Yesterday walking with Elizabeth and Jeremy, a young man called to us from across the street. I recognized him as Nathan Walker. He is a friend of mine and an excellent musician I have played with in the past. He is now attending U of M and is pursuing a performance music major in double bass.  He and his companion crossed the street and gave me a big hug and chatted us up a bit.

Seeing him home from school reminded me that he is another in a growing list of people who reach out to me and value my work as much as I value theirs. While I have subsisted very well locally for many years with little of this, having it is sweet.

Yesterday was a pretty relaxed day. Eileen had to work. Elizabeth, Jeremy and I played santa elves and went to Meijers and bought a bunch of stocking stuffers for upcoming family visitors. We checked on Mom and got hugs. Then had a nice (in reality it was excellent) pizza lunch together at a relatively new downtown restaurant.

I did manage to stay on track with practicing and treadmilling.

More family arrive today (my brother Mark and his wife Leigh). As you can imagine we are madly prepping for them to arrive.

Also I have an appointed to get my new front tooth at 11 AM.

Life is good.

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Charles Durning, Character Actor in ‘Tootsie,’ Dies at 89 – NYTimes.com

I loved this guy’s work especially in Coen brother movies.

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Museum Seeks to Update Thomas Mann for Age of Texting – NYTimes.com

I didn’t even know Thomas Mann had a literary brother. Fascinating description of the Mann museum and well as the Gunter Grass museum.

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Corrupt Chinese Officials Draw Unusual Publicity – NYTimes.com

Evidence of possible change in China.

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Barack Obama needs to explain drone strikes – Hina Shamsi and Vincent Warren

Another argument for transparency around drones. We kill our own citizens. Children.

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Blame for Our Record on Treaties – NYTimes.com

Letters regarding this. First one was from the inimitable Representative Barney Frank (who was also profiled on the PBS News Hour last night).

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