When I'm lax on my pipe practice, it always catches up with me when I get back into it: exhaustion, sore forearm muscles from squeezing the bag, a blown lip. But I encountered a new hazard - playing outdoors. Yesterday I went to Lee District Park for only the second time in a month or so, and tried to play. It was in the upper 90s, 100% humidity. After 45 minutes, I was literally drenched in sweat. And when I say "literally", I mean it. I could have wrung out my shirt.

How do bandsmen perform in the summer? And what madman made the summer the competition season? Hopefully as I get back into shape, it'll be less of an issue. But I couldn't finish my practice session, I just had to go home and shower.

My first mandolin lesson is scheduled for August 25. I'm excited, and I'm going to spend my last pre-lesson week warming up.

Also, this weekend, I hope to re-record all my fiddle tracks. This time, I'll use the pick-up and my 15 watt amp; hopefully that'll allow the laptop microphone to pick up the sound a little bit better, as it did with the bagpipes. I might add a few more tracks on both instruments, and record Castle of Dromore on flute as well.

The webpage has reached version 1.0; I'm very proud of how it looks. Aside from the occasional tweak, it's all about building content now.