I’m sitting in the living room, vaguely irritated, either from the diet coke switch or from lack of exercise, of which I can’t tell. Or maybe neither. I’ve had three cups of coffee already, but I’m forcing myself to take a day off from working out because yesterday I struggled on the treadmill and I could tell my body could use a break. Now I’m close to bouncing off the walls. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go for a walk after M and S get home.

So last night we attended the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s concert. I had a great time, and I think M did as well. She said, as we were leaving, that she felt like she had done something “grown up”. Now, as some of you know, thirteen, fourteen years back, when we lived in the Wrigleyville or Roscoe Village neighborhoods (we moved) of Chicago, we had a Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription. The tickets weren’t expensive; six dollars a person per concert for the worst seats in the house. However, we were so broke we’d take the bus to the concerts so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking. Last night was much different. First, we went out to dinner beforehand, Milwaukee Ale House, although I felt like an idiot in my tie. I’m convinced I don’t wear formal clothes well. Still, dinner was great. With time to kill we stopped by my office and picked up my suit jacket before driving downtown. With Chicago in the back of my mind I expected to drop fifteen bucks on parking before walking four blocks through a blistering wind. Of course, I forgot we were in Milwaukee, where we paid five bucks to park in a garage adjacent to the concert hall. And by “adjacent” I mean “a heated skywalk that connects the two buildings.” Rock and roll. We hung out in the lobby for a few minutes before finding out seats, up near the top of the hall but not at the very top, as we can afford more than six bucks a concert these days. Our row and the rows behind us were about 80% full but the three rows ahead of ours were empty. We conferred with nearby patrons and decided our row was the cutoff of the price range. In Chicago, if my memory serves me well, empty seats were scarce to the point of nonexistence. Once the concert started people spread out into the empty rows and we had room to stretch. Awesome. Now, the MSO may not be the greatest symphony in the world but there is no substitute for live classical music and the orchestra knew what they were doing. I hope they have enough funding to continue for a long time. I liked the first piece (Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto, which Maura said she recognized from cartoons) but the second piece (Mahler’s fourth symphony) bored me. You know what I loved? Intermission. I like standing in the third floor lobby and looking down on the cars passing in the street. We have four more concerts in the series and I’m looking forward to them all.

We arrived home near 10:30. I drove Calvin the babysitter home, slipped him forty bucks, and read for a while before falling asleep on the couch. T came down near 6 so I stumbled upstairs and slept for a couple more hours. After waking I made coffee and took a shower. As mentioned above I decided not to work out today. M and the boys attended church without me. I cleaned, showered, and set up D and D. We were delayed slightly due a lack of ten-sided die tragedy but the adventure went well. Later M took S to a party, then left to shop/work, so T, N and I have hung out all day. We watched some football and finished “Get Smart”. Well, T and I did, N drew and played on the computer. I tried to read some Vowell but the kids kept interrupting me, so I fired up the computer, checked the scores, and started writing. I’ll probably get everything ready for tomorrow, take a bath, and hit bed with a book early. I want to get up early to lift and work out in the morning. Good night.