Last Weekend


The Highland Games in San Diego was a bit of a mixed bag. I knew I didn’t have the timed medley down well enough for the Saturday competition so I didn’t go down on that day. I went down for Sunday’s QMM and thirty seconds before we were to go on my bass drone refused to strike in. So I scratched that comp also. So I didn’t compete at all.

The band didn’t do too badly: third place both days out of 9 bands in our category. We prefer first place, but third salves the wounded spirit somewhat.

This is traditionally a very hot venue. It’s usually in the 90s. This weekend was overcast and quite cool. This is usually nice weather in which to play pipes. But we were tuned for warmer weather which resulted in a rather flat sound and may have had something to do with some of the noticeable skirls.

We’ll try again in Pleasanton.


Nero Wolfe

You will have noticed the “Save Nero Wolfe” entry on the permanent roll at the left. It has been there almost since the inception of this blog and refers to the outstanding television series based on Rex Stout’s novels, which outstanding series was cancelled last year by the A&E cable network. A&E has, after much badgering, decided to release the first season (there were two) of Nero Wolfe episodes on DVD. I received mine today and they are magnificently done. The colour, the sound, everything. If you miss the series as much as I do, you can get hold of the DVD’s at a few outlets, the most expensive of which is the A&E store itself. Although, the A&E store does include a “free” poster. If the price at A&E is a bit steep and you’ve no more wall space for a poster, try DeepDiscountDVD at about half the A&E store price. The music alone is worth the price.

Caveat: The box says "complete". However, A&E made these DVDs from the edited masters that were used for the re-runs. There are several scenes cut from these DVDs. Some of the boxes also mention that they have closed captioning. While the original runs of the series did, these DVDs don't. A&E is aware of the problems and is in the process of remedying them. You may want to wait until the "complete" DVDs are available. Or not. The set available now is pretty darn good.



The New Improved Blogger


Blogspot has been down more or less forever. This post and a few others are being done on the word processing programme while I have a few minutes. Lord knows when the actual publishing will occur. The message I get when I try to post is: Your blog is currently being converted to a new-and-improved version of Blogger. Please bear with us. It should be back later today. For once an unconscionable lull in the blogging isn’t entirely my fault. The blog itself is accessible to read. But not to update.

I am expecting great improvements from the new Blogspot. Lemon flavor. New handy size. Also containing lanolin.