It's Getting Better All the Time

iPod morning commute music: Electric Light Orchestra; Definitive Collection (1999)

This is a so-so greatest hits collection out of Holland, and is the only ELO I own, which is surprising since they were a pretty good group. I even saw them once, opening for Wishbone Ash at Central Washington State College's (now University)Nicholson pavilion (a gym by any other name!) when I was a high school student, 1971 or 2. They did Roll Over Beethoven, I remember, and we thought it was pretty damn hot. So why didn't I buy any of their albums? Maybe because most of their hits sound pretty much the same to me. Regardless, they were a good band, and this is an OK disc, though I understand through the All Music Guide that is isn't the best ELO greatest hits around. I should probably spring for a better CD in the future.

I'm feeling better today, thank you. My eye problem has cleared up, my tooth isn't so achey, and I don't feel quite so drained of energy (maybe sleeping from 9:30 last night helped). I'm also encouraged about my "diet": I'm down 4 kilos (about 9 lbs) in 6 weeks. It's a slower weight loss than when I did eDiets 5 years ago, but as I've mentioned before, it seems to me to be a more realistic diet, since I'm eating whatever I want and allow myself to drink beer and wine on the weekend, which for me these days begins on Friday night.

On a sad note, the Language Lab for junior high students broke down yesterday. Since we're in our last week of lessons for first term, and since we'll be tearing this one down in September when we move into the new school and the new Computer Aided Language Labs (CALLS), there's nothing we can do but work around the machines that no longer work. I taught a junior high lesson today with a portable tape recorder and survived the experience. It's strange to go so low-tech when I know we will be going high-tech in a few weeks, and kind of a weird way to end the term.