Fifer’s Web site — on the Web since 1995!

Keene Snow & Ice Festival
Keene, NH

St. Patrick’s Day
Newport, RI

I haven’t updated this in 3 months! Eek! Owell - I’ve been hibernating. Between work and school, I somehow have still found time for fife & drum stuff, but not much else. I’ve been doing a lot of perl scripting lately (yes, I’m a geek) and having a lot of fun doing that and “making stuff work.” In February, I went to the Keene, NH “Snow and Ice Festival” where I saw this big orange snow-fish pictured to the left. It just had to go on the site with the fish-mailbox photo...

After serious bouts with cabin-fever, I was able to get out a little bit when the temperatures warmed up to the 40’s for a few weeks, but then we got a “Nor’easter” which dumped another 6” of snow on us. <sigh> Owell. The weather held out for our St. Patrick’s Day parade in Newport, RI though, so it wasn’t too cold, and was a good parade.

One of my pysanky eggs

Pysanky Eggs

I’ve been working on some pysanky eggs the last few days, and trying to paint some of my tin soldiers I’ve been working on. Maybe I’ll post some pictures of both. My mom taught my siblings and I how to do the pysanky eggs since we were young. We don’t have any Ukrainian heritage, but she had a neighbor when she was growing up teach her how to do it - and thus traditions are passed on.

Myself with Keith Lockhart,
conductor of the Boston Pops
Photo by Matthew M. Lug

Myself with singer/songwriter
James Taylor
Photo by Matthew M. Lug

Always Running

It seems I’ve put off the (what’s turning into a) quarterly update long enough. And, I’m pretty psyched tonight, so I’ll update this. We’ve been playing gigs for the Democratic National Convention, which has turned out to be really cool. On Sunday night we got to play at (Boston) City Hall Plaza with the Boston Pops, Keith Lockhart as conductor. Here’s a picture (to the left) with me and Keith before the show. ;-)

Tonight, we played for Ted Kennedy’s 32nd Anniversary concert/party at Symphony Hall. John Williams was conducting the Pops, and other performances included Bono of U2 (the set right after us), and YoYo Ma! I’m going to see if I can get a copy of the whole show or not. It’s definitely a scrap-book event!

Update

Well, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get a copy of the performance at Symphony Hall. But on the bright side, tonight while waiting backstage to go on for the third DNC event we played for, James Taylor obliged me when I asked for a photo with him. :-)

Baby Rowen’s first Christmas
Photo by Matthew M. Lug

Quarterly update, 6-month update...

bah. I just haven’t had time! :-P A lot’s happened in the last few months. Mostly what’s been keeping me from updating my site is school. I took 4 classes this semester (while working full-time, I might add), and all insisted on 9-10 hours of work outside of class (yeah, right). Lessee... that adds up to 3 hours of lecture per class + 9-10 hours of work outside of class + 40 hours at work a week... Ok, so that leaves 10 hours a day for sleeping, eating, commuting, and doing anything to survive like shopping and laundry... In any case, I managed to finish with 3 A’s and a B.

As of August, I’m a new auntie. (That’s ahn-ty, not AIN-TEE!!) Ugh, as if the term “aunt” isn’t dorky enough as it is, without butchering the pronunciation and making it sound so nasal that even Jerry Lewis would cringe... In any case, Rowen is now 3 months old, and I got to see her for the first time at Christmas. Here she is with the obligatory bow on her head. She seems very mellow when compared to the rest of us. She and Cinnamon just thought the other was the greatest. :-) She didn’t cry, even when Cinnamon got excited and made a bit o’ noise. In fact, she seemed absolutely fascinated with this wiggly, furry dog with the long nose and tongue. She kept reaching for him, and we tried to get him to let her pet his head or ears, but he had to have the nose in the way. She seemed to think the whiskers and muzzle were pretty cool, and the bright yellow eyes. Although we had to keep her from poking the doggy’s eyes, he just closed them tight and didn’t seem to mind.

Good thing her parents are pet-people. Most people would flip if a dog wanted to lick their baby. (Ok, so there was a towelette on hand to wipe off hands and face...) I suppose just as much congratulations go to Cinnamon for being so cool with it all. He’s always been extremely gentle, patient and nurturing to kitties, children, and puppies, but this was the “real” test as it wasn’t simply a brief “Oo, a baby!” <jerking collar> “Common’ Cinnamon. Yes, I know you’re excited, but let’s go...”