July 24th -- Long time since I updated. To make a long story short -- I love the new house. I love living in Ann Arbor. I'm having the time of my life. I've been far too busy to keep tabs on what I'm doing here.
Click on the picture to the right to reach a photo album with pictures of the house and my parents' new puppy.
In early August I'm going to Goderich's Celtic College and Festival. Then, who knows what is up? I'm sure it will be something exciting.
June 2nd -- In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "The two sweetest words in the English language are 'de fault'." I won the over 15 whistle competition at the Detroit International Feis by virtue of being the only competitor -- indeed, I was the only person over 15 competing on any instrument. On the plus side, despite another serious attack of the nerves, I managed to play both pieces without any serious glitches. Considering that I only started practising "Lord Mayo" the morning of the Feis, I'm pretty pleased with that. (Nothing like going to the web site on the morning of the competition and learning they do have required tune types after all.)
Geez, looking back at what I wrote in the beginning of May, it's hard to believe it's only been a month. May was amazing. Great concerts and great parties. One of the best months yet for my business. I covered most of the ground on purchasing a house.
Of course, that means the chaos is only starting. Next weekend should be completely insane, with closing, two different roleplaying games, a session, and finally starting to move on Monday. I'll finally be able to reclaim most of my stuff from the attic.
And then I'll get to see if I can't do a bit better the second time around in Ann Arbor.
May 3rd -- Well, April turned out to be a smashing month. Great concerts and great sessions. I shook Jon Hendricks' hand, and played in session with Dougie Maclean. On the day of the Paperboys' concert, I found a house I'm doing my best now to buy. And I panicked and spent a lot of time practising for the Fleadh, to no avail, because I once again completely cracked under the pressure of competition.
And now it's May. As I write this, I'm really just killing time until our first performance of the Music Man. Next week there are Troublesome Lasses and Pub Domain to see. A woodwind quintet rehearsal is scheduled the week after. Then the last two weekends promise to be filled with parties.
April 5th -- Yow, what a year it's been so far. If someone had warned me what was coming up back in December, I might well have opted to skip straight to late March. Not that there weren't good bits in there, too. Hell, great bits. It's just that they all seem tied in to the bad bits. Ah, well.
Despite being the cruelest month, April is lined up with lots of fun things to do. Why, in the just the next seven days, I've got three concerts to go to, and three other get togethers of a musical or gaming nature. Naturally, they all involve driving, and I cannot figure out a way which would let me stay over and cut a few of the miles off. I'll be lucky if I don't put a thousand miles on my car. Good thing I've got the new tape of tunes I want to learn to listen to.
After that, there's Easter, the mysterious next weekend with two different cool Irish things going on out of state, and then the Fleadh. Which leads us back to SCTG pit orchestra for the Music Man!
And in between all this madness, I need to find a place to live in Ann Arbor, so I can do away with much of that driving to and fro.
December 23rd -- Ah, Christmas and the end of another year, and heck, if you count correctly, a millennium. It's enough to make a person feel a bit philosophical.
It's impossible to state just how damn lucky I am. I've got a fantastic family who raised me well, always supporting my crazy ideas, and more importantly, me. I've got old friends who are true, and new friends who are dear to me. I can do things that few other people can. I could not be grateful enough for all this.
Now it's time to leap into something new. I've already stayed at home longer than I planned. I don't know that a small software business can ever be said to be stable, but mine is established, and it's time to start acting like I have an income again. Given the amount of time I've been spending in Ann Arbor, it would be downright foolish to stay in St Clair County. Moving to A^2 means shaking off a lot of secure routines. It's a risk. But it will be fun, and, I hope, rewarding.
Of course, I still have to work out all the details. But I intend to attack this problem aggressively. I've bided my time long enough.
Merry Christmas to everyone. May the new year bring you happiness -- and new challenges.
November 16th -- Okay, I've been a bit tardy updating this. How to summarize?
Music -- Many great sessions, plus another Lunasa concert and an amazing chance to see Jon Hendricks in concert. Fun tunes and great company; what more could you ask for? Okay, I also snuck in another tin whistle lesson with the stellar Loretto Reid.
Football -- Marine City made it to the third round of the playoffs, only to lose to Orchard Lake St. Mary for the second year in a row. (The Catholic school sends five times as many players to Divison I NCAA football teams each year as Marine City sends in a decade.) Meanwhile, Michigan has a great offensive and a tragically bad defense.
Reading -- Since last report, I read all four Harry Potter books in their Canadian editions, which seem to have the original British text and covers. Outstanding books. I'm now working on the new Caroline Stevermer book, which is great.
Ambercons -- I've been to two since August, Ambercon North and Ambercon Northwest. The former has the most wonderful restaurants around, the latter the funkiest hotel.
August 17th -- Wow. Too much stuff to squeeze in here. Goderich was amazing. Loretto Reid's advanced whistle class in the morning, concerts and sessions every evening. More great music than you could possibly listen to. (Description written from the site.)
Lunasa were the big headliners at the festival, and they crossed the border the day after I did to play in the Ark in Ann Arbor. Their Sunday night set was so spectacular I figured I'd better go hear them again. I got a front row seat (thanks Jane!) and the show was even better this time around. Afterwards we talked and jammed a little with their guitar player, fabulous composer Donogh Hennessey. Then we walked next door to Conor O'Neill's and started our own a little session in one of the back sections.
Tonight is the first Marine City football scrimmage. My favorite time of year is coming up! But how it can be as fun as the last two weeks, I don't know...
July 29th -- Yow, it's been a long time since my last update. The last two months have seen the usual summer band madness -- six concerts so far, with the final one tonight. I've gotten in regular whistle playing at the Gaelic League and 707 Washington. I bought Eb, Bb, and G Water Weasels. I saw Kurt Elling, Dervish, and Solas in concert. (Not all at once, though that would be very cool.) Started watching The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. All the usual sorts of things, in other words.
Now very exciting times are coming up. I'm going to the Goderich Celtic College in a week, then their big music festival. I've got a lot of cool stuff lined up for the next few months, including trips to Ambercon North and Ambercon Northwest. I've got tickets to see Hamlet and plans to see Hendricks & Ross. Wes and Wendy are coming to visit, too!
Plus the usual mess of football and Amber. I think this fall is going to keep me busy.......
May 21st -- Insane schedule stuff is over. Now I'm back to merely busy. This week I've got summer band and the CCE potluck, plus lots of work to do. Then comes Memorial Day weekend, and two crowded role-playing weekends after that.
I survived Annie quite nicely. The last night was my most ambitious: I played keyboard, bassoon, and C whistle, playing parts written for xylophone, bells, flute, tympani, clarinet, and baritone sax. Whoosh! (Yes, that's more than 1.5 books; the person who was supposed to share Reed 5 backed out, so I was back to that full time. Plus I read over the shoulder of my neighbor for a couple of baritone sax bits. Hey, he was playing them on alto.)
I couldn't find the alternate history version of Richard III at the local video stores, so I bought the DVD a few weeks back. Now that I've got a DVD player, I can finally watch it. Actually, I watched the beginning this morning, and now I keep repeating "Now is the winter of our discontent turned into glorious summer by the son of York." It's cool that a pun can survive down the centuries, but still, I'm starting to get on my own nerves.
May 2nd -- Insane schedule continues. Annie is underway. I think I've got playing 1.5 books under control, but carrying all my musical equipment around is a real pain.
It was an amazing weekend. Saturday was the Midwest Regional Fleadh Cheoil. Turns out the hordes of superior whistle players weren't competing in the Over 18 Whistle category this year, and I might have been able to place. (Assuming nerves didn't completely sabotage my meager skills.) At any rate, it was a very fun day, with great music from 9am to 2am. There is now a new whistle player at the head of my personal pantheon. And I have an inside track with the organizers of the Goderich Celtic College.
I spent the night in the Fleadh's hotel, and in the morning, I went to Fantasia 2000. It was sold out, and I didn't have a ticket, but I stood around looking forlorn and eventually someone sold me one. The original Fantasia was one of my top five movies -- but the new one seriously threatens to dethrone it. Great music, with vastly superior modern recording technology, and a variety of interesting animation techniques.
April 28th -- Insane schedule times. Tomorrow is the Midwest Regional Fleadh Cheoil. Instead of competing against hordes of superior whistle players, I volunteered to help run the thing. I'm probably going to spend the night out there, and then hang out in Ann Arbor on Sunday. Monday starts Annie.
I finally finished Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. I haven't made any recent progress in a guide to The Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot -- "Burbank with a Baedeker" has so many notes it has stymied me. I've started Titus Andronicus; right now it's averaging a death per page.
April 16th -- The weather has gotten warm again. The Red Wings are in the playoffs. I've started going to the Sunday night sessions at the Gaelic League. Not that I intend to abadon Conor O'Neill's, but the League is a comfortable drive, so I can do it much more often.
I'm looking forward to Annie. I think I've got it worked out what instruments I'm playing, and how I'm splitting up the two books. The good news is there is remarkably little conflict between them -- most of the time, if there's a part in both books, it's basically the same. So I think I can cover everything with a bassoon and a keyboard, though I may bring along a few whistles just for fun. (You know, I did a web search on the St Clair Theatre Guild, and my webpage was one of the top choices. Sigh.....)
As usual, Ambercon was a blast, though this year was enhanced by the presence of many stragglers who have missed recent years. Somehow this year I ended up in campaigns. Weird how these things go.
Still reading Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter -- I'm almost done -- and a guide to The Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. I intend to start Titus Andronicus real soon now. I burned through the new William Goldman movie book, Which Lie Did I Tell?, in a weekend.
March 15th -- The Ides of March, the day the buzzards come back to Hinkley, Ohio, and my mother's birthday. I finally put together all the computer pieces I've been buying for the last week, and it worked! I'm sure that if Dr. Frankenstein had used brand name components too, he wouldn't have had all those problems.
I missed the Chieftains last week (sigh) but I did catch Kurt Elling the Friday before that, and he was great as always.
Currently reading Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter, which is simply beautiful, and a guide to The Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. And waiting eagerly for Amazon to deliver the new William Goldman movie book, Which Lie Did I Tell?.
February 28th -- A week ago I could ski. Now there's not a trace of snow on the ground. Indeed, the weather has been mostly nice, with bits of rain. I survived the double musical whammy of church service and band concert yesterday, and today, I'm basking in the luxury of not having two different performances for which I desperately need practice.
I'm also quite excited, because the next two weeks should bring great music to my ears. Kurt Elling is coming to Detroit on Friday, and the Chieftains are coming to Ann Arbor the following Wednesday. Life is good.
Plus I'm greatly enjoying watching NBC's The 10th Kingdom. It's a very fun urban fantasy/fractured fairy tale.
And I've just gotten my books for Annie. Two of them, containing not a single instrument I can play. This should be interesting.
February 15th -- We lost a lot of the snow in a day of rain last week, and what we've gotten to replace it may not be enough to ski on. I can't find out, because I've got to go do my taxes today. Ugh. I wore myself out Sunday, what with Dragaera, pre-game dim sum and post-game Conor O'Neill's visit. (On the latter, I was completely out-classed this time, and so now have an even greater desire to learn new tunes.) On the very cool side, Wendi finished my Faris trump.
February 8th -- It's very cold this morning. When the fog lifts, I think I'll try a ski. It was a goofy but very fun weekend -- I drove up north Thursday, got in eight miles of cross-country skiing Friday, met some cool friends of my sister's, got in another good ski Saturday morning, then drove four hours to meet up with the gang for 11 hours of Amber. Needless to say, I was in a lack-of-sleep induced haze all day Sunday, and I still feel a little fuzzy today.
January 22nd -- Mom got me a Scrabble daily calender, so I now know what day it is. It's enough to make you hate the people who do the Scrabble dictionary -- forget the words I haven't heard of, half of the solutions to their anagrams aren't in my Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Well, winter is finally here. Of course, now that we've got enough snow on the ground to cross-country ski, this morning it is too cold (-10F) to go. The weather is also playing havok with my habit of packing up my whistle and driving an hour or more to play. I'm getting a lot of work done, though, and learning a lot of reels.
The Wizards! concert was very neat. Of course, the bassoon player, Greg Morton, was best. We local types are now talking twice as seriously about starting our own double reed quartet. But first, my friend Leslie has scheduled a bassoon quartet rehearsal for the end of this month. I don't know where she found two other bassoons, but I'm excited.
January something or other -- obviously I still need to get a 2000 calender. New Year's Eve was lots of fun, but watching 14 hours of football the next day with the Jaucians was even more fun. Not least because the Big Ten dominated again this year. Also notable that weekend was the birth of Meredith Ruth Waller. Yay!
The big excitement this weekend is the Wizards! concert in Marine City. They are perhaps the world's premiere mixed doublereed ensemble, and they're playing at a church about three miles from my house!
December 25th -- no snow on the ground, but it's cold enough for Christmas. (21 degrees Fahrenheit or so.) It's been a great day so far, the family together, nifty presents, a nice but chilly walk, and bacon for breakfast. Hope everyone else's Christmas went as well. Tomorrow we head north, eventually to meet up with the entire clan for New Year's in Glen Arbor.
December 14th -- it snowed again today. College football is over, band is over, whistle practise is over; the 1900s are winding down quickly. Too quickly. I don't see how I can get work, Christmas cards and presents, and practise all in. Sigh. And then there's the real Y2K bug: the prospect of having to live through the year 2000 with a society that isn't numerically literate enough to realize it is the last year of the second millennium, not the first year of the third.
On the much brighter side, recently I've played a Christmas concert, seen the pre-Broadway run of Martin Guerre, joined a new gaming group, and joined the Sunday night session at Conor O'Neill's.