"My" volleyball team is entering the conference tournament as the 7th seed out of 8. To give an idea how much of a dogfight the race was, 3 teams finished tied for 1st, (10-2)  2 for second, (9-3) team 6 finished 8-4 and then my team was 7-5. Its' next in-conference match? Vs. Lakeland on the road. (We took that squad to a 5-gamer at home earlier this season.) I'm hoping one of the Illinois squads takes it, because in that event, in the D3 tournament an IL squad would be placed in a region other than that with WIAC power squad #2 nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh and the like. (Lakeland's had some extremely tough first round national tournament draws the last couple of years.)

Second of my 2 playing engagements the other day was the better one. (Trumpet section was weaker than usual in the opener-but we made do with who we had.) Believe it or not, I've been playing on the same still-strong reed for some 6-7 months now. Incredible! (Even if I just jinxed it, it's due to be replaced sooner or later, anyway!)