7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 48

~1~

I realized this week that I have to up date my vocabulary. Well, I don't have to, but I was watching my boys walk around their playroom and I sadly concluded that it was time. They are no longer babies. Time to start calling them toddlers.

But, of course, they will always be my babies. [Shhhh! Don't tell them that.]

~2~

4:45 AM is very early. Especially when you don't get to bed until midnight. And I tried, I really did! I tried so hard to get to bed earlier. Dang! 4:45 AM is E-A-R-L-Y.

~3~

And why did I get to bed so late? I think I have a problem. Here it is: I must do all laundry before packing for a trip. Any trip. Even one that is only 3 days short. Does anyone else do this? And it wasn't just making sure that I had everything I needed. I even did the boys' laundry and I didn't need to pack for them. Just me. I'm the only one on this trip. Anyone else have this need to do all the laundry before packing?

~4~

Thursday's early morning start was because of a plan to leave around 6 AM to drive to one of the suburbs on the west side of Chicago and get there in time for meetings at 1 PM ... central time, thankfully. We left slightly later than planned, but made good time. Even with two stops (breakfast and lunch), we got to the hotel and into our meetings just after 1:00. I was quite impressed with us.

We/us, by the way, would be myself and a colleague, we were traveling together.

~5~

Let me tell you one problem with traveling with a colleague, especially one that you like. You start talking and you forget to look at the gas gauge. Yep, that would be me. Luckily, we did not run out of gas. But there we were on I-80 when I looked down and saw the needle right at "E" and my little gas light on. I about panicked! Did it just come on? Has it been on for a while? I had no idea! And why is it there are gas stations everywhere except when you need one? We had just crossed into Illinois and I took the first exit I saw that looked promising (no gas/food/lodging signs anywhere). I think we were driving on fumes because I put 10.3 gallons in my little car. I think it has an 11 gallon tank. I am just so thankful we found a gas station when we did!

Correction: While talking to Hubby last night he informed me that the car does not have 11 gallons in it. It has 10.5. Definitely driving on fumes. Eeek!

~6~

After my afternoon meeting I had a break and ran into some professional colleagues in the hotel lobby. Right away I was asked for updated pictures of the boys. They got passed around and everyone started asking me the usual questions. Then someone asked me how I could be away from such cuties for this conference. I impressed myself with my response:

"It's hard, but I can leave them because I know my husband is great and does a great job with them."

And the best part is that it is all true. He is a great dad and takes great care of them when I have to be away. I'm a very lucky girl.

~7~

Thursday evening of this conference is always put on by the local group hosting us. This year they brought in a professor of the steelpan as well as a composer who is on faculty at one of the local universities. The presentation on the steelpan was amazing. And then to see snippets of the concerto the composing faculty member wrote was equally amazing. I thought it would be fun to close out this Quick Takes with a clip from you tube of Liam Teague and his amazing steelpan playing. The steelpan is a much more versatile instrument than even I knew. So here's Liam on steelpan playing a traditional western European piece arranged for steelpan:

For more Quick Takes, don't forget to go visit Jen at Conversion Diary.