Grand Finale�

I just booted up my new Finale to try to copy a short piece by Faur� and transpose it for one of my students, and I experienced total frustration because a) it is not like the version I have been using for the past seven years and I couldn�t get anything to work at first to the point where I was pounding my fists on the desk and swearing quite loudly at the computer, using words I do not usually use, and b) the arrow keys on the new keyboard are not laid out in a nice straight row as they are on my old keyboard, and I kept skipping to the next measure when all I wanted to do was go up to the next line or space. I know I�ll get used to it eventually, but this transition is driving me nuts.

Before Latin this morning Little Princess and I drove out to La Cartoucherie to exchange the �defective� ink cartridge I purchased there on Saturday. I told the lady behind the desk that I had been in contact with the Eps0n help desk and had been told to replace it, that the metal contact may be corrupted with grease or something, and so that�s what I was doing. She looked at it and asked me what kind of printer I had. I told her. She said, �But this isn�t the correct cartridge for that printer.� Sure enough, the guy on Saturday had given me the wrong cartridge. The packaging is similar, it fit in the printer no problem, but the information the printer got was wrong, and it registered an empty space instead of a filled on. The correct cartridge cost $2 more, which I paid, plus tax, and this afternoon when I returned home I installed it, and am pleased to report that all conditions are go.

Speaking of Latin, I got back last week�s take-home test, with 60/70, which is not too bad, considering I made some real bloopers (damned gerundives!) and I managed to get caught up on the Ovid we�re translating at lunchtime with Oliver�s notes. I was so caught up in my homework that I glanced at my watch when my 2:00 p.m. student arrived for lunch and realized that it was exactly 1:00 p.m. and I was supposed to be teaching at that exact moment. I stuffed my Latin into my knapsack and ran back to the music department as quickly as I could, arriving only five minutes late. So, all was not lost.

On the way to Toronto, Hubby and I listened to the recording of our blues concert on the car�s CD player, and I�m sorry to report that while the band got picked up quite well by the house microphones, I did not. My voice was amplified by the house system, which feeds directly into the hall, and the microphones picked up the sounds issuing forth from the amplifiers of the other players (the drums don�t need any help in that department). There are a few good numbers where I�m not being overpowered by my fellow musicians, and I will find a way to upload them so you can hear them too. Bear with me, I�m not too savvy at this technology.

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