In piano-land, I've learned all the notes in The Little Drummer Boy, and am now on the long journey towards polishing it and eventually bringing it up to speed. Fortunately, the latter won't take too long, but I still have some work to do on the former. I've gotten about halfway through Skating, but I'm now working on the most difficult eight measures of the piece. Once I get through them, I'll basically have the notes learned, because the rest is mostly repeats of earlier parts. But this section may require some time because it features types of glissandos that I haven't encountered yet, and spans much larger than an octave.
BTW, I haven't made a final decision yet on taking French classes, but I probably won't. The classes meet at times when I either have somewhere else to be (rehearsal, lesson) or I've settled into a regular routine (practice, walking) and don't want to change. Also, I've been thinking that perhaps just learning from the CDs and practice book is sufficient because I only need to speak French during our choral exchanges (and not even that much unless I'm in France).
