Yet another very lopsided (and therefore difficult to referee) basketball game. I don't remember the final score of the game on Tuesday, but it was 21-1 at halftime. The first quarter tonight was close (8-5, I think...or 8-6) - but only because neither team could hang onto the ball or make a basket to save their lives. I wish I had counted the number of airballs...I'm sure there were a dozen in the first quarter alone. Final score: 61-15. Ouch.

Normal time getting back home after SC barbershop rehearsal: slightly after midnight.
Time getting back home after rehearsal here in town last night: slightly before midnight.
Officially, rehearsal ended at 9:30. A bunch of us hung around afterward and sang everything we could think of that all of us knew (or had music for). I don't remember the last time I sang for 4 hours in a day.

Student loan balance (only for undergraduate loans, unfortunately) is down to three digits! YAY!! Will be nice to have one paid off...

Ahh...snow days! We were supposed to have school today, but the 5" of snow overnight (with some freezing rain before the snow started) wiped that out. Called the school to check, since I'm not on the calling tree...realized afterward that I could have checked the Eau Claire tv station closing list. Oh, well.

Lazy day. Didn't bother to get dressed (t-shirt & sweats doesn't count as "dressed" in my book)...loafed, read, messed around on the internet, made stew, did an arranging project... Only down side is that no school = no work = no pay. If I had known in advance that we'd have a snow day, I could have gone in to Block. Meh.

No barbershop tomorrow night - well, not in St Cloud, anyway. Will be refereeing a basketball game, so since I don't have access to a teleporter, I wouldn't get to SC in time for any of the rehearsal. Will check out the local chorus, I guess...

First day at the Block yesterday. Three returns (12 in the office all day), all pretty simple ones. Nice way to ease into doing taxes again. Started mine, too - and according to the IRS methods of figuring things, I had a $4000 loss last year doing music stuff (teaching lessons, judging solo-ensemble contests, quartet performances). But...considering that the mileage involved was over 10K (at 44.5 cents per mile)... I'm not gonna complain - that's $4000 less that I'll be paying income taxes on!
Madrigal wrap-up party last night...it started to break up around 10, but the die-hards kept it going until midnight.

Wedding was nice - ceremony was short & sweet (maybe 40 minutes total from the start of the processional until the end of the recessional), decorations were simple & understated...very tasteful. Best of all - no cheesy, overused "traditional wedding music" anywhere in the ceremony. The processional was an untitled piece by Sigur Ros (and no, I had never heard any of his (her?) stuff before), the recessional was a Beatles' tune.

Only time the "when is it your turn" bit came up was during the lunch following, when a bunch of us were doing the traditional (for our family) prediction of which cousin's turn would be next. E is the hands-down favorite, since he's engaged. (He was the #1 guess last time, as well...but since he's engaged now, it's pretty much a given.) One of the uncles said something to me along the lines of, "rumor has it that you're next." My response: "Really? Obviously, you know something I don't!"

Five weeks until KSVC trivia marathon.

Truffles are finally finished, and will be in the mail on Monday.

Happy 2007.
Am definitely not happy with the bozo I'm filling in for at school. He's back this week - but won't give me any clue what his plans are for the rest of the 30-some sick days he has remaining. Should I be looking for another gig...should I just stay put and wait for the school here to say something... I don't know how to ask him any more plainly than I did today, but his answer was absolutely worthless. Some people's kids...or something like that.

Nice surprise in my pile of mail today - a check for refereeing that I had forgotten was still out. Bonus for the travel fund! :-)

Read 7000+ pages over the 10 days of vacation - the Wagons West series (minus the last two books, since we don't have those), the first three books in the Mitford series (highly recommended if you want a laugh), and Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior. Was nice to have the luxury of kicking back to read without having a gazillion interruptions all the time.