Mini vacation

That's what the last bit of blogging silence was, a mini vacation. On Wednesday I took my daughter up to Chicago to be whisked away by her grandparents for five days of intensive spoiling. On Thursday I listened to student compositions, so no lesson prepping was needed. Friday I actually had to work, cramming in Varèse's Hyperprism, Berio's Sequenza III, Ligeti's Atmospheres and Lux Aeterna, and Penderecki's Threnody for a 1.5 hour lecture. It became mostly lecture to get through all the pieces and compositional strategies, but there were some good student discussions, including one statement that Penderecki out-Varèsed Varèse by creating more discernible soundmasses. Saturday I ran in my first 4-mile race, starting too fast for my pace but finishing strong at 35'40" (unfortunately none of my splits matched Penderecki's 8'37"), pretty good for a very hilly trail and very muggy weather. Then the remainder of the family went up to Chicago to tour the Shedd Aquarium and Ikea before picking up the princess-ified daughter today and zipping home. I then marked all of my Bloglines feeds as read, so I have no idea what the bløgösph¥re wrote about this week. So, what's been happening?