No more butterflies

Ahhh! Madama Butterfly has died for the last time (at least here) and we got paid (yay!) so I am moving on now. Yesterday was kinda crazy busy, started with a "coaching". I have too many goals I think, but the main ones for this fall are
1. REALLY work on reeds,
2. be more critical of myself about "squawky" notes when they don't articulate right away (I especially have trouble on real low notes and low A G# and G) and
3. pitch (as always).

It is not like I sound terrible, but I don't want to get into that middle aged rut where I never improve either. I am so lucky to have the ability to practice most days, unlike a lot of people my age who have full time jobs and families - yes, I worked a ton as a student and it is totally different now. Not that I'm complaining, it is great to be where I am, I just don't want to waste it!

So I found a great etude in the Singer book (newish aquisition for me, I didn't use this one in college) that works on staccato low notes, which I will play for G next week. I got one of those snazzy clip on tuners from Korg which I should actually use more - I think my pitch is a lot better but I want to be one of those "solid" people. Thank GOD our trumpet player is really good, he actually plays with a tuner on his stand much of the time. Not that he seems to need it, but that is probably WHY he doesn't seem to need it. But the flute and I have some issues, and also the clarinet (at the opera anyway), I really wish we could play in a quintet together but that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Clarinet has heavy job commitments. But flute is married to bassoon, so maybe we could do trios (they have daytime hours free like me). suggestions?