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Family update ... nothing here for anyone else. :-)

School starts after Labor Day, so right now is time for both last-minute summer activities and getting ready for autumn. One of the to-do items is auditions for next year's various musical groups. Last week, Sabrina auditioned to get into the Garfield Jazz A band. As anyone who reads this blog probably knows, I go on and on about how good they are. Which they are.

She already plays in the Garfield Orchestra. This year the orchestra is going to Japan (and possibly also for a short swing through China), in addition to all their normal travels. So the mom and I were kind of ambivalent about the jazz band thing. The A jazz band travels to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho and to the Reno Jazz Festival. Last year they also went to the Essentially Ellington Festival in NYC, as noted before. And Acox, the director, has been making noise about going to Europe again, which the A band does every few years.

The prospect of paying for all these trips has been a little worrisome. That, and the time! Between orchestra rehearsals and band gigs, when would Sabrina ever get around to doing homework? She's not exactly a star at time management as it is.

But that decision has been made for us. Acox sent me email over the weekend indicating that Sabrina had indeed made it into the A band. Whatever the costs in time and money, I guess it's just too terrific an opportunity for her to pass up. Acox also indicated that he was willing to put Zack into the A band. But Zack had already decided that his senior year schedule left him no room for jazz band, what with physics, calculus, and a couple of AP classes. And his continuation of "Auto-Tech" a.k.a. auto shop. I'd normally be pretty skeptical about that, but he'll end up fulfilling his occupational educuation (Occ-Ed) credits, so I can't complain. Plus he's the one who crawls under the cars for oil changes, fine by me.

As if Sabrina didn't have enough to do already, today she auditioned for the Seattle Youth Symphony. She's been playing in one level or another of that sprawling organization for about 5 years, I think it is. The last two years she tried for "Big Youth," as we call it. Alas, last year, her best shot yet, a couple of college kids came in and filled the open slots. But the orchestra graduated its entire clarinet section last year (bye-bye, college kids!), so Sabrina thinks she's got a good shot this year.

We won't know about that for a few weeks. In the meantime, the mom and the kids are running off to Oregon for a week. The nominal reason is to "look at schools," but I don't think either kid is seriously interested in going to OU or OSU. But there is that tax-free shopping that one can take advantage of whilst visiting our southern neighbor-state. And it is time, after all, for some school clothes ...