So, it's been a while...

since I made a blog entry. What has happened? Well, I have a new garage door because some fool was checking his mail at the clusterbox and decided not to use his brake, so his pickup truck rolled into my garage door, and into my van inside. That was several weeks ago. Everything is fixed as of a few days ago after 2 weeks with the van in a body shop.

My girls both won blue ribbons in the band instrument evaluation fo rthe local school district.

Most notable is that my son has a new attitude about playing trumpet. He was very resistant, and I gave him an ultimatum an hour before we left for his lesson back in February. He was whining and screaming and throwing a world-class tantrum. His ultimatum was this: Pick up the horn and play something, anything, befor your lesson otherwise you are finished playing trumpet. Five minutes before we left for what I thought would be his last lesson, he played a C scale. I took him aside and asked him if this means he was going to have a new commitment to playing. He said yes, and has practiced pretty much every day since. His teacher notices a vast improvement, and the boy's emboucher muscles are much stronger. He's playing notes much higher than he's played before, and it has become fun for him again. I love when my instinct is right.

The notices for the 2006 Q1 Writers of the Future contest started going out recently. I haven't heard anything yet. I think this story is likely to fare better than the last, but I dont think it's good enough to be a finalist. The story is too linear and predictible. I mailed another one for Q2 a few days ago that I think has an even better chance.