Dan's Fall Update

It took me awhile to dig myself out of the giant mounds of various college students' assignments to get to the computer to write this blog post, but I finally made it here. Yes, it has been busy teaching 6 days week at 3 different colleges but I have still found some time to work on my dissertation. I do really enjoy the majority of my classes and students, and I am still shooting for summer of 2008 for the completion of the PhD. Let's see if I can do it.

I am also playing quite a bit. I have played in the Bronx, Long Island and New Jersey in the past few weeks. This week I am playing Beethoven's Ninth symphony at Carnegie Hall with some group whose name I cannot recall at the moment, but rehearsals start tomorrow. Next week I am playing the John Rutter Requiem at a big church in south Brooklyn.

After being entertained back at home in the Pacific Northwest this summer by various friends and family, we have had the opportunity to host some friends here in NYC. My good high-school friend Mark was here on business last week, he works for a large PR firm, so they put him up in the Sheraton in midtown. We managed to hang out on a rainy Tuesday night, and then catch a NY Rangers hockey game at Madison Square Garden the next night. Fun times, we saw a fan wearing a NY Islanders shirt (the cross-state rival hockey team) get de-shirted and pushed around a bit. The Rangers lost, but a good time was had by all. This past week, another good high-school friend Laura was here. She lives in Bermuda now, where she teaches music (viola and violin), so she stayed with us since no music school will put someone up in a NYC Sheraton. Katie and I are hoping to visit her at some point...in Bermuda! Her friend Greg came out to see her for awhile, and we enjoyed showing them around and eating out at some fun places. I made sure they tried out the ambrosia that is Brooklyn Lager, while Laura brought us some Gosling's Rum, Bermuda's unofficial national spirit, which we mixed with ginger beer (much punchier than ginger ale) for the official drink of Bermuda: the "Dark and Stormy." Yum!

Next week our newly-married friend Rachel (one of Katie's college roommates) will be visiting on business. She lives in Washington DC now, but will stay with us for a few days. We read that the average night in a NYC hotel costs about $240, so if you want to save some $$$ and have fun, come stay at Chez DanandBird. We accept advance reservations and all major credit cards. We absolutely do not tolerate nail clipping except in designated areas.