Last week at the U, a "competition" was announced to have teams record their walking patterns using pedometers that the school provided. I created a team of my wife and myself. I hope(d) it would be an encouragement for myself to be more consistent in my walking. I am not sure if the pedometer will be a help or a hinderance, however, for the infernal contraption is notoriously unreliable and I spent a good deal of my walk attempting to find the "proper" location to wear the damnable device to obtain step measurements that were even approaching 75% accuracy. It was a beautiful walk, even while I played pedometer tango.

Last night the family decided because of the beautiful weather that we would all pack up portable dinner supplies and head out to one of the many local parks. A very pleasant time was had by all of us.

My wife made one of my favorite vegetarian dishes... wasabi wraps. It is a filling to put in tortillas that contains shredded broccoli, carrots, cabbage, and diced tofu in a creamy "Ranch-style" sauce seasoned heavily with wasabi paste and ginger. It is excellent. Oddly enough, because my wife found a good bargin on some wonderful shaved smoked turkey, we de-vegetarianized the dish with shaved turkey and also added bell pepper slices, cucumber slices, onion slices and sliced tomato. It was wonderful.

The park itself was also quite pleasant and all of us had a great time. On the way home, we stopped at a convience store that sells soft-serve ice cream and found happily that the flavors were "Tangy Orange" and "Vanilla Cream". Each of us had a swirled cone mixing both flavors to obtain an old-fashioned creamsickle flavored treat.

After our treat, we all headed home. I then left for rehearsal... albeit a half an hour late. But, one thing I am trying to do in my life that has always been difficult is to simply LIVE. I am trying hard to not get aggitated by other's timetables and issues. When I arrived in the band room, I had not missed much, for they were just starting the first number (as usual, there is a great deal of small talk and general chit-chat before actual music playing begins). It felt very good to play music, and I seem to have worked through much of the "rusty feelings" and built my embouchure back up enough where I felt I had good control, pitch, and technique while playing.

So, overall, yesterday was basically a good, all-around, pleasant day. I am hoping to collect a whole series of them.

PipeTobacco