October 5th -- A day of amazingly cool mail and a few early birthday presents. We got a Rufus Guinchard LP (on vinyl, mind you) from EBay, posters to put up from Fergus O'Byrne in Newfoundland, and an out-of-the-blue invitation to a gala for Jon Hendricks in Toledo. Plus a couple of birthday cards.

Jen got me a copy of Pirateer for my birthday, plus an odd but awesome-looking comic book called "Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta".

I'm a very lucky guy.

And boy, do we need to get busy working on publicizing our house concerts, which are not actually at our house, but at the barn behind Gretchen's Child Care Center on Traver. Jim Payne and Fergus O'Byrne (of A Crowd of Bold Sharemen) are October 20th, Jim Malcolm (of Old Blind Dogs) is November 2nd.

January 4th -- It's official. As of about 4:45 PM yesterday, the lovely Jen is now Jennifer Foster.

It's hard to say how amazingly blessed I feel right now. We spent all of yesterday surrounded by people who love us, people who wish us all the joy in the world. I was too busy to get nervous in the morning, then there were pictures with the guys, a quick game of euchre and a bit of hearts, and then there I was, standing in front of a congregation full of friends and family, watching my bride walk down the aisle to me. She had managed to keep me completely in the dark about her dress, and I was stunned at how beautiful it was; how beautiful she was. The ceremony went off without a hitch. Well, without a problem -- we certainly were hitched when it was done.

And the reception afterward was everything we could have asked for. (Though it would have been great to have one of those time gizmos that Hermione has in HP3, so we could have been two or three places at once all evening.) I could write for pages about it. Most important were all the wonderful people there -- much loved family, old friends, new friends. There were good food and good spirits, music and dancing, conversations and laughter.

There were gazillions of cameras present, so we hope to have a bunch of pictures up in the not-too-distant future. (We already have some awesome pictures of the dance and session taken by Paul Sizer, but I don't want to try to upload them over modem.) In the meantime, you can at least get a preview by going to Jen's account on The Knot. (Another preview picture now up above!)

I'd like to thank everyone who was a part of it, and those well-wishers who could not be there for one reason or another. Your help, love, and warmth are deeply appreciated.

May 13th -- So, Jen made me set aside the weekend of May 3rd, from Friday through Monday, for a mystery trip. She wouldn't say where we were going, nor what we would do there. I gradually figured out we were going somewhere east of Toronto. Finally the day before we left, she revealed we were going to Ottawa. But no mention of what we would do there, except perhaps go to the national library of Canada.

So we got to Ottawa late Friday afternoon. And she did take me to the library. And revealed what we were there to see. A Crowd of Bold Sharemen and the duo of Jean Hewson and Christina Smith.

I stopped dead and did a double-take. The Sharemen were probably my favorite band I had not yet managed to see live. As far as I know, this is the only time they have ever played within a 20 hour drive of my house. I had been hoping to get the chance to see them this summer -- and there they were, and Jen had tickets in her hand. Plus we know Jim and Fergus from the band, and Jean and Christina, too, and I'd been e-mailing the Sharemen's flute player, Gerry Strong.

Ummm... would you believe, best concert ever? Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but only very slight. Jean and Christina were great as always, and the Sharemen's wonderful album is only a pimple on what they sound like live. Wow. And there were many hugs and handshakes with the musicians, congratulations all around over our engagement, and Jim bought us a drink in the bar after.

I am so lucky that Jen loves me.

April 27th -- Sorry for the complete lack of updates for the last year and a half. But now there's something really worth updating about.

A bit earlier this evening, I asked Jen Schupska to marry me.

She said yes, making me very, very happy.

Obsessions of the moment: The usual tune acquisition. I'm now learning tunes by ear as well as by note, and discovering that 121 FIST is a great tool for both. And I'm playing tunes every chance I get. Dodging of stupid nagging little bugs long enough to make some real forward progress.

I've finished Love's Labour's Lost. Next up is Love's Labour's Lost I'm building to some sort of Shakespeare video festival -- I want to watch Richard III, Titus, Romeo and Juliet, and Love's Labour's Lost. I'm over one-quarter of my way through Shakespeare's plays.