Breakfast with Emily

Emily took us to a local donut shop, Donut Country, for breakfast this morning. The donuts were homemade and every bit as good as Mary Lou's in Lafayette!

 That's Emily in the green shirt at the counter.

 My selections. An applesauce cake and a chocolate creme filled powdered sugar. The latter was probably the best donut I have ever eaten in my life!

Emily with her choice and a bag of two to take to Cole since he was at work.

BINGO!! General Conference Style

When our kids were little, they each had a General Conference binder with things to do that would help them focus on the speakers. So, knowing we would be watching General Conference with Emily and Cole, I brought....

General Conference Bingo along!

I knew it would make him smile, and it did. Since Cole had to work this morning, I broke it out for Saturday afternoon's session. The look on his face was so gratifying!

 I had five different cards and sacrificed some of my M&M stash for markers.

 And the game begins! 

(Er, so does Conference.)

 We missed the first few minutes, so Cole checks online to see who the new Seventies, Relief Society presidency, etc. are.

The game really does serve to focus attention on the speakers. It also brought some hilarious moments as we anticipated speakers saying certain words, listened intently to hymns for mentions of Bingo card words, and argued whether words such as "children" could count for the word "child" on the game board.

Cole won four Bingos, Emily three, Craig three, and me one. (I had a card that had multiple doubles and couldn't win a thing until I got a new card!)

Tonight Emily and I will have to go to CVS to get new M&M markers and prizes for tomorrow's game.

Middle Tennessee State University

Cole and Emily took us on a tour of campus in between Saturday's conference sessions.

 Cole takes the wheel and acts as chauffeur.

 The Math and Business Building.

 These banners were hung all over campus. The university's colors are blue and white, and they are called the Blue Raiders.

 The old Union Building (they are building a new one.)

 A pretty park within the campus.

 Cole and Emily take us past the mobile studio and into the Communications building. Several recording sessions were going on as we peeked into a few rooms.

 The largest pop music library in the nation is in the Communications Building.

 Cole, Emily, and Craig stand in the center plaza of the campus.

MTSU is the largest university in the state, population-wise. 

Geographically, it is quite compact, especially compared to the University of Illinois! Oh, the hikes I used to make!

 Cole, Emily, and me.

 The central plaza has a beautiful center inscription.

 And the campus seal in the middle of a compass rose.

The front of the Communications Building. Cole spends a lot of time here.

In the Recording Studio

Craig and I are in Murfreesboro, Tennessee visiting Cole and Emily for the last weekend of my spring break. Due to stop and go traffic on 65, it took us seven hours to get here, but arrive we did.

The first thing we wanted was a tour of Cole's in-home recording studio. It was absolutely fascinating!

 I am not sure of what everything does, but I believe this is a percussion instrument. Cole would tap those large grey squares and you would hear different drum sounds.

 Here Cole demonstrates some of its sounds for us.

 A shot of the computer Cole uses to arrange, mix, and produce music.

 He also has a really nice keyboard in the studio. (Actually, there are two - this large one and a smaller one he sometimes takes to class because it is easier to carry.)

 Showing us how the instruments and computer are connected to one another.

 The speakers are standing atop foam pieces which absorb any vibrations so the vibrations don't interfere with the recording quality.

 Awww.... I love you, too, Cole!!

 Part of the recording booth. Cole built it in a closet and lined the walls with a special foam padding to improve accoustical quality. 

 The $700 mic - it was on sale, so this was a good deal! Cole is very frugal, and he spent almost a year pondering this decision and saving the money to purchase it.

Showing me how to speak into iy. 

 This is a mount for mics. Like the foam, it prevents interference from vibrations.

 Another type of mic. I don't remember just what it is used for.

 And yet another example of microphone used in the studio. I think this is mounted near an instrument, perhaps with the previous one, and together get a stereophonic sound.

 Two less expensive mics. The one on the left is a hand mic for concerts. I don't remember why Cole put them on the floor.

 This was a neat machine and over in the corner and not connected to the other equipment. 

 A close-up of one of its dials.

 This was SO COOL. As Cole plays some music he is mixing, these show what each strand is doing at a given moment. That way, he can change something at a particular point if he wishes because he knows exactly where he wants that change to occur.

 A close-up of that screen. 

A close-up of that screen. It's readable.

 Another tool for mixing. He can alter the sound of each strand here by toggling these virtual tabs.

Cole played some songs he had mixed as well as one he was working on. According to him, that one sounded very unfinished, but to the untrained ear (i.e. mine) there was no difference. Cole said he would show me more this weekend so I can learn to hear the difference.

The studio tour was neat and very enlightening. Even better, I enjoyed seeing Cole doing something that brings him great joy. 

Happy Birthday, JC!

Happy Birthday to my buddy, JC! 

(Can you tell I am really fond of this guy??)

Trappin' Wildlife

My mother has been having problems with something getting underneath her car and chewing on the undercarriage. It happens inside and outside the garage, so she is trying to figure out what is bothering her vehicle. Leslie brought a humane trap and set it outside the car Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning we'd caught a critter!

 Not the squirrel we'd expected, and probably not what's been chewing her cables.

 This coon is pretty big as coons go. Not surprising considering the woods he/she lives in and the abundance of food and shelter plus the lack of predators.

 Thinking the raccoon will run straight toward the hill, I step back by the car to snap pictures as Leslie releases it.

Instead, it comes barreling out of the cage and heads straight toward me! I quit snapping pictures and try to hop into the car. It nearly steps on my foot as it blazes past me, scoots around the corner and heads between the retaining wall and the barn and into the woods. Definitely not the route we expected it  to take!

Guess we'll reset the trap and see what else we find might be bothering the car.

Uncanny Resemblance

My sister Leslie invited me to go to the Indiana Horse Rescue in Frankfort and look at some horses with her. She lost her Standardbred, Loomis, last winter, and her gelding, Beau, has some health issues and may need to be put down. That would leave Skippy alone, and Skippy is blind and needs a pasture mate.

So, she picked me up early this morning and we headed out into the hinterlands of central Indiana. The rescue place had at least one Standardbred available, and Leslie wanted to take a look at her. But when we walked out in the pasture to look at the mares, my heart stopped. This is what I saw:

 This mare is the spitting image of my first horse, Amy. Amy has always been my favorite of all the horses I've owned, and we had a very close bond. In fact, she got so attached to me, she would not let anyone else ride her, and actually backed through a barn door (it was closed and so she splintered it) when Leslie got on her.

One of my favorite memories of Amy is of an early summer morning with the sun rising over the Wabash. Amy was lying down out in the pasture. She allowed me to stretch out with her, propping myself up against her warm body, and we lay in the grass, enjoying the beautiful start to the day.

 I walked all around this mare, and the resemblance to my beloved Amy was uncanny.

 The blaze is a bit wider than Amy's, but the strawberry roan coloring, the blonde/silver mane and tail, the small anklet socks... this horse could be Amy's twin.

 Leslie really wants me to get her and keep her at her farm. Truth be told, I could afford to buy her and to keep her. But time is a real factor plus I don't ride any more. Getting this gal would be more to have her as a pet than anything else.

Still.... I am tempted. She was rescued last year from a man in Indianapolis who had twenty horses on two acres, and they were underfed and doing poorly. Abby (as I call her; although I keep thinking "Amy!!") is twelve and has never been ridden, but she was used as a halter horse for 4-H. When brought to the rescue center, her front hoof was so overgrown and in need of trimming, it had curved under and to the side. They're still working on correcting it back to a normal hoof. But, she gets around really well and gallops around freely.

I cannot get this little mare out of my mind. I have been teary and emotional since I saw her. Should I do it? Should I get her and give her the good home she deserves?  I am certainly thinking about it.

Stay tuned!