The trip to Alberta last weekend was wonderful, restful and all those good things. Zach seems to be doing ok in his temporary existence in Calgary. Anyways, he's still the same wonderful person. My family is great, and my cousin's kids have somehow changed from little children to grade-schoolers in a moment. Time moves so quickly for kids, I wish I could see them every week to watch them grow up.

Also, in Calgary, I fell in love. Don't worry, Zach already knows. In fact, he introduced me. We went to this music store based on its website, and discovered that it's actually just a guy selling instruments out of the basement of his house. There was this mandolin gleaming on the wall. It even looks like it sounds nice. It's way more than I was planning to spend on a mandolin, and I dutifully inspected all the cheaper ones, but really this is the one I want, and musical instruments trancend the rules of regular possessions. Don't they? Here is a picture of my darling.

So far, I've written the email asking to buy it, but haven't sent it yet. Maybe tonight.

In the meantime, I will finish drinking my coffee, which tastes like pee, and go about my fiddle-teaching.