The reason I'm so twitchy about hurricanes is that the spousal unit is the Arborist for the town, and in the event of storm damage, he'll have to stay in town and work 12-hour days for the duration of the cleanup. This is a well-worn drill in our house, and it goes like this - he works, I do all of the housework and childcare and care-and-feeding ( Read more... )

It's a good thing it's quiet online, because it's havoc here in the cubecave. Bagpipe camp was excellent, the trip back sucked, and I'm pretty much back to piping again (esp. as soon as I fix/get fixed all of my pipes and the new set gets completed ( Read more... )

I'm in Killington, VT, waiting for the evening concert to start. I'm having a terrific time with these folks, who are friendly, creative, funny, and welcoming.

I've met several people I've known only from the bagpiping forums, which is an increasingly common and regular part of this digital age. I've managed not to spend $350 on a beautiful ( Read more... )

The guys are on their way to A Day Out with Thomas. We got free tickets from WUNC-TV. I'm not going with them, because on Friday, I'm going to bagpipe camp, where, at the very least, I hope to rediscover my muse and buy a better pennywhistle (or 3). I get to take both of the pipes that are having problems, and Nate is going to look at them and ( Read more... )

99.8% of you don't know that when I was a kid in Louisiana, I was a participant in a very special program.
(The pedantic among you will remember that a few weeks ago I renounced the entire state of Louisiana, specifically mostly because of its current governor - that is suspended on significant probation ( Read more... )

Not the actual Blarney Stone?I've kissed the bloody thing, and it's not exactly in an easy to get to spot NOW - you climb up all of these stairs (I think with no handrailing), lie down on a pad on your back and hang your head through an opening and kiss the stone with your head about 6-8 inches lower than your back ( Read more... )

Well, yes.
And it's worse than that - it's SOUTHWESTERN Louisiana.

It always feels strange to plan summer trips in January, but, well, it seems like that is the best time to do so.

( GPGC )

Wednesday night, Adam tells me that my mom called the other day to say she was flying in on Saturday before Nate's birthday, but he didn't know what time. So I tried to call her back ( Read more... )

So as near as I can figure out, Expedia exists pretty much only to rip people off.
"But wait!" you say. "The Smiths are supposed to be in the Bahamas, not Florida!!"
Here's how this all went down.
( cut for travelogue )

Much more later, but expedia SUCKS. Just so you know.