Hudson River School of Music Play-In

There's nothing like seeing a bunch of little kids concentrating on playing a very difficult instrument. Imagine holding an instrument under your chin in a very awkward position (I thought it was awkward when I tried, years ago), standing still (hard for a kid), using one hand to press strings to get a note and the other hand to make the sound. It's not easy.
Bow on head helps kids focus on not plucking, swinging the bow like a bat, etc.

And something I really like about all this is that there are all sorts of kids here. Kids with many different interests - martial arts, baseball, soccer, football, dance, John Deere tractors. And they all are into this as well. Very cool.

A visit to the museum and my beautiful niece

Saturday was a good day. After I met up with my sleeping niece, Estella, I pushed her in her double stroller around a jam-packed museum. We went to several cities while I waited for her to wake up, including Peking, Alexandria, and Isfahan.




We met warriors along the way,

and a variety of knobbly-
spined creatures.









But it was the roar of the tiger that eventually woke her up.

There was not much reaction at first, to all the beasts and warriors, and shark's teeth, but eventually she spoke and smiled, and walked down the steps holding my hand.