We Did *Not* Plan This

When I got up this morning, as usual, I grabbed the next blouse (basic black) and blue trousers to be worn, put them on, and carried on.

Gary showed up, wearing a black polo shirt and blue trousers.

Diane showed up, wearing a black sweater and blue trousers.

It got worse.

At 10:30, Elaine was wearing a black sweater and Roy, a black pullover (and black trousers both). Suzy Brown, who was lectoring, had a black top and roasty-toasty-looking shawl (and brown trousers).

It’s not my fault.

Perfect Timing on an Apropo Quote

Today’s AWAD X-bonus:

Let your tears come. Let them water your soul.
-Eileen Mayhew

Last night, Jon mentioned that he was planning to do (Josh Groban’s) You Raise Me Up with the men and boys choir this summer…

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Now playing: Till Brönner - A Distant Episode
via FoxyTunes

Another (Potential) Member

Donuts after the 8:30 Mass are good for more than just chocolate…

Walked into the “doughnut room” to get my fix, and was shortly thereafter accosted by our RCIA candidate (whose name totally escapes me; I must remedy that quickly), who inquired as to when we had practice. Now, why would he be asking that? Well, not only does he sing (baritone), but he plays guitar (although he hasn't played much in about 10 years).

At the moment, with RCIA and family matters, he’s far too busy to come and join us; after Easter…

Theft, Pt. 2

The mystery deepens?

After doughnuts, ended up gossiping with Tom and Anne until after Roy and Elaine got there for rehearsal for the 11:30. As of when I left, no Diane... :-(

Capo II

Dratted guitar players!!

So we're getting ready for the Offertory song, and Tom leans around Anne (who wasn't at practice Thursday night, and wasn't terribly thrilled with the prospect of sitting down to play this morning and so was singing) and whispers "Capo II". Yep, except I was playing it as written (E is ever so much nicer than D...). He counts, and we start, and something was WAY off! Had we started in two different places? No... Was I playing the D chords without the capo against Tom's D chords with the capo? No... Was Tom playing the D chords without the capo against my E chords? No...

Somebody has neglected to move his capo from III to II after the Alleluia; hurt me!! Figure this out, fumble for my capo, stick it on the first fret, adjust it a couple times, no problem!!

Theft

:::sigh:::

Diane called late this afternoon. She’d been shopping (somewhere in San Hose, I guess), had her purse on the counter, looked away for just a moment, and someone grabbed her wallet. Between then and the time Diane called, someone had used her Home Depot card… (as someone wondered Sunday morning, “Home Depot? Not the Visa, or the MC, or the AmEx, or the Macy’s, but the Home Depot???”) She’d spent most of the afternoon with the police, and on the phone with the bank, and the credit card companies, and the credit bureaus…

She was planning to go back tomorrow morning and beat the bushes, hoping to find the wallet, at least (and the pictures and other non-money stuff), consequently was planning to sing at the 11:30, instead of the 8:30, as originally planned.

Another New Member

Growing by leaps and bounds?

Tom and I were setting up before rehearsal tonight, and a gal neither of us recalled seeing before walked in; I just assumed she was another of the Al-Anon folk… She asked Tom if he were John; he allowed as how he wasn’t, but he (Tom) was better looking!

She was actually looking for Roy, and she joined up. Her name is Kelly, she sings mezzo, and she plays organ and piano!!

:-D

Clueless in Choir

Is it because we’re musicians?

After the lector finished with the petitions this morning, Fr Paul added one, to the effect of “That the people of Iraq will have a better time of it, with Saddam Hussein’s capture.” (Let us pray to the Lord…)

I looked over at Diane, who was standing next to me, and we both looked back at Anne (in the pew behind us), and all of us had no clue. The lady behind Anne confirmed that, indeed, it was true. As we were walking back to the altar, Tom leaned over and asked me if it had actually happened.

I was relieved it wasn't just I who hadn’t a clue…

The Sound System

Modern gadgets and gee-gaws are not always a good thing…

Last weekend, the settings on the sound system got fiddled with. This morning, before the 8:30, Roy fiddled back with them, and pretty much got things back where they should be (or so we thought).

When we started rehearsing, a couple of our mics started booming a bit, and when the lector got up to say her before-Mass piece, her mic didn’t quite behave as planned. More fiddling and tuning, and that was under control.

So the procession is ready to process, Roy announces the song, we start, Fr Mike starts singing, and it sounds like the whole darned church was gonna blow up (electronic noises, not Fr Mike’s singing…)! By the time we get that figured out, the whole procession had processed up the aisle. What to do? Start the song again, chop off one verse, and carry on as if everything were normal.

Everyone was still WIDE awake at sermon time…          >:->

Diane’s Breast-Cancer Walk

Saw Diane at Mass today (Sharon and Maggie were down, for the birthday goings-on of one of the parishioners); she finished all 60 miles of the walk!! And her money raised-to-date is way up, too.

New 12-String

Since my 6-string needs to go to the shop for a tune-up, and I really can’t be without an instrument for too long, I decided to poke around on eBay and see what was to be had. Lo and behold, if I didn’t find a Yamaha FG-230 (I have one of these, although it’s loaned out and would need major surgery, if I were to reclaim it, before I could use it) (this is the twin, if you will, of my 6-string, an FG-200).

Luck smiled upon me, and it’s on the way via UPS. I'm counting the hours…

My next big challenge is strings. I’ve been using Ernie Ball Earthwood Lights on the 12-string, since they don’t seem to make an extra-light set, but I really like the extra-lights on the 6-string. I stumbled upon juststrings.com in, of all places, Smithsonian magazine. :::shrug:::

Turns out there are several 80/20 extra-light options; I need to call them and see which, if any, sound similar to the Earthwoods.

New Choir Member!

Last Sunday, after Tom’s pitch for folk to join the choir, a gal, Anne Lafferty, came up and volunteered.

She showed up at rehearsal tonight, and Wow: she can play the piano (well), and sight read (pretty well), and she sings!! And I’m no longer the baby in the group.

Her father’s cousin is the Karen Lafferty who wrote Seek Ye First.

We didn’t scare her away (yet)…