Symphony of the Mouse

Well, first the mouse. Last night when I went over to my parents' house after teaching my evening class, Ji'e'toh (our cat) was acting strange: jumpy and jittery. I just figured something had spooked her. I found out tonight that she had brought a mouse into the house. Likely it was still alive during my visit. At about 4:00 am this morning, Ji'e'toh woke my mom up with some hideous howling: the mouse was finally dead, and I think she was complaining about the broken "toy". My mom was not happy.

Then this afternoon, I was covering one of Fibonacci's regular students. I knew she was in Math 025 and would be in the library lounge around 16:45. I got there around 16:55 (late due to taiji), and looked around for someone with a Math 025 book, not realizing they'd switched books this semester. Eventually I just asked if anyone was there waiting for a tutor (got a 253 taker, but I knew he wasn't the one). Then someone told me she'd just left. I missed her, but the same helpful someone said she (Sally) was headed for the Math Center. So I headed to the math center, and somehow beat her there. Anyway, she got her tutoring in, and was quite pleased.

This evening was ISU's first symphony concert, so I bolted down some food and waited for my mom to pick me up. It was pretty good. The first song (Schumann's Symphony 3 in E-flat major) was strange. Schumann is clearly a German name; all the song labels were German; Schumann wrote the thing in Germany. So can someone explain to me why the music sounded French? The fourth movement sounded vaguely Austrian, but the rest sounded French, not German. I liked the fourth movement better than the rest, but overall I didn't care for it. The second (and last) song was much better. It was Bruch's Concerto for violin #1 in G minor. First off, it's minor. I always prefer minor music. Second, the violin soloist was awesome. Bruch is also German, and his music actually sounded, well, German. Though, strangely, bits and pieces sounded like melodies from Phantom of the Opera. Not sure if that's coincidence or not.