Well, not really.  Jeeze, has it been over a month since I last posted?  Much has been going on since my last post. Practice time has been scarce but I did manage to pick up the chanter the other night while my daughter was taking her bath.  She doesn't hold her hands over her ears anymore so I guess that means I must be getting better.  Dispite my lack of practice.

My regular weekly instructor on Lopez went out and got her self a full time job so my Friday practice schedule has been put on hold.  My monthly Jori lesson was short circuited last monday the 11th because my wife and I flew over to the mainland thinking we were going to have the latest installment of the Greene family... false alarm.  We are headed over again this week for a check up since we are getting close, only 9 days to the official "due date"!

I went up to the Bellingham Highland games on June 2nd, that was a lot of fun.  I met some great pipers up there, Jack Lee (PM of SFU) was one, there were a number of others but I can't remember their names.  I took some video of the massing of the bands, the quality is OK for my first run at it.  I'll have another opportunity this July 14th at the Mt. Vernon games.

While at the B'Ham games I picked up a Kinnaird Carbon Fiber Bass reed.  Jori Chisholm, my monthly instructor in Seattle said they sounds great in McCallum pipes with EzDrone Tenors.  I thought what the heck, might as well give it a try.  I added another tune book to my collection, "Gordon Highlanders Vol 1".  Here is a picture of a Kinnaird Bass reed.

I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to get back down to Seattle to hook up with Jori for a much needed "Pipes Setup 101" lesson.  I have a handful of brand new Ross reeds, plus my spiffy new Kinnaird, and I really want to get the pipes sounding good since at the moment they just are not sounding too good (when I do pick them up) it has been a little discouraging to say the least.

I was happy to find that I had not completely forgotten how to play the handful of tunes that I did commit to memory.  After a few runs through I was able to play them a few times through without dropping phrases here and there.  Nothing like starting to play High Road to Garloch and finishing with Welcome home Prince Charles to Lochaber!