Well, Kent left Chicago and is now in route to China. It will take him about 13 hours to get there. No wonder, look at the route they are taking!

We got up super early this morning to get Kent off to China. He will be there for one week, and then back home. For some reason, I'm a bit more worried this time than I am on other trips he takes. It's probably because of my paranoia about China and all the restrictions they have. I'm not sure if he will be able to call, or Skype. I presume email won't be a problem, although wireless technologies, such as the iPad that he took with him, may be an issue.

At any rate, he installed this really cool software on my Blackberry that will, once the flight takes off, alert me that it is in the air, and will give me the location of where he's at. It looks like this. In fact, this is a screen shot right from my Blackberry of his flight.

Pretty cool stuff.

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra is not the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. But at the concert last night, more times than not, I could close my eyes, and not hear a difference. It was simply outstanding.

I'm not saying the concert did not have flaws. There were some, particularly in the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. The program...

• Bedřich Smetana - "Vltrave" ("The Moldau") from Má vlast ("My Fatherland")
• Jean Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Bedřich Smetana - "Vltrave" ("The Moldau") from Má vlast ("My Fatherland")
This work has always been one of my favorites. The technical problem with this work is that it is more often than not, taken for granted. And, it's performed as such. People think it is a beautiful peace, but there is much darkness and turbulence in this work. And most orchestras gloss over this like it means nothing. Last night, I could hear all of this darkness in stunning clarity with these dark passages rippling through the orchestra without hiding their face to us. This is thanks in no small part to the conductor (I'll get to him in a minute) who paid particular attention to these important elements. And when the light of the sun triumphed over this darkness, it was simply breathtaking. Everything is a comparison to the other and when the sun came out, the excitement that this orchestra gave with this conductor at the helm sent shivers up my spine. The work has a lot of nationalism in it, or pride of country. And I found myself feeling that.

Jean Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
This was an odd experience for me. Right after the Smetana, room was made for Leonid Sigal, the orchestras concertmaster, to perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto. But then they brought out a stool where he would play. They then secured the stool with weights on the feet of the stool. I was thinking, "How strange. He isn't seriously going to sit down and play this work." We all got quiet, and when he came out, he was holding his violin and bow in one hand, and limping out with a cane in the other hand. The stool it seems was to give him something to lean on. There was an injury to his leg and after he secured the cane to the back of the stool, he took his bow. You could see on his face that he was clearly in pain. I thought to myself, "This isn't a good sign. He shouldn't be up there."

Let me make one analogy of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, and something that Beverly Sills said once about "mad scenes" in opera. She was asked about mad scenes. She mentioned scenes in early opera that had some mad scenes, mad scenes in verismo opera where the lead character will go mad, and then she said, "... and then, there's Lucia", referring Lucia di Lammermoor, by Gaetano Donizetti. She put Lucia in it's own category because as she put it, Lucia didn't go mad, she was mad, and had this profound condition from start to end.

I mention this because this is exactly how I feel about the Sibelius Violin Concerto. In the violin literature, there are many violin concertos from the Classical era (1750 to 1820)* that offer their fair share of difficult passages. And then there are the concertos from the Romantic era (1820 to 1920)* that concentrate more on the virtuosity of the violinist. And then, there's the Sibelius, this concerto that towers over the others. It's not the virtuosity of the piece, it's simply to be avoided. In opera, you make a choice. The singer can be extremely virtuostic in terms of sheer notes in a given passage (for example coloratura, which emphasizes lightness, dexterity, and the higher range), or, darker heavier roles, such as Puccini, Verdi, or Strauss. In these works, the sacrifice of the fast moving passages for the singer, are gone. The reason, weight. The weight of the work, both emotionally and on the voice itself, sacrifices dexterity. So too is it with the Sibelius... kind of. The problem is, Sibelius doesn't sacrafice either. It's all there, passages that are just beyond human endurance, and emotional weight in the form of anguished dark moods. You will find hints of sunshine in this work, but it never wins.

In other words, it takes a toll on the violinist both technically and emotionally. Jascha Heifetz approached this work with the technical skill of a surgeon. Technically placed perfectly, yet leaving me unmoved. So last night, I was wondering how Hartford's Leonid Sigal was going to perform this work with his injury. It wasn't long into the work that I realized that he was using the pain to his advantage. The virtuosity was there, and the suffering on his face, from either the music or the pain, was genuine, and they worked with each other. It was an amazing experience to see. He didn't muddle his way through the work, he conquered it. And it was followed by a thunderous standing ovation. This was "our Lenny" after all, and I'm proud that he is with us in Hartford.

Pyotr Ilyish Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
This work is close to my heart. When I was a young lad way back in 1973, I had the wonderful opportunity to tour Europe after I was accepted into America's Youth In Concert. This symphony was one of the works we performed. It was the last work we performed in New York City together, before I said goodbye to so many wonderful friends that I made on the tour. So for years, I went without listening to this work. But now, I'm ok with it. It was performed well, with a few exceptions. I noticed this in the third movement mostly with the very fast spiccato in the strings. They weren't quite together. They had the work under their fingers, so I believe this was a fault of the conductor through these passages. And it was only a couple of passages that I noticed this.

The second movement with the towering horn solo was magnificent. In fact, through this symphony, I must say that what really came through was the the great wind and brass sections of this orchestra. Honestly, they sounded like the renowned brass section from the Chicago Symphony. I put this squarely on the shoulders of the guest conductor last night. Far too often do conductors with string backgrounds (the guest conductor is a violinist) diminish the brass players as though they are second class to strings. You do this at your peril in music. It's a strict partnership and yet, you'd be surprised at how many conductors out there just don't get that. Concerning the second movement, the only criticism I have is that it was a bit too dry, or metronomic, for me. There are times in this movement that you break tempo and let the moment play out. I felt that a few opportunities were missed by "moving on" too quickly, when we should have stayed and savored the moment a bit more.

All in all, I was satisfied with this performance. It wasn't perfect. There were some flaws, but I felt the conductor added much welcomed interest in exposing inner passages here and there that are often just glossed over in recordings. He's on the right path. Those aren't just notes. They are COLOR!

About the conductor, Andrew Grams
The Hartford Symphony is searching for a new conductor. As such, different concerts feature different conductors. So far, Mr. Grams is my first choice. He brings to the podium a youthful energy, respect and appreciation for all sections of the orchestra as equals in a partnership, and his technique is precise and well executed.

I was able to attend his pre-concert talk at 7:00. Most conductors want to talk about the music that will be performed, and how it effects them. Not Mr. Grams. He was more interested about us, the audience, the community, and where we would like to see the Hartford Symphony go in this time of it's life. He made it clear that if he was selected, he would be much more interested on our feedback and what we wanted from the symphony. With that, he said, without that you will never be truly part of the life of this symphony. Brutally honest, and, he's right!

As for the music, he talked very briefly about it but then said (and I'm paraphrasing), "These are well known works. I have my feelings about them, but that's not important, and I'm sure most of you have lived with them through your lives. Each of us must listen to them and hear them in our own ways. And hopefully, I can bring something new to this experience for you." He then opened it up for questions from us. This never happened before. One question that caught my attention was this, "By doing works that are so well known to all of us, aren't you playing it safe by choosing those?" He answered that he didn't get to pick the program with the exception of the Smetana. The program was planned by the Board of Directors with the Sibelius and the Tchaikovsky. He pointed out that guest conductors rarely get to pick the compositions performed for any given orchestra. But they asked him to pick a piece that "wasn't too long." Perhaps this was a test from them to see what he would marry these two works with. He finally also mentioned regarding the question of "playing it safe", that by performing well known works, he confronts people who know these works, and that can be a double edged sword. Very true.

I'm glad I made this effort to drive to Hartford through a snow storm. I got there a bit cold and weary as it was snowing out, bought a glass of wine, took it to my seat with me (yes, they let us do that), and listened to Smetana's The Moldau in a live performance, as I sipped a nice Merlot.

* Note that these date ranges are approximate. You will find that among different sources, they will vary somewhat.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. First and foremost, I'm alive. Life can change for any of us so fast. And most of us take life for granted. I know I won't do that anymore. I've been thinking about all the people this year who have been a big part of my life...

First and foremost, Kent. He is the most amazing human being I know. He was with me through all the bad stuff and continues to be an anchor for me since my operation in June. It hasn't been easy for us, but we've always had each other.

Mom and Dad. They came out last June to help us through everything. At the time I didn't want them to come, but I didn't realize what I was up against. I don't know what we would have done without them.

Austin, my friend who lives in Boston. When I had my angiogram, Kent was in South Africa for a month. Austin came down from Boston to take me to the hospital for the procedure. We have a very solid friendship, but I want him to know that I don't take his generosity for granted. It's good to have a friend you can count on.

Various people at work. I've received a lot of support from people at work. It's honestly been a surprise to me because I didn't think many people at work cared, but the outpouring of support from my coworkers, and especially my boss and management in general, has been overwhelming.

Dawn and Catherine, the RN's at my cardiac rehabilitation program. I thank them for being relentless in pushing me to get stronger. Each session is more difficult than the last and it's been grueling. But, it's paid off. I have more stamina now and probably am in better shape than before the operation.

All the people who sent me cards and well wishes during my recovery. There were hundreds of them - cards and emails. I kept them all to remind me that there are so many people who care.

Tomorrow, we will go to spend our Thanksgiving at Mystic, Connecticut. We stay at the Inn at Mystic, and will have dinner at the Flood Tide Restaurant. They make a great dinner, just like home cooking, and a lot less work. We always have a good time there. We'll come home on Friday and spend a quiet weekend together.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

It was a nice and restful weekend for us. We decided on the spur of the moment to take off Saturday morning and go to Cambridge, Massachusetts. We only stayed for one night, but it was nice to actually get away for a bit.

We stated at The Charles this time. We have a few places we like, but The Charles is right in the middle of Harvard Square with all it's excitement and so many people out collecting signatures for one cause or another.

We had dinner at Sandrine's Bistro in the middle of Harvard Square.

The next day, we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, and headed home. We were home by 2:00p.m. on Sunday and just rested the rest of the day. Sometimes, doing very little is just what the soul needs.

It's been awhile since I last posted. It's not that I've taken time off. I've been really busy with things lately, but all in a good way. We went to Portland, Maine for a long weekend last weekend. It was nice, but the weather could have been better. Then I faced another really busy week at work.

Work... well, it's going much better now than it was. In fact, the IT department (and network infrastructure) is probably in the best shape it's been in in years. It turns out that a changing of personnel was a good thing, although at the time it didn't seem so good. It's funny how sometimes you want to hold on to things that really aren't working that well. You want to hold on to them because you've become accustomed to them. When things change and you reflect on where you are today, you realize that what you had and the way it was arranged really didn't work that well. So, I'm glad that it all happened. I'm glad the department is new.

I'm also glad to have a solid stable job! This graphic was in the Hartford Courant this morning. This is where are state stands on unemployment.

So I feel very fortunate to have a job, and I'm well aware that so many states are far worse off than Connecticut. In fact, Kent and I tell each other several times a week, "We are very fortunate." We don't take it for granted.

We went to the Hartford Symphony last night. We usually go out for a nice dinner beforehand. Last night we went to Max's Oyster Bar. I love the food there and they make killer martinis with olives stuffed with fresh Blue Cheese. The symphony performed...

Mozart - Overture to "The Abduction from the Seraglio"
Beethoven - Symphony No. 8
Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1 (Sirena Huang, violin)
Kodaly ' "Dances of Galanta"

Julian Kuerti was a guest conductor from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was quite an amazing young conductor who brought new life to the orchestra. I was impressed with young violinist Sirena Huang, who performed the Max Bruch g-minor violin concerto. It's a rich, heavy Romantic concerto that demands muscle mass to perform. My history with the concerto is that I also performed it in California, and I conducted the orchestra at the College of Idaho when my teacher, Walter Cerveny performed it, when I was a student in college.

Technically, this 14 year old violinist was there. But the concerto was a bit heavy for her. I would have teamed her up with a Bach or Mozart concerto. Leave the Bruch, the Brahms, and the Beethoven concertos for later when she's more physically and emotionally mature. Other than that, and a small lapse in memory in the third movement, she was quite remarkable. She has a wonderful career ahead of her, if that's what she wants in life.

And just when I thought the Bruch was the highlight of the evening, the orchestra performed Kodaly's Dances of Galanta. The work is filled with land mines of extremely virtuostic passages and fast notes, syncopation, and accuracy that is simply unforgiving. Yet, our local orchestra stacked right up to one the major orchestras. I thought I was listening to the New York Philharmonic! It goes to show you how much difference a conductor can make.

All in all, a wonderful evening.

I was telling a friend this on Facebook. It's where I'm at with religion.

The problem with religion is simple: the religious-minded folks at some point became less interested in "fellowship" and more interested in "condemnation".

Condemnation means condemning those who are unpopular by today's standards. It's no longer cool to refer to African Americans as "Negros" because they may be able to give money to your church. But today's Negros are GLBT folks. It's still open season on us. And that's all the religious folks have left. Ever wonder why they are so hell bent on "defending marriage", all the while they are divorcing at a 50% rate?

They want to keep us down, just like the black folks.

All I'm saying is this... if they can't condemn anyone, what do they honestly have left?

They actually had something for me when they welcomed me.

I say it's a sleepy weekend, because I have nothing in the world that I have to get done. Nothing. And, Kent is away for the weekend in St. Louis. He's on his way home now. So, since Friday night when I left work, I've been on my own.

Friday night...
Stopped by Higashi on my way home for a quiet dinner of sushi and Saki. It was nice to unwind a bit. I came home and watched TV for a bit before going to bed.

Saturday...
Worked around the house a bit in the morning. Decided to go to the mall for a bit to just look around for things I don't have but think I need. Came up empty.

It was getting to be around 7:00p.m. and I decided to drive the rest of the way into Hartford to Hot Tomato's. I usually eat at the bar because I have a friend who works there. We can catch up on things while he's working and I'm having dinner. As it turns out, he was off that night doing a school function with his junior high school age daughter. Cool.

So I decide that as long as I'm there anyway, I might as well have dinner. I was hungry. I ordered a martini straight up with olives. They make the best martinis there. Then I had a simple Greek salad, a few slices of bread with fire roasted tomato butter (was awesome, but I used very little). For dinner, I had their Chicken Saltimbocca, with pan seared chicken breast with thin sliced prosciutto, tomato and fresh sage over mashed potatoes with saltimbooco sauce and garnished with fried spinach. I know it sounds weird having "fried spinach" on it, but it's really quite amazing. I'm still trying to figure out how they do it.

During my entire dinner, this man who was sitting at the other end of the bar was enjoying two things: the basketball game on TV, and me. He kept looking over at me with that look that could only say, "Can we get together maybe?? PLEASE!" I enjoyed my martini before and during the salad, but when dinner came and Mark (the bartender) suggested I have another martini or a nice glass of sturdy Italian wine to go with dinner, I suggested water. If I'm going to be cruised at the bar, I want to at least be in a state of mind that I can enjoy it.

So there I sat, enjoying dinner, sipping on my glass of water, and in between scoring (basketball), this man would look my way. Mark came over and said the guy wanted to be introduced. He said the man asked for my name, and I said, "My name is, thanks, but no thanks."

You know, it's nice that people still find me attractive and all. It's flattering. But sometimes, I really do just want to have dinner. But the Hot Tomato's bar is famous for shall we say, "friendly people". You never know what's going to happen when you go there. One time I went there and a man bought me two dinners, one for while I was there, and he had them prepare me a dinner to go for the next day. He then left, surrounded by four large (as in big boned, not fat) men. When I asked who he was, my friend told me, "...stay clear of them. They are "business men" who look after "their interests". I told the bartender, "I see. Wonder why he was talking to me?" My friend said, "He does this a lot. He likes to talk to people who are friendly and he's quite generous if you are generous enough with your time to talk to him." Still, gives me the creeps. Anyone who needs four body guards (armed I'm sure), can't be into anything good.

I paid for my dinner, but had only half of it. It was quite sinful, but after losing 25 pounds, I think I'm due for a treat. But the thing is, I could actually taste how evil it was. I never used to be able to do that. Progress!

I paid the bill, had them wrap up the other half, and left for my car, taking care to notice that the man at the bar who had the hots for me was not following me. I got home around 8:30, started watching TV, and quickly tired, and went to bed.

This morning...
Wow, I just made the best omelet! I slept in all the way to 9 this morning, after going to bed last night at 9. Awesome. I just looked at what was in my refrigerator... fresh eggs, fresh spinach, a bit of cream cheese, fresh Parmesan, tomatoes, and salsa. Voila!

Not sure about the rest of the day. Might go to a movie. Did some washing this morning, cleaned house a bit. It's a free day. I brewed some Rooibos Tea that is filling the house with this wonderful aroma.

Have a nice day everyone. Rainy here, but I don't care! It's movie day.

Generally speaking, I like the people I work with. It's just that sometimes I need my space. For example...

I love it when I'm at work at 7:30. I come in to try and catch up a bit and organize my day before I actually start at 8:00. I love it when people come in at 7:35 because they see the light on, and want me to drop everything and help them. I reply, "We don't open until 8:00. Please leave a message for the help desk."

I love it when I bring lunch back to the office because I'm swamped with work so I work through my lunch, only to have people come in and ask, while I have a mouthful of food in my mouth, "I need help with something." I say, "I'm on lunch break. Let me call you after that."

I had one person say to that, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought your JOB was to help users." That's rude. I reply, "No, my JOB is to work during business hours to help people like YOU, and whether I like you or not, I will smile while I'm helping you. THAT'S MY JOB! According to Connecticut state law, I am afforded a one hour lunch break. If you don't like that, call your representative and have the law changed."

It seems like the older I get, the more I value "my time". I can deal with the daily pressures of the job, but I really do need my space at times.

There's a cliché that gay people like their gadgets. I don't know if that's true across the board or not, but I think it's true with us.

Yesterday we decided to take a trip to the mall because Kent wanted a wireless mouse like I have for his new Mac. He suggested that we go to Best Buy in the Buckland Hills Mall. Buckland Hills is an "ok" mall, but most of the nicer stores are at Westfarms Mall (a VERY nice mall). I suggested that we go to Westfarms because it has a Mac store, and Buckland does not. I wasn't sure that Best Buy would even have a Mac wireless mouse.

So off we went to Westfarms. We spotted the mouse in no time at the Mac store. But if you own a Mac, and you go to a Mac store, you know that you won't just leave with what you went there for. Neither did we. As we process quite a few pictures, we were curious about this monitor calibration device that we spotted. It looks like this.

Basically, you install the software (calibrates both Windows and Mac screens), plug in the device, and it walks you through the set up. It's sensitive to the light in the room as well, so if your light changes, you will have to re-calibrate. Why go through all of this? Because if your screen is not calibrated correctly, what looks to be the true color of the photo, and what the real true color of the photos is, could be very different values. This is why you will enhance a photo from your digital camera so that it looks perfect on your screen. You will then send it off to get a print made, only to be disappointed with the color change. That's because your monitor is not reflecting the true colors of the photo.

We'll see how this all works out. We should have left at that point. But Westfarms Mall also has this tea store that smells so good. They offer teas that you just can't get anywhere else. So we strolled down to their store. It's called Teavana. Of all the teas, we decided to go with these two teas...

We haven't had the Jasmine yet, but the Rooibos (from Africa) is amazing. Of course, we don't have a tea set, and when they taught us how to truly make tea, it became clear that we really had to have a proper tea set. This is what we bought.

For some reason in Asian culture, you always but a set of five. I don't know why. Perhaps it's bad luck to have an even number? So the set consists of five tea cups (porcelain on the inside and cast iron on the outside), five tea leave saucers, a holder for the stand that holds the warming plate (where you put the candle inside) for the teapot, the warming plate, and the teapot.

This is what the assembled set looks like.

We escaped the store with a nice tea set, which we are enjoying on this cold snowy day, along with the bill of $452.03 for the set.

Bottom line, stay away from Westfarms Mall!

We have both been doing great on our diets. I've lost 20 pounds and Kent has lost 15 pounds. I'm cooking super healthy now. Our meals consist first and foremost of LESS FOOD. That doesn't mean we go hungry. I use more healthy food -- greens, vegetables, and the like. I really watch the sugar and fat content of everything. I usually make our food for the week on Sunday.

Today that will consist of a pasta salad, that will have whole grain pasta, tossed with various herbs, juice of two lemons, olive oil, and some chopped peppers. I make one batch that goes into a refrigerator container. Then, throughout the week, I will serve a small amount of that as an accent part of the meal, with just a small bit of Parmesan on top for flavor. It's low fat and tastes great. Another low fat food you can add is tofu. It's great because it's low in fat and almost 100% protein.

I also made some turkey slices last night with a wild mushroom sauce with capers. That has a bit of fat in it, but the portion is low. I served that with whole grain barley (it's actually quite good and very high in fiber), and an asparagus salad. For that I steamed asparagus until just tender. Be careful not to overcook asparagus. It's easy to do. I then took the hot asparagus and placed it immediately into a dish that had lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, pepper, a dash of salt, and a bit of white wine (never use wine in cooking that's not good enough to drink on it's own!). It's important to put the asparagus in hot so that it will absorb the lemon juice and other ingredients. It then goes into the refrigerator for 3-4 four hours. Every hour or so, take it out and gently make sure that it is all getting marinaded in the juice. I took mesclun greens tossed with a bit of low fat lime dressing (very little bit), placed that on each plate, and then laid out the chilled asparagus over it. It was delicious and very low fat.

Have a nice rest of the weekend. I'm going for more tea.