Mon Jan 26 07:46 EST 1998
Weekend Update: January 22-25

I had the priviliege of attending an elementary school band
concert in which my daughter Emily played the flute and my son
Andrew played the trumpet (borrowed from his Aunt Faith).  It brought
back memories of dragging my parents to my concerts.  My dad would
say, "don't clap too loud; they might do an encore!"  The concert
had what you might expect in the way of foot-stomping, knee-slapping
melodic tones (also with undertones and overtones).  But what you might
not expect is that our little town of Pepperell (which we affectionately
refer to as Mayberry) had around 150 children in this cacophanous chorus
of critters.  And they played above the average elementary school
band.  In short, I was pleased as punch that I went.

The second half of the concert featured a jazz band - still elementary
school, but they performed very well.  The trombone player, who happens
to be the Pepperell Auctioneer's son, performed an admirable solo and
I admit that he was better than I was as his age.

It made me think that I have years ahead of me to watch parades and
high school football games, and attending band concerts where I may
applaud in hopes of an encore.  My older girls play non-band instruments:
Mandy on the violin and Jessica on the piano.  And I am glad for the music
in their lives.

On Friday we found an auction in Nashua, even making our way through
freezing rain to attend.  We figured that the crowd would be thin and
the bargains might be plentiful.  We were wrong.  The crowd was four
or five times the Pepperell auction, and with that many people, the
prices were way out of our reach.  I'll go again, in better weather,
and stay to the end to see of bargains ever come up; it is still
great entertainment for us.

I know a lot of you on my list read these weekly updates and enjoy them;
some of you skim them and that's okay, too.  I'd like to turn the tables,
though, and ask what's up in your lives these days?

Mark
Mark Metcalfe, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.                \
270 Billerica Road, MS04                                    \  O,
Chelmsford, Massachusetts, 01824                     (_______\/ )_______/
Phone: (978) 446-6451 Fax: (978) 446-6351          -----------\--------------