Two Buddies, No Bike? Ah well, Quack Attack prevailed anyways!

As usual I have been quite the busy bee. Per che posso! I suppose it is my nature, even though I have been attempting to devote more time to practicing, running, and riding Max. So here's the rundown (eventually I'll get back to that point where I'm writing more than every 2 weeks and can do better than an itemization)

1) Last weekend (11 July) started on Friday with my typical pilgrimage down to The County to go to the River Concert. This concert featured Brian Ganz (il Gnoccho!!) and Giuseppi Nova- the head of the SMCM Italian Music counterpart. He brought along a couple of the staff I met in Italy. Brought back memories, and more power to them for wearing a suit in the oppressive heat of a SoMD summer. I found that my command of the Italian language is not nearly as proficient when used domestically. The college was beautiful as always and the musician after-party was a glorious reunion.

2) 12-13 July I travelled to Richmond for MUDDY BUDDY!!! FANTASTIC time. Unfortunately, Team Quack Attack had a bike malfunction in the first minute of the 7 mile race. What was supposed to be 2 buddies, one bike, quickly morphed into 2 buddies, four feet. Kate and I ended up running the whole thing, but we finished! My run time was actually pretty good, 7 miles in just under an hour including obstacles (climbing and balance beams). And of course the Mud Pit you had to army crawl through was GLORIOUS. Check out the pics: http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?S=20&EVENTID=36760&PWD=&BIB=1405&DIVISION=&TEAM= This event lead to my new aspiration to form a Ragnar Relay Team for the end of September (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/) and also an Eco-Triathalon - return of Team Quack Attack! Eco-tri's consist of running, biking, and kayaking.

<--Before -->After--> 3) Last week was fairly uneventful. Mainly highlighted by another awesome snare lesson with Joe McCarthy (principle percussionist in the Navy Band.) Friday I headed down for another River Concert and mostly just wandered around and chatted with people (OK that's what I do every week in reality.)

4) Saturday 19 July I had to wake up REALLY early and go from St. Mary's to Owings Mills (by 9Am) for an all-day drumline rehearsal. Then returned quickly back to DC afterwards to prepare for the 212 Rhode Island Moonbounce Party. Really there was no moonbounce, but the party was awesome and lots of people showed up. The highlights:

a) I got to wear my kitch Italian LBD (mentioned in an earlier blog) that was an utterly unfounded splurge, but is awesome nonetheless.

<-- Me, Steph, and Sam- the 212 RI NW Moonbounce Team b) Mark drinking a fifth of Captain (with some help from BJ) in the 45 min before he left to see Poison

c) Chapman telling me that I am utterly and completely Batshit Crazy, but cool, because of my random activities (he was three 40's of OE into the evening and we all knew I was Batshit already!)

d) Sten and Chapman deciding it was a good idea to play the Electric Shock game. This is a REAL game from Spencer's (http://www.spencersonline.com/fun-and-games_shocking-games/lightning-xtreme-shock-game/). This predictably culminated in Chapman shocking Sten's face and Sten making a jab at Kevin's cahones

5) Sunday spent my entire day running and then practicing

I've been fairly boring lately, but trying desperately to spend some quality time practicing for auditions (coming up in October) and memorizing Baltimore Ravens' music (1st pre-season game Aug 16.) I swear I will make these entries more frequent and interesting soon!