Veterans Day 2010

I had a pleasant day off, in honor of Veteran's Day. I even managed to accomplish a couple useful tasks around the house. Now I go back to work tomorrow, and then it's the weekend. It won't be long till "The Holidays" and all the family time and special events that entails. Should be nice.

My parents went to a Veterans Day dinner this evening, as my dad is a veteran of the Cold War and the Vietnam War.

On my Kindle, I downloaded the book Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family, by Condoleezza Rice. She came from a family that was big on education. I was vaguely aware that she was good at music. It seems she showed an interest at a young age so that her grandmother, who taught piano, started giving her lessons when she was three. She learned to read music so early that she doesn't remember learning it--it's like she always knew it.

I think she chose a good title. In some ways her upbringing was extraordinary and so are her accomplishments. But it was done in an ordinary way. Her mom was a teacher and her dad was a pastor, and she was an only child. They really invested themselves in encouraging her to excel. They themselves had had parents who were very focused on education for their children. She came from good, good people.