It's wonderful that he is thinking about playing afterwards, but I have a feeling that once it's done, he's going to see the wisdom of getting his exercise in just watching the others play. He may the one in a million that could breeze through the whole thing. Let's hope he's smart enough to take it easy.

Oh, there was someone talking about a basketball court- let me see if i can find it! I'm pasting the answers, cuz it was part of a very long thread- if you're looking for it, it was on Garden Restoration Forum. They also talked about spongepainting a patio- but i don't know if they were serious. This was a really good thread, talking about how to get a garden ready for a garden tour. RE: 500 Passengers Set Sail That Day For A Three Hour Tour.... Posted by: ginger_nh z4 NH (My Page) on Mon, Feb 9, 04 at 8:56 Margie- Do your boys still use the basketball court? What are you going to do with it? I have an article somewhere that I saved - a gardener laid down gravel on a blacktop basketball court, planted some groundcover sedums but basically used the area for a container garden - it was magnificent. Also, Beth Chatto's famous English gravel garden was built on a blacktop parking lot. But you probably already know these things. G. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: 500 Passengers Set Sail That Day For A Three Hour Tour.... Posted by: Cady 6b MA (My Page) on Mon, Feb 9, 04 at 10:08 Momcat and Ginger,I used pea gravel to "get rid of" a concrete parking pad and some extra driveway I don't use. It makes a big difference in appearance. And, it's easy to take care of. You can put planters on it, benches, anything. A leafblower and rake removes the organic debris that inevitably ends up there, and any weeds that try to get in there are easy to remove.

Heh! One of our coaches got back from there in time for my party last night. One of his young student's parents flew him to the Open to coach. Nice work! We got a ping pong table in time for the party and had some of the best players in the area here. Lots of fun!

You all are so great! cat tail, your lessons sound like what DD's teacher says -- that there's a right way and a wrong way...and I completely hear you about being bummed about how you *used* to be able to play - that precise feeling is what's keeping me from really sitting down and practicing again. I just can't do what I used to be able to do...sounds like the "old man" in "Man smart, woman smarter" LOL So it looks like I'm going to be shopping for a new teacher. DD's teacher does have a lot to recommend her, seriously--she is great at explanation, infinitely patient, has amazing pitch (more nuanced than mine, and I was told mine was extremely good (relative perfect, but that's not the same as being able to hear intra-tone sharp/flatness), even though I was a pianist LOL)--I've vetoed a fair number of other teachers because of their demeanor. This dear woman is SO patient and yet so good at explanation and guidance -- we do owe it to her that DD has come so far so fast and developed the enthusiasm she has. I don't want to kill the love of music by getting her with an 'old school' demanding career-focused teacher...she almost definitely won't go into this professionally (she's not a real in-the-blood musician like I am--memorized all of Beethoven's 5th to sing straight through at age 5--didn't think that was odd until I had a kid LOL), but I want her to have a long-lasting love of music forever. We'll take it step by step and make sure that any new teacher focuses on love and enjoyment in addition to technique. And now I've started digging around the web, thanks to harriet's link...I found something interesting on a *sax* discussion group, of all places--thought I'd share it: -------------------- "The conventional pedagogical wisdom about flute vibrato seems to be that you initially teach it as a pulsation of the abdominal muscles, which, with time and practice, somehow magically moves up into the throat. What is always unclear in this explanation is what, exactly, is moving in the throat to cause vibrato? The true vocal folds? The false vocal folds? The muscles of the neck? Part of the tongue? I find both the abdominal and the throat explanation to be dubious at best. I tend to believe the theory that the pulsation comes from the intercostal muscles, the ones between your ribs. This theory seems to be strangely unpopular with many flutists, though it is not new and is pretty well documented (see Putnik's 1970 The Art of Flute Playing, for one source)." ----------------------------- So now here's a *third* option...guess that book is my next stop, along with more web searches...