My documents from the D.C. government finally came through and Sousa Consulting LLC is an official business entity! I'm very pleased since now I can move ahead with some of the financial details I had to put off when I didn't have an Employer Identification Number.

It is also Marathon Monday which, for me, is by far the biggest sports day of the year. Now that I'm working for myself, I got to watch the broadcast of the entire Boston Marathon live on TV: what a treat. It was an amazing race with a new men's course record and Americans finishing 3, 4, and 5! U.S. distance running has come a very long way in the last 5 years and it is great to see people like Meb (third place) do so well. I love that race.

Sunday was a beautiful day (I love Spring!) and I had spent a good deal of it working on website design so I decided I needed to get out for a while. I took a walk about 15 blocks east to very minor landmark to the city but a big one in my distorted view: this winter's This Old House project house. For some inexplicable reason I have been addicted to the show -- goofy hosts and all -- since I was a kid. I think I may have seen nearly all of the episodes they have ever recorded. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they were finally doing a house in DC. While I managed to miss the media frenzy that accompanied the actual work (I'm kidding) and so couldn't stalk Norm, I did figure out from some street signs approximately where the house was in the city. It was a silly errand, but the walk was pleasant, I saw some neighborhoods I had never seen before, and I did find the house. Pardon my finger in the photo, the sun was right behind the building and I needed to block it out to get my Treo to take a decent shot.

On Tuesday a friend invited me to see a Washington Performing Arts Society performance by Yo-Yo Ma at the Kennedy Center. I expected him to be backed by a chamber orchestra or a quartet, but it was just him on a small riser playing alone for nearly two hours. Not only was the skill and artistry amazing, it got me thinking about the feat of memory being displayed. Does it seem like an effort for him to commit hours of intricate playing to memory or is it just part of the way his mind works? I'm really not sure, but the performance was really spectacular. I think I enjoyed the last suite the most -- and he seemed to as well, although I may have just been projecting. He was called back for two encores that were more contemporary pieces and they were magnificent. The final piece in particular was like nothing I've ever heard on the cello, it was pentatonic, and ended with a note he played with his fingers at the very edge of the fingerboard and so softly and long it was just a whisper in the hall. I cannot believe someone could create that note out of that instrument and when he finished the crowd just roared.

I'm very glad I got the chance to see Yo-Yo Ma play since he is not only a stellar musician but seems like an extremely nice person. He's been on both Sesame Street and Arthur and before the concert on Tuesday he was meeting with lawmakers to argue for relaxing the draconian visa process that is keeping artists from traveling to the U.S.

For those on you who know about such things, here are the pieces he played:

Bach's Suite No. 3 in C Major for Unaccompanied Cello, BWV 1009
Bach's Suite No. 5 in C Minor for Unaccompanied Cello, BWV 1011

intermission

Bach's Suite No. 6 in D Major for Unaccompanied Cello, BWV 1012

encores

A. Adnan Saygun's Partita, Op. 31
Zhao Jiping's Summer in the High Grassland