Ducks/Tigers HNT

You might have noticed that I closed comments all day here Wednesday. Or maybe you didn't (I have to quit thinking that everyone comes by to check things here 2-3 times a day...). Symphony stuff has unexpectedly piled up on me for January. But in a good way. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that we are performing a children's concert on Thursday for the local 4th & 5th graders. Usually, the concert is in March, and for some reason I didn't realize it was this week until a staff meeting last week. Oops! It's an important outreach activity, and I am amazed every year that we can get a full orchestra to take time off from their day jobs to do it. Of course, it means that I lose TWO days, since I have to deal with this concert like any other--equipment moves, set-up, etc. The music is rarely satisfying to the musicians, but I think we all look at it as an important opportunity. This will be the only exposure that some of these kids will ever have to a live orchestra. That is, unfortunately, a sad fact of life...

The other thing that's hitting unexpectedly was the year-end anonymous gift from one of our sponsors. His corporation has dropped thousands of dollars on us for the past few years, which is a tremendous gift already. But, after some informal talks with one of our musicians, he's bought the orchestra new chairs and music stands. New chairs cost over $200 each (ergonomically designed for optimum musician performance and comfort), and the various accessories add to the total. Delivery of the music stands and storage carts was this week. Of course, they just deliver this stuff. Someone has to assemble them when they get here. You can just imagine who gets to do that, right? So I've spent the past two days assembling the carts (about 90 minutes each), and am now starting on the stands. Fortunately, those are far less cumbersome. I'm not sure when the chairs and their carts are expected to show up, but you just KNOW that there's some assembly required there, too. And the rush is to get them all ready for our second concert at the end of the month. It'll happen. I just have to make sacrifices, which means my time around here will be sparse for a bit.

So what does that have to do with my HNT? Absolutely nothing. I'm just kicking back and watching the Ducks and the Tigers battle it out Monday night while taking a break from cart building. Half-nekkid, of course.

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I feel badly about what this sudden rush of work has done for this week's Mystery Guest. I usually can grab a poem or lyric, but I just haven't had the time. So I have to wing it here. Of course the first thing to notice is that the 'mystery' part isn't quite a mystery, except to the newer participants around here. This MG has been around for many years, though not so much over the past year and a half or so. She's had a rough year in 2010, similar to mine. But she's making a comeback. Still a spitfire to the end! Sorry I don't have the time to be more eloquent--I'll have to make it up to you.

Be sure to come back on Thursday afternoon to find out who she is, if you don't already know...
This week's MG is Stealth from Cookies and Porn. Go check her out!

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With symphony set-up today, and rehearsal tonight, I'm not going to be able to post "...the Other HNT" until after midnight. Be sure to stop by though! Some great pictures this week! NSFW, as always.

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New adventure over at the OsShirt site!