is really awesome. Let me explain. Today was tonwen's birthday party and a Quidditch match. This was followed by a drive to San Diego to visit the family (including my grandmother who is town from Michigan) and (finally) celebrate both my birthday and my cousin Bonnie's birthday (she's a week after me on Jan 4). After a tremendous onslaught of ()'s, we get to the real story.

Supposedly it was going to rain everywhere in southern California today. Then it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, then just the evening. So I figured that to cover my bases, I would make plans for this afternoon if Quidditch was rained out. As per my usual plan when I go to San Diego, I emailed Brian to see if he wanted to get together. He called me a little while later and said he couldn't do anything in the afternoon, but they had an extra ticket to see John Williams Conducts! at the Copley Symphony Hall downtown. This was a one night, sold out show of John Williams actually conducting! Most of the time all the Star Wars or John Williams tributes are just that, but this was the man himself.

He played all you would expect (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Shindler's List), but also played a few others (Olympic Heros that written for 96 Olympics in Atlanta, The Cowboys, which I'd never heard). He did a really neat thing with Indiana Jones and played a clip from the opening chase sequence of Last Crusade without music then accompanied by the orchestra. It was amazing how much difference the music made. It also made me wonder how many people in the audience had actually seen the movie as there were many reacting as if they hadn't before. It was a great show and I'm glad I got the chance to see him live.

In other news, we got our Quidditch shirts today. They're awesome. Pictures will be posted eventually (once I'm back home, have edited, have thought about uploading, etc).