A Night at the Charter House

Last evening (Wednesday), my jazz band, the "Notochords" played their annual Charter House concert. I always look forward to this concert every year for a number of reasons. First, the Charter House residents are primarily older people with medical needs, but still independent enough not to be in a nursing home, and the music we play is music they grew up with - big band tunes by Glen Miller, Count Basie, etc. Second, the facility itself is just wonderful, and the room we play in is bright and cheery and just a fun place to be. Finally, there is always a great crowd, and you can tell they really enjoy the music and are very responsive and appreciative. Most of the other gigs we do are dances, and while it's fun to see people enjoying themselves dancing, when you do a concert the focus is solely on the music. The hidden reason I am almost ashamed to mention is that, well, I'm a big show-off when it comes to saxophone, and playing first Alto Saxophone in a jazz band means you ARE the center of the band and the center of attention. There, I just revealed one of my deep dark secrets! :)

Other News

Well it's still freaking cold here. I'm really about ready to get to spring now, and it's just February. Last night I finished filing my taxes online - that has got to be a record for me. I will be eagerly awaiting my refunds to tackle a few household projects - I'd like to put in a whole-house water filter, and possibly get a new sink (not sure on that one). For anyone who is looking for an inexpensive and very easy and convenient option for online taxes, I highly recommend H&R Block's TaxCut Online program - it is $14.95 for the basic version which includes federal e-file. If you want to add state e-file it's another $29.95. While there are free ones out there, I've read enough and heard enough to think that you get what you pay for - and $14.95 is a significant drop in price from last year's cost. Plus, being online, there's absolutely nothing to install, you can work on them anywhere, and you don't need any specific operating system. I have used this for 3 years now, and the interface is easy to use and the help and explanations of each field are good.

I am also in the process of putting together a new computer since the one Erin has is slowly dying. I'm very torn - if I order a pre-built one, it pretty much has to come with Vista, and I was hoping to skip Vista and wait until Windows 7 comes out. If I build my own I can still probably get away with XP but Vista probably takes advantage of newer hardware better. (yes, Cory and Michael, I already hear the "skip them both and get a Mac" chorus!) So far I only have one person that I know that has Vista and likes it, but they also know a lot about computers. If anyone has any recommendations about that or hardware in general, I'd love to hear them.

On a sad note, for those of you that know Erin, his grandpa passed away on Monday evening. He is down in Florida for the funeral tomorrow. Please think good thoughts and prayers for him and his family.