It's hard to shop online for clothes with a lcd monitor - Just tilt the screen a little and the shirt has a totally different color...

-Kirk

I think it's funny when people sit at a table in sitcoms. They just use the sides of the table that face the camera.

-Kirk

People with English accents still make me swoon.

-Kirk

Finding Sarah (like Nemo, but not)

Hi all,

Hope all's well and you've had a great weekend. Quite a few things that have been on the mind as of late...

Like usual, during the day, I have these nifty thoughts that I wanted to share. But the thoughts come and go, and then I'm left with just the frustration of trying to remember what the hell it was I was going to write about... So I bought this voice recorder thingy to help capture my thoughts...

What makes me think that I'll use it more than I did my PDA when I thought I'd use it to capture blog ideas during the day? Iono. It made more sense when I was at the store trying to convince myself that I needed to get one. The recorder's pretty slick though. Maybe I could use it for class instead :) Bonus!

So the magic Sarah McLachlan CD has been found! Obviously I was on something to conjure up the idea of where I put the CD in the first place... I had the vision that I had it together with my John Mayer CD and I left it somewhere. As you might have read before, I found my John Mayer CD (in my car) and the Sarah CD was in the country home next to kitchen radio. No idea how it got there. No idea why I was so certain that the two CDs were together lost somewhere in the house.

The funny thing was that I did check by the kitchen radio (where there are stacks of CDs). Honest. I must have put it there the night I got back from the rave. Or something. ;)

Needless to say, I was quite happy when I found it. I was going to buy a new cd to replace it.

So let's see. Friday was a pretty slow day at work. I got hella work done though, so I was quite happy. Hopefully Brizzai will think so too.

In the evening, I went to the alternative 10 year reunion of my friends from high school. So just for a few points of clarification. The official one was the weekend of Thanksgiving. But since lots of people are out of state (or so I thought), one of my friends wanted to get a group together the day after Christmas to try to catch everyone that was home for the holidays.

We had about 21 people or so? Much smaller crowd, and this time, I knew everyone :) We were at D'Amato's in the RO so it was pretty cool. Fairly close, and the fare was aiight. We were supposed to eat at 7 p.m., but there was no way I was going to make it until 7 without eating. So I just ate dinner at home, and had an appetizer. Crab cakes baby!

So anyway, everyone looked good. I guess we've aged like fine wines ;) hahaha. For real though, some people looked pretty damn good. ;)

Some people I've not seen in 10 years, others I saw this past June.

Like at the official reunion, we were all professional people or still in school. A few soon to be doctors too :)

A few were married, one lady had a baby on the way, etc.

I think the funniest thing was that there were a few of us still in the area. And we didn't even know it. I guess I kind of thought that everyone had moved out of state. There were quite a few that had, but there were still a few people lurking around the hometown as well :) Hopefully we'll be able to get together and chill sometime.

On Saturday, I went with my mom to see my aunt and uncle in Saginaw. The car ride that seemed to take days when we were yonger had been boiled down to 1.25 adult hours ;) Imagine that. We had some really good sushi for lunch. :)

On the way back, my mom and I stopped at the outlet shopping for (what I thought) would be a quick 1 or 2 store shopping session. About 6 stores later, we were on our way home. Heh.

After dinner, the online gaming started - My brother and I drifted our asses off (raced too) on NFS Unleashed. So much fun. Kind of a pain to get everything started, but once we got the kinks worked out, gameplay was pretty good.

Today I paid my bills for the month. Nuttiness. Happy holidays to my credit card companies ;) Heh.

I was reading the paper earlier this morning, and in the Entertainment section there was a recap of this year's best and worst by one of the staff writers. I guess I must have shite taste in my entertainment selections, because the stuff that I listen to and watch hardly made the lists! (sigh) I guess I'm just not hip ;)

-Kirk

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone!

2003 is drawing to a close. Only a few more days left.

So let's see, when did I last leave you?

Work is still work. Brizzai was nice enough to let me work only half the day on Chirstmas Eve. I guess it's my consolation prize for having to work tomorrow :P Yes, it's true. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll be trying to get some stuff done, that's for sure.

I've been on the Playstation binge again. Mark sent me Need For Speed Underground so I have been trying to win some reaces (to make money) and rice out my Mazda Miata to get it ready for online racing :) Heh.

Last night I met up with Steve and Elizabeth to do the present exchange thing, and play some PS2. We were participating in the DDR craze :) As an added bonus, we tried using the dance mat to play other games :)

I'm trying to convince them to join in the Need for Speed Underground craze ;)

So we got our white Christmas today. I guess we were lucky. Just light enough where a hand shoveling was enough. Didn't have to bring out the heavy machinery... I was hoping that I'd find a few storesopen (because I was bored), but I was no such luck. Oh well.

Such a lazy day. I think I am going to have some apple sauce.

-Kirk

Hi all,

Hope all's well this evening.

Suzy's in town, and she was nice enough to drive an hour or so to come visit me after work. It was very good to see her. I miss all my friends that I only get to see once a year. I wish they all lived closer to me.

I know, I have to make an effort to see them too. I've just been too lazy and kind of cheap. Plus, I'm a little light on the vacation. I know, I know, excuses excuses, right? ;)

Today, the day flew by at light speed. Craziness.

I realize that I have thoughts during the day that I want to blog about, but I keep on forgetting about them. I don't really want to walk around with a nerdy PDA though, to jot stuff down. I should learn to use my voice recording feature on my phone better. Maybe that'll help me remember stuff.

Just a few things that I remembered...

So when I was applying for school, I had to go to the local community college (where I took the summer Philosophy class) and order my official transcript. At the cashier's window, there were 1.5 to 2 inch think pieces of clear plastic window / partition separaing the employees and the students. I felt like I was at a pawn snop (or visiting someone in prison). Banks used to be all closed off like that, but they got rid of the partitions over time.

Anyway, it's weird having to talk to people through the thick sheets of plastic. I felt like I had to talk into the cracks for the people on the other side to hear them. I guess I was listening close to the cracks to hear the people as well.

Now that's what I call customer servuce ;)

Nuttiness.

Anyway...

to me, love is kind of funny. When you're in love, you feel like you're walking on air and all is good with the world. Once you get hurt by it, you feel like utter shit. As an added bonus, the feeling lasts for a long time. Does it ever get easier?

-Kirk

Hi all,

How's it going?

I can't believe the weekend is over. Just like that. For a second this evening, I was thinking that it felt like a Saturday.

Alas, it's not.

Anyway... Why is it sometimes that I have really kickass conversation, and sometimes I just suck at it? Am I just not a good conversationalist? I realize it's a two way street, but I think I was a little off today or something. I had some phone conversations where I felt the same way.

Either that, or my life is boring enough that I have nothing to talk about when people ask what I've been up to.

Ugh.

So today I got a bonus visit with Helen. I made some CDs for her and so I went over to her parent's house to drop them off. Afterwards I met up with Drew for some late lunch. We did some light shopping. I picked up a new PS2 game too.

Oh yeah, I forgot to report yesterday that I finally got my school books for next term. Scary, huh. The books look all nice and new. Hopefully they'll be interesting :) I'm that closer to going back to school now. Once I step into the classroom is when I'll feel totally back in school. I hope I can do the whole part time student thing.

-Kirk

Wow.

Words cannot describe how cool this is...

This is by far the best Asian movie I've ever seen...

Asian Kung-fu movie meets Matrix meets hip hop :)

Volcano High.

-Kirk

Ugh. I'm scared.

I was at a record store today, and was looking through their advertisement circular. I was horrified to see that Sarah Mclachlan's Afterglow CD was listed under "Adult Contemporary." Scary.

-Kirk

Hi all,

Hope the weekend is going well for you. I can't believe Saturday's pretty much over. Kind of a bummer.

It's been quite the day though. Loved every minute of it. Well for the most part.

My good friend (from high school and Undergrad) Helen was in town, and we spent the majority of the day together. I only get to see her about once a year, and I don't realize how much I miss her until I see her.

We had a long leisurely lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant, Bravo. We were there for over 3 hours :) We outlasted quite a few tables too ;) But it was so nice. I can't remember the last time I've had that long of a lunch with someone. Especially in a time where all my lunches are pretty much limited to an hour, requiring a quick drive there and back, with quick chow down eating. Minimal time to enjoy the eats and the dining experience. I'm all about the experience :)

If I can't convince you to check ot Bravo, then maybe the focaccia bread with special sun dried tomato olive oil might sway you ;)

So good.

Anyway, we also got to do some light shopping around the outdoor shopping mecca adjacent to the restaurant. The stores were busy, but not silly busy. So we'll see if the economy's really turning up.

Today I had a doctor's appointment, and the nurse that I was talking to said that she thought that all of the reports of the economy getting better were all just hype to mislead people into believing the economy's getting better. She was saying that all of the places that she had gone shopping were no busier than normal. Huh. Maybe I'm shopping in the wrong places? I've definitely noticed increased traffic, but I don't know if there's an increase in buying.

Anyway, enough political stuff. Back to the visit...

So after the shopping mecca (including a trip to the Gap of course) we went to the city home to chill and exchange Christmas gifts. And best of all...

We went curling afterwards. :)

One of the guys at work (the one who invited me to join the class) was getting a group of people together to play a few ends of curling. It turned out that he was having trouble filling 2 spots, so he asked if I would be interested. I wanted to get Helen to try it (and she was interested in trying it), so everything worked out well.

We curled for about an hour and a half and went home. It was so much fun - I think she enjoyed it. We did well too. The score was 9 to 5!

So yeah, that was that.

After getting home, I was kind of saddened when I saw a Christmas card / letter from one of our long time family friends. I was very happy to hear from them, but I was kind of bummed when I saw the picture that was enclosed. That's when I realized that my parents and their friends are getting older.

The mental image that I have of our friends is from many years ago, when they lived relatively close by and we still saw them on a regular basis (mostly during the holidays). I guess my mental image just never got updated (since I haven't seen them for a while) so I was surprised when I saw them in the picture. My brother and I are kind of named after their kids.

They always give neat and thoughtful gifts. They are the ones who sent me that really nice bag as a graduation gift. I still have that bag in my closet, because I think it's too nice for me to use. I know, it sounds stupid, but I guess I'm not sure exactly what I'm saving it for either.

I guess it just reminded me that for the most part I'm comfortable with my own mortality, but not anyone elses.

-Kirk

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

So I thought the end of the year would make stuff at work slow down.

Umm, that would be a no. I've been pretty busy. Craziness.

Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to get a truckload done while most of the group is out during the next two weeks :)

-Kirk

Hi everyone,

Here we are again, it's late, and once again I'm late for bed ;) (heh - I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!)

Today I went to get my yearly checkup at my osteopathic doctor's office. The trip took an hour longer than anticipated - He spent a really long time with the patient in the next room. But the nice thing was that he spent a pretty long time with me too.

Plus his deskperson was really hot. I had forgotten about her since my last visit, but what a nice surprise it was.

So this will be my 2nd year getting a physical. I figure I'm going to go regularly because of a few reasons:

One:
I'm paying however much every pay period for medical coverage that gets more expensive every year. I figure I should use my coverage :)

Two:
I was thinking that I take better care of the supaflyride than I do myself. I'm very diligent about my oil changes and scheduled maintenances. I figure my car will go 200k miles if I wnat it to. Why aren't I like that about my own health and well being?

Three:
My doctor rocks.

Four:
His deskperson / receptionist / biller is hot.

It's all in how you look at things, I guess. :)

I also found out that over this past year, I've lost 20 pounds. Pretty nifty. :)


so the other day, I was musing about this question: What type of internet content does a CEO surf when he/she's online?

Shopping sites? Financial sites? News sites? Online Periodicals? Bulletin Boards? Porn? Oh come on, I know you probably thought about that first. I did ;)

Heh.

i'm sure they don't shop at the Gap.

So imagine - you're a CEO of a middle sized company. I hesitate to say large, because I'm sure that the Man surfs a whole different set of sites ;) The Man doesn't shop at the Gap. The Man is busy deciding what this season's uniform is going to look like.

So back to the lecture at hand. You're a CEO of a middle sized company. What would you surf?

Anyway, talk amongst yourselves... I'll catcha tomorrow.

-Kirk

Hey all,

Another short blog entry. I am still feeling like I need to take a nap in the mornings. I was totally falling asleep today in the department meeting. I was in such bad shape.

I am not sleeping well. Not sure why. Keep waking up. Blah. I'm too cold, too hot. Again, blah.

So today was the holiday potluck thing. Actually, I should say Christmas, judging from the numerous christmas tress that are displayed all over the office. Oh well, so much for diversity. ;)

So man, people at work take the whole Christmas thing pretty seriously. I got gifts and cards from most of my coworkers. I'm not talking chocolates (like I'm giving them), but like gift cards, Harry and David stuff, Tastefully Simple bread mix, etc. Crizaziness.

Just for the record, I'm not just giving chocolate. It's Ghirardelli stuff, baby.

So the pot luck was very yummy. I've not eaten like that in a long time. I had Honeybaked Ham, homeade bread, really good homeade salad, kickass chips and dip, venison meat filo dough product (from Brizzai), crudités, French Silk Pie (from a local bakery), and of course my awesome brownies (heh),

It was all good. Very good.

Can't complain at all :) We had some ham left over so that's what I had for dinner as well. I love having that stuff once a year :)

I found out that I'm going to be the only one in the office on the Friday after Christmas Day. I'm going to be the one in charge. Fear me.

We also had this pretty nifty gift exchange gig that was quite fun. Good times.

Better go to sleep now.

-Kirk

Love, baby. Love.

Hi all,

Hopefully a short blog entry today. I have to get to bed very soon, as this adjusting back to the work schedule is kicking my arse.

I can no longer sleep in until noon.

Anyway, so first day back at work. My vacation afterglow was done by say, 10 or so, but to be nice, I'll say noon.

Nothing changes, huh.

Oh well, work is work.

Tomorrow's the potluck holiday party type of thingy. I baked my special Brizzownies. No special ingredients this time. Come on now, not that special ingredient, druggy. I meant Junior Mints :) The only special ingredient put in this time was love.

So a few momentous occasions this evening - I am finally officially registered for my two classes. And, I bought my books online today. Craziness. It's becoming more real. Slowly. I don't think the aspect of becoming a student again is going to hit me until I start the first day of class.

The funny tidbit is that the books that I bought online cost less than the used books at the bookstore (just by a dollar or so). One must love free shipping and no sales tax :) Plus my books are spankin' new! Woo hoo! I'm just hoping I'll get them now, then I'll believe that I got them for a good deal ;)

Who knows, with my track record in undergrad and grad school, I may keep my books in good enough condition that I may be able to sell them back "hardly used" ;) If you get my drift...

Talk to you latta.

-Kirk

Whenever I've been downtown, I've always wondered what it looked like in some of the historical buildings from back in tha day.

This guy's site (from Yahoo's picks of the week) is a pretty nice collection of current (and a few from the past) pictures from a some of the buildings downtown, like the train station, various theatres, hotels, etc. Please pardon the spelling mistakes ;)

Forgotten Detroit.

Hi everyone,

Hope you're doing well this afternoon / evening.

So I open up the shades and was surprised by all the snow on the ground that had fallen from the night before. Craziness. It's like seeing it for the first time - it's all so white :)

I could have done the manual shovel thing, but I couldn't resist, so I used the snowthrower. Removed the snow like buttah. Ain't no thang.

So yesterday was my big tv day - I watched quite a few hours yesterday. The awards show on Comedy Central, and the Osbourne's Christmas special. Good stuff.

Is it just me, or is Let it Snow kind of a selfish song? It's like, since we have no place to go, then F everyone else! Who cares if it snows on them and makes it hard to travel. Just a thought.

So Saddam has been captured. Woo hoo! I picture the whole scene (him in his hole) like a scene from the tv show Cops. He's sitting there, in his wifebeater, eating chips... The troops bust in the door and he looks surprised that they're there...

He needed to shave. Badly.

It's back to work tomorrow. I wonder what's in store...

-Kirk

Hi all,

Hope all's well.

The weekend has started. 2 days left of vacation :(

Last night, I stayed up pretty late so I could finish up writing out my holiday cards. I put on some Christmas music, and cranked all of the cards out. It took me 2 cds worth of music, but I was able to send them all out today.

It was my mom's birthday today, and for dinner we had sushi. Quite tasty, I tell you. Not a bad choice for a birthday meal :)

The post office was packed. I don't think there's going to be a good time to go until next year...

-Kirk

I am still on the hunt for my John Mayer and Sarah McLachlan CDs :(

I'm going to cry if I can't find them soon.

-Kirk

Cleaning is fun. Not.

Hi all,

Hope you're all doing well.

I can't believe it's Thursday already. Craziness. I am starting to think that I need two weeks off in a row to fully feel vacationized and recharged.

I'll be ready for work on Monday though :)

So I cleaned up in the city home today. I got a late start because I had to stop at the school and the store. Yes, I went shopping again. :) I'm telling you, I can stop at any time... ;)

So my big project today (besides cleaning) was putting in my undercabinet lights. I think it's probably one of the first real "improvement" projects that I've done ever. I was very proud - the lights look pretty nice. I think it brought a tear to my eye when I saw them all lit up. :)

-Kirk

Hi all,

The cleaning has begun! Woo hoo.

I did do some cleaning today, honest :) I just doesn't really look like it.

Well, I went through my backlog of mail, and was pissed because I missed out on some good promo stuff from some of my fav stores. It's probably better that way anyway. This has been a big spending month for me.

I still have to write out my holiday cards. Ugh...

What is up with this crap ass weather? It was dark all day today. The only time I left the house was to get the paper in the morning. Cold and gloomy. With an added bonus of rain :)

Tomorrow I think I'll be at the city home trying to clean up there. It's supposed to stop raining by the afteroon, so hopeuflly we'll get some sun time.

-Kirk

Musings on the Average Joe

OK, so I admit it. Yestderday, after watching my Must See TV tape from a few weeks ago, I caught parts of the last hour of Average Joe. From the media blitz, I knew that there was a normal dude that was pretty successful and loaded, and then there was the good looking guy that lived at home.

I did see the pretty in pink evening (with the stuffed dog on fire), and the last selection scene with the private jet and bus. That was all I needed to see. I thought the good looker was going to get the axe. But I was very mistaken...

It was a sad day for nerdy dudes everywhere. She picked the good looking guy. I know, I know, I didn't see the whole show series, so I didn't get to see what a great guy the good looking one was. Whatever.

Nonetheless, the takeaway I got from my reality tv education for last night was that the good looking guy always gets the girl. No matter how successful you are.

Dissed.

Is it just me, or did the average guy look like Matt LeBlanc's long lost brother?

-Kirk

I don't get it...

Hi all,

Hope you're all doing well tonite. I had a blog entry from earlier today, and due to some craziness, it got blown away. I had clicked post and publish and I got this wacky login screen.

Ahhh, the beauty of web based applications :)

So let's see. I guess I'll try to remember what I said in my earlier post from today.

Right now, I'm writing to you from the comfort of my bed. You see, whenever I compute from a remote locale, the laptop always gets pretty warm sitting on my lap. I know that heat is bad for the PC and me, so I've been on the lookout for one of those breakfast in bed dining tables at my preferred vendor, Target.

Unfortunately, the ones that I've seen there are not completely flat on top. They have some sort of raised edge, to contain those orange juice spills, I guess. So, I've been concerned that the computer won't fit on the top. So I was walking around the Michael Graves aisle and saw this "foldable shelf" thing that looked like it would work perfectly. And you know what? It does - My legs fit pretty nicely under the thing. It's like my personalized computer platform :) I can even sit cross legged and compute! :)

As an added bonus, I think the metal shelf top helps dissipate the heat as well :) Heat bad! Cooling good!

Heh.

OK, so what else...

Today ended the four day marathon of holiday shopping. I was so beat. Did I get all of my shopping done? Ummm. No, not all the way. But I'm not going to set foot in a store for a while. Well at least for a few days ;)

I must say, I'm starting to get sick of holiday music though. It's playing everywhere. It's playing on the radio, in the stores, wherever you go. Kind of scary. But I'm glad I only have to hear the music once a year.

So here's a question that eats away at me everytime I hear it, and I just don't get it. What is the deal with "administrative leave with pay?" Usually, something (e.g., an "incident" not particularly favorable) happens, and until further investigation can be done, the people involved get put on administrative leave with pay. Am I the only one that thinks that it's kind of wacky? So let me get this straight. You don't have to work, and you get paid your regular wage? Isn't that what's usually known as vacation?

Anyway, so tomorrow will start the housecleaning and whatnot. Not looking forward to that, but the city home needs to be vacuumed pretty badly. I bought these nifty under cabinet lights at Costco that I need to put in as well...

I really can't believe it's Wednesday already. This week is flying by. Sad but true.

-Kirk

Grrr. my posting from this afternoon didn't show up...

Hi all,

how's it going? Monday (theoretically today at the time of writing) starts the beginning of the week vacation from work. It's my first real vacation in about a year. The last time I took this much vacation in a row was the end of last year at the old job.

5 days off. what will I do with 5 days off? Sad thing is, probably nothing too exciting... I will be doing stuff at the city home, and cleaning up my piles of shite at the house in the country. My workroom downstairs is sad - I've got crap all over the floor that it's a maze to get to anything :)

My dad is leaving for the homeland tomorrow. It's the end of a record long visit. I don't remember when he was home for this long of time.

Today we had a marathon shopping session, complete with a nice lunch and dinner. Can't complain about that. I just have to exercise tomorrow. I haven't done anything too exercise-y for a week now. Oh yeah, so all the shopping and what did I get? One shirt from the Gap. Just one. No gifts for anyone else, nothing. Oh well.

Speaking of the Gap, how cool is the music for their recent television commercials? I love that song - Put a Little Love in Your Heart.

OK, better get going. I need to get to bed. I have to wake up fairly early to drive my dad to the airport.

-Kirk

It kinda sucks having to skate first...

Hi all,

So my mom's birthday is on December12th. Ever since last year, I've taken her to see the International Figure Skating Challenge. This year the event was earlier than her birthday, so we went tonight. Here's the results, just in case you were curious :)

My mom was quite excited because Michelle Kwan was going to be competing. I was able to recognize Michelle's name and Sasha Cohen's name, but that was about it. Sasha was at last year's competition. I think she won...

Anyway this year, I was able to buy some kickass tickets. We were one row away from the ice, and a little closer to the center this time. I was pretty impressed by the seats, and best of all, I actually got to see the skaters this time! Last year, they were distant and fuzzy, but this time it was way cooler.

As luck would have it, I forgot my camera. But I have the tickets to prove it ;)

I'm sure you know, I'm all about the experience. As the skaters whizzed by, you could feel the air as they passed. The best part was the really cool sound of the ice skates on the ice. Physics in action, I tell you...

And yes, just like it looks on TV, the skaters do skate quite close to to the edge of the ice.

Plus, I now see the value of the up close seats :)

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that there were dudes skating at this event too? ;) Well, there were like 4, I think. I don't remember much about about that part though ;)

I still don't understand how everything is scored though. I get the ratings of 1 for 6 for technical and performance, but I don't get how the judges do the judging. The people that got bad scores did ok (in my book). I guess that's why I'm not a judge. One thing that I do know, is that similar to the arcade games that I've played, like Tony Hawk Pro Skater and SSX, it's all about the combo moves. That's where the big points are.

And that's my report on figure skating :)

-Kirk

Hey ya,

Hope all's groovy.

So yesterday I got a chance to see the dentist and get my teeth cleaned. First time in about a year. With the job change, I kind of got off the schedule.

I must tell you about this dentist office - This place was the dream sequence office. It had to have been the nicest office I had ever seen.

It was a standalone building, and you can tell the dentists inside were making hella cash. I mean Hella (with a capital H).

So, I walk into the office, and I thought I had gone into the wrong place - It looked more like a place where you'd get a spa treatment, not where you'd get your teeth cleaned. It really suited my style. Everything was off white. We're talking the walls, the carpet, everything. Even all of the employees had white lab coats on. On the ceilings, there was a mixture of sky scenes painted with clouds and then there was this huge mural of a very serene lakeside scenes. All that was missing was the aromatherapy and the Enya tunes.

the space was huge and really open - Really high ceilings, huge windows. The built in partitions were fairly low, and to separate the spaces that had direct sight of each other, there were these really cool pieces of glass. They were all flat, but each had unique patterns and shapes. Since they were opaque, they lit up really nicely from the sunlight.

Craziness. Now that's what I call a dentist's office.

Congrats to Stevizzle who is going to start a new gig next year :)

-Kirk

Hi all,

Hope you're well.

One quick thing that I remembered while talking to Brizzai about this weekend:

It's been a while since I've heard a classical concert, right? Well one thing that was really cool (and an indicator of how good the acoustics were) was before every song (and each movement), you could hear the conductor take a deep breath before starting the song. And it was loud too. That's something that you don't hear every day on a recording :)

It was also fun to hear how quiet the audience got during the softer parts of the music, contrasted with how the audience was in between songs - You know, in between songs there was whispering, coughing etc. During the softer parts, it was as if people were holding their breaths :)

-Kirk