Goggin Ice Arena, Miami University

I'm not doing very well keeping up with my blips or comments at present. The weather isnt exactly conducive to picture-taking at present either - dull and grey. I went up to Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) this afternoon to shorten Laura's long black Choraliers dress. The Choraliers is the all women chorus at Miami University which she auditioned for after Christmas, as she had been doing Marching Band in the Fall. The dresses for the newcomers like Laura were late coming in - they only got them last night and their first concert is tomorrow evening! She's never shown much interest in sewing or knitting, and in any case she doesn't have any sewing stuff up there, so Mum to the rescue - its a good job Wednesday is the one day I don't usually have any other commitments! They're doing two concerts at Miami University, Thursday and Friday evenings, and then two of the choirs, including the Choraliers are singing at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, in Covington Kentucky on Sunday afternoon. The Cathedral is built in the Gothic style, modeled after the Abbey church of St. Denis in Paris, so should be a wonderful place to sing. Not all the concerts are the same however. The Miami concerts feature all four choirs, and in the second half the combined choirs - about 300 singers - are singing Rutter's Gloria and selections from Carmina Burana. Unfortunately they're not doing these at the cathedral as only two of the choirs are going, which I think is a great shame, as they would have sounded fantastic in that space. So we will be going to Friday night in Oxford, so we can hear the Rutter and Carmina Burana, and the Sunday afternoon at the cathedral, so we can hear the other works in a great building.

As I was leaving, I quickly blipped the Goggin Ice Arena, as I thought it would be my only chance for a Blip. Ice hockey is really big at Miami University - their football team may not be much good, but they do have a pretty good ice hockey team. Philip played ice hockey in high school and he has played in a tournament at Miami University, but that was in the old arena - this one was only completed a couple of years ago.