First and foremost, David and I have a new little cousin! Sara Cordelia Lewellen was born to Andrew (David's brother) and Pamela Lewellen on August 17th. She is absolutely gorgeous! I will send you the link to pictures soon. We are very proud and can't wait to meet her, although given the logistics of our own pending delivery which renders us unable to travel over the winter holidays, it probably won't be until 20o8!
The Breckenridge Music Festival was just fantastic. The musicians were from all over the place and almost all of them had full time jobs in music performance (orchestras) or college teaching. I made lots of new friends from Charleston (SC), Florida, Tulsa, Dallas, San Diego, and Indiana. The quality of the musicians was extremely good, and it was a genuine pleasure to make music with them, especially under the direction of Gerhardt Zimmermann, one of the best conductors I've ever played under. He's so concise, efficient, and clear. I really click with him musically - every suggestion he has makes such sense and actually makes phrases easier! - and his passionate energy that positively emanates from the podium is infectious. What a joy to work with such a musician. I surprised myself by using my triple horn for more than half of the playing I did! The 8D was fun to use on the bigger stuff like the Rite of Spring, the Shostakovitch Cello Concerto, and the bigger romantic works, but the triple proved to be the perfect horn for chamber music, french orchestral works, and pretty much anything high. Wow!
David and I returned home early last week, and I have loved being home again. We have lots of tomatoes, jalapenos and zucchini from our garden, and I've already made zucchini bread (with dried cranberries instead of raisins - a great variation) and a big bowl of zesty (medium) cilantro salsa. Tonight I'm making pizza from scratch - the dough is currently rising and I'm about to go make tomato sauce with a bunch of our romas that were picked this week. Have any of you ever tried japanese eggplant? They're the thinner banana-shaped variety of eggplants and they're very sweet and mild and we grew them too this summer. They're great in stir-frys or broiled. I'm putting some on top of our pizza tonight!
I read some great books this summer, all fiction (representing the rotation of my favorite fiction styles: historical fiction/murder mystery thriller/quality "chick lit"). The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai was an intricate exploration into the Himalayan mountains of India, exploring the disintegration of the various immigrant groups there as well as the parallel issues surrounding illegal immigration in the US - a fascinating, refreshingly different escape. I had discovered a new thriller author, Lisa Gardner, who wrote the brilliant and riveting The Survivor's Club. What a ride! I loved her ability to throw plot twists and shockers at you while simultaneously developing the characters with moving depth, and her writing in general was superb. Right now I'm reading the prolific Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts, and it too is excellent. I love authors that write different chapters from different characters' points of view, and she's a master at it. I'm impressed that she can crank out so many novels quickly yet each one is more riveting than the next. So....have you read any good books lately? I always love learning about new authors and hearing about what you all are reading these days.
The symphony starts quite late this year (9/25, my 37th birthday, is our first rehearsal!). In the meantime we are working hard to get the remodeling done on our baby boy's room! Once we get all the furniture out of what is currently the music studio (which will become the nursery), we will be ripping up the old stained carpeting in the hallway that leads into the studio and replacing 
it with hardwood floor laminates. We're having Lowe's do the installation. I plan to paint the baby's room white with one or maybe two buttery yellow walls. The bedding pattern I picked out for him is a bright patchwork quilt and should prove to be quite festive!
it with hardwood floor laminates. We're having Lowe's do the installation. I plan to paint the baby's room white with one or maybe two buttery yellow walls. The bedding pattern I picked out for him is a bright patchwork quilt and should prove to be quite festive! That's about all for now. How are your summers wrapping up? Would love to hear from you. Write soon! :)
