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Got back late yesterday after a couple of detours in the Delaware Water Gap to see Raymondskill Falls and Tom's Creek. My mom made a claim that Justin is an expert rock-skipper and that he can skip any size or shape rock, and he verified that at Tom's Creek. He managed to skip rocks downstream, with small waterfalls, from basin to basin. Of course, some bounced off rocks, or into and over trees on the bank, but others stayed the course. Or, with some of the odder shapes, took 90 degree turns.

Saturday my brother came down, so I got to see his new Harley. patrixa has a picture of me sitting on it, so if that comes out decently I'll scan it. We had Mimi's (haddock dinner for me!) for lunch, and Brother's Pizza for supper, so I got in two of the key foods that I miss most from up there.

We pulled the speaker wires out and I took those home - as Rachel and my niece Dariah took out one of my speakers, and the other is failing due to old age or (more likely) failing wiring, I'll be able to set these up and hopefully not have one or both channels cutting out on me. I also took home 20-30 of my dad's Celtic discs covering harp, fiddle, and bagpipes. I may make some of them available for others who will play them more - I will definitely be keeping some of the Chieftains and harp ones, and at least one each of the others.

The screen door was failing, so we took my mom to Home Despot to order one - she opted to have them come and measure and install later on in the week. After getting that taken care of, we went to the Apple Store to checkout laptops and other Macs. In a week or so, patrixa may be back online!

Later in the afternoon, Justin and I went to Mount Auburn and took 50 or so pictures. We startled a blue heron at one of the ponds - took a number of shots, several in motion, and a bunch up in a pine tree - I'll be posting those once I get them developed. Unfortunately, the falcon we saw at the tower flew into the sun and we lost him, so not even a chance of pictures there.

Musikfest Woes

It was confirmed: Granny McCarthy's is not setting up a stand at Musikfest. Apparently, they lost too much money, in addition to spending the ten days overheating last year.

So, instead of paying about the same for a fish & chips and ice tea as I would eating it at the restaurant (when it's only available Friday night, or, for this week, Thursday through Saturday) I wound up paying $16 for a lemonade, small sausage sandwich, and fries. Oy.

Unfortunately, most of the places I might usually go - such as the Plaza Deli or Ripper's Pub - have a limited menu during Musikfest, so they tend to be off the list as well. Driving anywhere is also out, as there is a good chance of not being able to get back into the parking lot. I think I'll be heading to Subway or some other place within walking distance for much of the rest of the week - no point spending more for less. At least with the fish & chips it was of a good quality and large quantity. I could rationalize the $11.50 a day. I'm sure there are good vendors down at the fest, but $16 dollars and a half hour later I'm hungry, and I'm not sure I'm willing to experiment with places further away.

Musikfest Goodness

Today's lunch music was provided by Carla Ulbrich, who mixed comedy with music - and, unlike many such performers, she actually had a good singing voice and could play guitar quite well. I was, of course, suitably impressed when she switched to the Parker Fly - an instrument I am somewhat partial to, having known Ken Parker and the people who did a lot of the work on it; it's been about 14 years, but I'm willing to bet I know at least one person who actively built at least one part of the guitar she was playing.

Carla's songs were fun - both silly and serious all at once - from driving away Wal-Mart to sitting in a waiting room to proving therapy works to one song which she then wrote a parody on which she then wrote a parody on...