Well, it's been kinda crazy around here, hence no posting.

On solo pipes, I'm looking at MSR sets; my competition one for next year will probably be Charles Edward Hope Vere/Susan MacDonald/Colonel MacDonald, but I'm learning others to develop my acumen in the idiom. I really need to spend some time with piobaireachd again, though.

In the pipe band, we've had our ups and downs. Some busy weeks for gigs. When we're together, we sound great. When we're not... But we all have new chanter reeds, and they sound fantastic. So if we can get our acts together for competition, we'll really do well, I think.

On fiddle, I finished my semester with Elke, and am on break. I'm spending my time going through Gow and Marshall, through session and Country Dance tunes, and looking at Irish tunes once again. Rosemary got me to start going to a weekly Irish session in Arlington, and I'm having a lot of fun. It's very informal (and untraditional) - use of sheet music is encouraged.

With the Devil's Tailors, we're all on break while Rosemary is out on vacation and Chris is dealing with some possibly good changes to his family situation. We finished up our Potomac Overlook Park gigs without being able to schedule three of us there at one time. Over the hiatus, I'm going to try to start recording fiddle tracks for our tunes on ProTools.

The reenacting is going well - had a great (if sweltering) time at the Potomac Celtic Festival, and brought some period rabbit stew to the mix. My Murdoch pistol now has a touch-hole drilled, and I will soon begin tailoring my own waskit, so I can give Gerry's back. On top of that, I've finally begun the conversion process of my dirk to a more correct 18th century pattern. Here's how the handle looks after one day's work:



Not bad, eh?