PROGRESS REPORT

My hand is not very pleased with me right now because I had to do 44 progress reports for my swimming classes from yesterday afternoon to this morning. Ouch. But outside of a few checkmarks or comments here and there I am finished for another session. This is the last week of the current one and then we start a new one next week; it will last 7 weeks, bringing us into early June. And then I'm taking 5 weeks off so we can go on vacation and all of that. Yay.

Anyway, I thought I've give a quick progress report on what else I've been up to the past week or so. Between the time change and going back to work and the death of one of our former drama kids, last week kinda got away from me.

I'm still working through The Empire of Ice Cream. I've now read 10 stories, leaving 4 to go. It's been great and I'm sad to see the book come to an end but the new David Mitchell, Black Swan Green, is due out tomorrow and I can't wait to sink my teeth into that one.

I also took some time out to read Seven Soldiers Vol. 2 and Ex Machina: Fact v. Fiction - reviews coming in the near future (at least that's the plan), as well as a story and the book reviews in the Apr. issue of F&SF (I have to finish that and then have the May issue and the June issue of Asimov's).

I picked up the new Flaming Lips last week and am eagerly awaiting the new Built to Spill and Calexico that come out tomorrow. I also used up the rest of my eMusic downloads for the period, picking up the Iron and Wine/Calexico EP (why didn't anyone tell me how great it was), Elliott Smith's Either/Or (followed a link on a whim), and another Brendan Benson track I didn't have (a McCartney cover).

The bass has been going pretty well. Graham came over and taught me a few things last Thursday and I now realize I need to think of it in terms of what notes are where. Makes sense, I know, but I needed to get that into my head. We also started writing a song together, which was cool. I'm also aiming for my open mic debut on April 21 - I will play guitar and sing a couple songs. Less than 2 weeks!

I've also been watching baseball. Of course. The Sox are off to a slower start than last year but I'm confident they will find their rhythm.

That's about it...