The Musician's Musings

I'm still waking up after a busy Saturday, so cleverness isn't on the radar.

Last night we had an unexpected and most enjoyable evening when cortana called us from Pittsburgh! He and Tiff invited us to meet up with Tiff's parents and brother for dinner. We settled on Red Hot & Blue at the Waterfront, and really had a nice time. It was so nice to see Tom and Tiff again, after... 3 years? It's been a while. Also, Tiff's parents are really nice, and score way high on the cool factor. Dinner itself was yummy. I had the sweet iced tea (a southern thang), but as Tiff's mom and I noticed, there was a distinct cinnamon taste. Not something I'd normally add, but it was tasty.

Earlier that day it was "Holy crapola, it's one week to land grab" time and while fiannaharpar was making clothes for the Pookster, I was cutting wood for the yurt door frame and poles from the center ring. Everything is cut now, I need to drill the holes in the roof poles, sand down their points, drill and screw together the door frame, and drill holes in the khana poles. I'm sure there are a couple other things in there that I'm missing.

The Chatham day camp is going well. Last week I had to come back for two seperate performances. Wednesday was the 50th anniversary picnic, MCed by Handyman Joe Negri himself. I was asked to write a fanfare for the occasion, for two trumpets and two trombones. It went very well, and people seemed to like it. Even Joe said it was real nice. That was neat. The best part of that whole evening? My wife and daughter were out in th audience watching, and before we started playing Lake called out, "I love you, Daddy!" Yeah, I'm a sucker for my kid.

This coming week is the last week of camp. I have one additional performance with the Elementary group (ages 5-6, with a small group of 4 yr olds) doing "Castle Dances," which is to say I'm teaching them medieval dance. SCA style. They've been doing quite well, even though some of the directions are a bit much for the younger kids. (I won't go off on other kids who are just space cadets) I've been using my recorder and a CD compiled by blackpaladin for the music, and I have two boys who want a copy of the CD to use for practice at home. Other kids in other groups will vie for what dance is next. We're doing Black Nag, Turkish (Maltese) Bransle, Horses Bransle and the Tangle Bransle. Tangle and Black Nag are most popular, but the others get their votes. The only dance I 'abandoned' was Heart's Ease, though I had more than one kid say that it was hard, but fun.

Today is a slow and late morning, with more sewing and woodwork to be done before a trek to Nany's is in order for this afternoon, much to Lake's delight.

Today's fiannaharpar's day. After coming back home yesterday, a day early but much the better-rested today, Jenn's back at Pennsic to help cook Baronial Dinner, something she loves to do. I'm taking care of Turkey-Butt, who's blissfully (and without argument, I might add) asleep for her nap. Tomorrow will be my turn to head up for the day/evening, and I'll direct the choir performance. I'm glad I won't have to miss that. At the rehearsal yesterday it all sounded pretty darn good, even though there's only eight of us.

Yesterday was a good day despite the night before. Lake was officially camping overnight for the first time, and she went to bed just fine. However, around 11pm she must've been too cold because she started squirming and whining. We tried rocking her, putting her in our bed, and letting her work it out (some) but none of it worked. I wound up holding her as she lay on my shoulder, walking and rocking her until she finally fell back to sleep. When I managed to sneak a peek at my watch, it was almost 5am. Yikes. I was also getting quite cold, so I took a chance and got back into bed with Lake laying on my chest, and thankfully she stayed asleep, and I managed to get in a few hours myself. So, part of the reasoning of coming back Sunday was "Don't wanna do that again".

It's been so great to see everyone up there. We've gotten a lot of "....hey! You're not supposed to be here!" (thank goondess they were smiling when they said it) and Lake of course has stolen the show several times. Lots of folks haven't seen us or her since last year, and it's nice to catch up. Can't wait to be back up there tomorrow. I'm really happy that we decided to go.