Weekend Report

Alex was home for the weekend from Queen's and it was great to see him.  Z arrived home on the red-eye early Friday morning from Santa Clara, bearing gifts...Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade, LOL!  I received Windows 7 Home Premium for Christmas, so I passed that on to Alex and kept the new one.

On Saturday evening we had tickets for the TSO, and innovative program called Beyond the Score, developed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  It mixes multimedia and live narration with the orchestra and soloist to deliver an entertaining and educational experience around a piece of music.  Saturday night we heard Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 with pianist/conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn (who was fabulous), narrator Peter Oundjian (the TSO's Music Director and Principal Conductor) and actor Paul Gross who voiced the various roles.  The first half of the program was the multimedia program (you can download the Chicago Symphony program here) and then after intermission, we heard the Concerto straight through.  It was a wonderful performance, and a great learning experience.

Before the concert we checked out a French restaurant down the street called Le Saint Tropez. It was quite nice, with very good service.  We shared fish cakes and mussels to start and then Z had lamb shanks and I had tiger shrimp in Pernod.  It wasn't mind-blowing, but a pleasant meal out nonetheless.

Today, was nice and slow.  Choir and mass this morning,  Japanese food at Seoul House with the boys, and then home to push Michael through a science project, which he is still working on.  Alex is gone, and everything has quieted down.