progress during the dog days

I had two goals for this summer. First, I wanted to learn to play the 1st Movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. I'm doing OK on that one. I'm about halfway through (to the point where the very slow first section comes back again about 6 minutes into it). I play it at about this guy's tempo, too. Ideally it's meant to be quicker, but I'm happy where I am. I learned the 2nd Movement in the late spring. I've always thought it was one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever heard and still - every time I hear it - I float. I have no idea who this pianist is, by the way. I did a youtube search to find the pieces and he came up. I think he's a very good pianist, so I'm using him as an example. I have no desire to ever put myself playing up on youtube, but am dying to perform for someone. So neighbor M, if you're reading out in the midwest, I'll donate several bottles of wine to your collection if you indulge me.

I adore Beethoven. How can you listen to these pieces and not?

My second goal for the summer was to get into shape. In the past, when I've decided I needed to lose 5-10 pounds, I'd spend a couple of weeks carefully watching my calorie intake and exercising. Well. Apparently I've moved into *that* stage of life. Other than a week vacationing in Colorado, I've been very diligent for a month. And I've lost 3 pounds. Maybe. The good thing is that my legs are strong and I'm feeling and sleeping better. Rather than grouse about how your body and metabolism change as you get older, I'll just need to shift goals to cover the process rather than the outcome, and to have it be a much longer term goal than the summer. I've signed up for a trial run with a personal online trainer with one of the bloggers I follow. She is all about health and muscles and not of the "working for a size 4" variety, so I'm excited. I'm already envisioning myself with bulging biceps and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. A happy side effect of all this work is that my kids have eaten (and enjoyed) the likes of mango, starfruit, and asparagus just in the last couple of days. They still prefer poptarts and hotdogs but give me more time to work on them. They'll be snacking on soy nuts and tofu before you know it. (snort!!!)

P.S. The original Manchurian Candidate sure is a good movie. Frank Sinatra ROCKS.