We were talking today about Dogs in strange outfits and I mentioned that I had one of Hera’s dog in a strange coat, and as you can see I do have one, but I think it may be her cat, and not her dog….We’ll have to ask her, and see if she has any more fun photos. I do know she has a new cd out and that it rocks!

I like the thread’s that have been jumping around today, all the language bits, and moving on into poor discarded gnomes, lying about in abandoned garden’s waiting for a ghost with haunted bagpipes to appear….

I had a funny thought today, I thought “Hey! I could use Garage Band, and record my bagpipe progress, post a bit every week for people to listen to!” and it made me happy.

Then it hit me, and all I could do was laugh. I’d LOSE friends like fleas off a dog! Why would I subject you to what is almost certainly going to be a horribly painful experience????

May do it anyway. A little trial by fire never hurt anyone…..

Off to watch Project Runway, a show I seem to have been drawn into lately, not sure why..

Love and Haunted Gnomes,
Lorraine

I am now re-writing this entire post as Blogger ATE it when I was nearly done. I shall choose to think I am meant to work this day thru a little more…

Cabel had a great day. He was so happy. He got lots of attention, met lots of new dogs and I bought him this great new Doo-dah from an animal rescue group. He slept all the way home.

I didn’t get many pictures today, but here is Joe Smith, from Bedlam, playing my new Ullieann pipes. It’s not a great photo, but there you have it. He says they are mighty fine pipes, and need a little work, but that he can do it for me, and then teach me to play.

It seems to be a thing that is coming around to me. About ten years ago, I gave Joe a fiddle, all inlaid and lovely, but he loved it, and I didn’t play it much. Now he is teaching me pipes. Joe says that Ullieann pipes are the instrument that pulls at his soul. Me too. It’s such a fine bit of magic, pipes like those. He also says they are harder to play than anything else created on this earth.

My respect for Mark Sieve reached new heights today, watching him perform the show with his new partner John. The crowd was sad, as was to be expected, but it did my heart so good to see the support and the standing ovation at the end. They pulled it off like the professionals they are.

It hit me harder than I thought. I thought I had done my tears, but there they were at the end. I thank Todd Menton for being there and giving me the strength to go back and talk to Mark. Todd is opening for them this year, as Paul and I did before, Todd was the act who opened for them before Paul and I. It made me so happy him there, even tho the circumstances were sad.

(no weirdness, I was truly happy to see Todd, and am glad he is there, his leaving, and Paul and I’s had nothing to do with each other, or Joe and Mark, and we are all true friends)

It is so hard as you want to be there for a friend who has lost so much, but at the same time, you don’t want to intrude.

(Gayle, you didn’t, and it meant a lot that you came up and spoke)

I thank my friend who went with me today, My Fire, who also knew Joe. I needed her, and her being there helped me so. We had a weep together, and kept it together. SO much love out there today, so many memories. SO much family.

Talking with Mark was a good thing. We had hugs, and some laughs, remembering Joe. We talked of George Carlin’s take on death, and how you get a five minute warning and should use it to do something dramatic. Mark says actors get 15 minutes. I got to have hugs with Joe’s daughter, our Ice Maiden. I got to meet John , Marks new partner and shake his hand and tell him he was good, and say “Tough gig, no pressure or anything…”

Tough day. Lovely day. Healing day. Long day.

Got to come home to Neighbours and Bengals.

I think I may have said more the first time I did this, before Blogger ate it, but perhaps I need to leave it at this. With one thought..

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

I have always thought that said pretty much everything….

Love, and sweet good nights,
Lorraine

Boss is off to China now for the next five weeks, and I am left alone with Dog, Bengals, Cats and Fish, in a big old house, in the middle of nowhere.

Not a bad plan for someone who is learning to play the Bagpipes. eh?

Not, mind you, that there won’t be a lot of work, hardly, No lying around eating Bon-bons for this Assistant. Doesn’t stop just because he is gone. I’ve been meaning for some time, since Boss told me I ought to one day after I lost my cool at an idiot, to do a Post on Assistanting.

Coupled with the fact that I got a mention on the most wonderfully cool site ever, Save the Assistants , I thought now would be as good a time as any. And there are things I can talk about that I couldn’t before.

(Do you have ANY idea how hard it was not to tell the world that Bela Fleck was recording Dans Macabre, and how amazing it turned out? When he wrote and Boss told me he wanted to, I said, when I could speak, “YOU SAID YES, RIGHT????” I am SO a fan of his)

(or that I have been considering getting Boss’s Chinese VISA application published as my first Novelette? They now know more about him than I do. That was the House of Cards that kept collapsing, over and over…)

There’s a lot people don’t know about Personal Assistants and what they do, and go thru, daily. And yes, for me, it is the best job ever. And if you want something from my Boss, you should read this.

The Assistant is your best friend. Or your worst enemy. Don’t piss them off. In fact, go out of your way to please them. Do you have any IDEA how many requests they get, and that are passed onto them by their Boss’s?

They control the schedules. They say Yea or Nay, when asked “Should I do this?”

If they tell you a you can have an interview, or a quote or whatever, but not sure when, it means they DO NOT know when. Travel for the Boss changes daily. Sometimes hourly.

If you try and do an end run around to the Boss, you will not like what happens.

Personal Assistants work long hours. All hours. They don’t start nine, end at five Monday thru Friday. And they very often don’t sit in an office all day.

I run errands, manage the day to day of the house, shop, cook, drive to the airport, take care of pets, make the garden grows. and am the person who everyone comes to saying “Quiche, what, where or how…” and dozens of other things, to numerous to list. And don’t get me started on the amount of books, cd’s and paper that comes in.

I make tea, make him get places on time (despite his best efforts) and actually did tell him the other day that he was still wearing the store pants. Sometimes I transcribe from tape, or what is written in notebooks. Sometimes the sound quality is very bad and the handwriting not to be spoken of.

And take care of travel, trips, schedules both at home and away, get an insane amount of e–mail, all of which is important. I make sure contracts are signed and sent off (me and the post office, Fed Ex and UPS are tight) I sort the mail every day. (It does come in a tub)

I make cars, hotels and planes happen. I am very good with airlines. And I make sure the tickets are changeable. Because, oh yes, they will change.

Every time he travels, I sign off on the schedule, the travel, hotel, and what is happening when, and make sure it goes right. When it goes wrong, I fix it. And it will go wrong.

When we do interview days, I set them up, slot them a time and stack them up like air traffic control, making sure each ends exactly when it has to.

I think the most important tip I can give you, is if you are writing with Boss, and he has agreed to something, copy me, tell me, feel free to (Very nicely) write back and keep it on the radar. Not to sound puffed up, or as we used to say “Act Big” but if I know what’s going on, you will have a far better chance of it happening.

That’s my job, I make it happen.

Boss once told me that the indicator of how well I was doing my job, was in how much time he had to write, which is what he does best.

No day is ever dull. If you want to be a Personal Assistant, check your ego at the door. You are not the one who is ending up on the cover of the magazine.

But your Boss would not be there, if you didn’t make it happen. In the sense of you were the one who arranged the interview, got them the shots, scheduled the shoot….

And you will get blindsided every day and think “Well, sure didn’t see that one coming…” Deal with it.

I’ve never talked about my job before here at this blog, simply because at the end of the day, when I have some me time, I want to talk about the other things I do, and be done with the job. (And PA’s who talk too much are out of a job) But reading on Save the Assistants gave me something to think about, and how I think people don’t know what we do all day, and just how much it is. And how important.

I’ll answer questions about my job, and talk about it for the duration of this post. can’t promise I will tell you everything, but I will be as honest as I can.

I can tell you I haven’t told the half of it, and if you are a PA too, you know. Yes. You do know.

And if you need something, drop me an e-mail.

I love my job and am not going anywhere.

Love and Assistanting,
Lorraine

Sometimes really wonderful things happen at just exactly the perfect moment. I was feeling pretty sad, as you might expect, last night, but as far as something that would be guaranteed to cheer a person up goes, what happened next qualified.

Do you remember the story of Mim and The Mouse and the Lady with the Big Dog, from my Take Your Dog to Your Gig day post (In the comments)? Well, last night, as I was taking out the trash, a car stopped and a Lady asked if I was the one with the cat from the night before.

We had another good laugh about it and I met her husband. We chatted for a bit, and I invited them in to read the Story and chat some more. They read, love music, and adore the Bengals. Clearly of the same tribe as us.

They mentioned their son, now grown and away in the army was a bagpiper, and I mentioned one of the things I have always wanted to do most was learn to play Uilleann Pipes.

They mentioned their son had some, that they had gotten from a Pipemaker in Cornwall, but he didn’t play them and they had been sitting in their basement unused forever, and would I like them?

Hello?

They left, and The Nice Lady returned 20 minutes later with these….

Here’s another view….

I suspect I have them in the nature of kind of a permanent loan, and would give them back if ever they were wanted, but what a wonderful thing to do for someone! Especially someone you only just met the night before, holding a cat AND a mouse, yelling at you to keep your dog away!!!!!

They made me so very happy when I needed it most. Making new friends would have been enough, but now having a chance to do something I have always wanted for years to do, makes me feel kind of weak. Overwhelmed. Such kindness from strangers, who aren’t strangers anymore, means so much.

Sometimes Magic is very, very real.

I suspect, as I learn them, you will all be very glad you live far away. My neighbours are not so lucky…They won’t be easy, but I think I can do it.

Here is one more shot that turned up. I think the Bengal/Bee Alliance is Plotting something……

Thank you ALL again for your love and support yesterday, in the death of my friend. It’s going to be hard to go out there on Sunday but I think it is something I need to do.

And oh, Mim caught another Mouse last night….

Love and Irish Pipes,
Lorraine

A friend of mine just died. Just like that, all in a moment.

Not many of you know him, or perhaps you do, and if you are finding this out now, I am sorry to be the one to tell you, but he was Snot, of Puke and Snot at our Renn Faire.

His name was Joe Kudla.

Paul and I opened for them for three years. They were the biggest act at the festival and so many people would show up so early to see him, and his partner, Mark Seive, that they needed an opening act.

Everything I know about comedy, I learned in those three years, working with Joe and Mark, watching them, learning from them.

I learned what made a joke funny. That it wasn’t the joke, it was the way you told it.
I learned about timing, and that when you did something, and how, was as important as what. I learned that doing Nothing with the right expression or your face, or the right look at the audience at the right time, was as effective as doing Something.

I learned that performing in front of a huge audience was very different than a pub audience. And I learned how to do it.

I learned when to improv, and when to stick to the script. I learned that when improv was funny, you put it in the script.

Today I learned that something really, really cool is gone, and won’t be happening again. The show would have started in 5 days, and I was so looking forward to seeing them again. Now I am sitting here thinking that people just can’t die, for no reason, just like that. It wasn’t something I thought would ever end, tho Paul and I had moved on from performing there. Not like this.

There’s a lesson there, too, to be learned.

I would send my love and sympathy out to Joe’s family, to his daughter, (our “Ice Maiden”) and to his partner in comedy, Mark.

Damm. I will miss him.

Love, Lorraine

Cabel got to go to his first concert today, and he had a wonderful time! I am a big fan of “Take Your Dog to Your Gig” day. It was at The Brookside, a lovely little spot about 10 miles north of Stillwater, in a town, whimsicly named Marine on St Croix. There was no lack of willing people to tend him while I played, tho he didn’t LIKE it that he was not welcomed on stage. This is what I call his “Laughing Face” it means he is really happy.

Here he is with Paul and Judy, one of the owners. I am pretty sure it was love at first site with her….(Er, her and Cabel, not her and Paul)

Oh, I almost forgot! Happy Birthday to Karrin! Karrin is Johnny’s most excellently wonderful fiance, we adore her! This was, after all, HER party! Yes, that IS a cow and a pig beside the stage, no one seems to know WHY, but there you have them..I love this place!

I played second set with the Bedlam Boys, and had some wild fun. I forget how good they are, and it is much more like playing with a rock band than what Paul and I do. Full on loud energy it is, you can feel the bass thru the floor all the way up your spine, and it definitely un-leashes something….

I made the remark at one point of how this “Used to be my band” and they all three replied in unison ” Still is!!!!” As Johnny put it, “It’s still your band, it just went sailing off on it’s own for a while”

There’s nothing quite so satisfying as great friends, lovely pub, outdoors, a stage and all the time one could wish to ROCK. I feel really, really lucky to have this.

Here’s the Boys..

I will have to get pics from Karrin of me up there with them, didn’t think that far ahead. Paul got up and took Johnny’s guitar for a few songs too. Full on big band it was.

I learned an interesting fact from Paul, and that is we have a gig next weekend and he will be gone. He CLAIMS he told me of this, and I claim he was vague and was sure it would work out. Or not. Trying to get another partner, but my first picks, Johnny, Adam and Lojo (Hellos to Susan, whom I hear is lurking about and keeping Lojo up to date. Lojo says “You ARE a wacky bunch.” I think this is a good thing) are all using the lame excuse that they are already gigging. Hmmph. I am sure my new friends in the Shondes would help out, but not sure flying them in from New York is economically viable. (tho it sure as heck would be some fun, from what I have heard of them)

Going to have to think on this one…

I will leave you with a nice shot of Dr Score on his Bike, as, what’s not to love?

Love and Outdoor Music,
Lorraine

I went back to the Fair after work to see if I could find out what this mysterious Penguin was all about and what on earth the class it won a ribbon for could have BEEN.

Ah yes of course. It has won a ribbon for “Best Decorated Vegetable.” Well, that certainly clears up a lot of nagging questions. Except for perhaps what sort of vegetable it , er, WAS.

Here is the Arrangement that got the Grand Best of All Ribbon…

Aren’t two of those, that’s for sure….

I met the best band today. Well, not met exactly, but the drummer, Temim, from the Shondes, dropped me a note to chat about music and Bengals, and to let me know they would be in Minneapolis September 14th. After hopping on my newly upgraded to subscriber status LastFM, and listening for a while, I wrote back and by the end of the day we were fast friends.

They are completely their own sound (my favorite kind of music) sort of a mix between post-punk, classical and Jewish music. Kind of. We are doing some cd swapping, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of their music. They have an energy I can really get behind. And Fod’s own gift to fiddlers on the violin.

Keep your fingers crossed, I may have found a home for Ginger and Sabrina! THANK YOU again,everyone for all your love and support in helping me. I had 5 inquiries and offers, the only problem with each of them being the travel distance.

Hopefully they will be with their new friend soon…

Love and music,
Lorraine

Let’s just start right here and take the suspense right out of the way!!!!!!! Yes, that does seem to be the BLUE ribbon on OUR pot of honey!!!! I am so proud of our Bees! Not only can they MAKE honey, but they can make award winning honey!

Here is another shot of the Award Winning Honey with some other winners…

And of course, one of me with all the winners! This has been an amazing 15 months for me, having gone from have a fear of Bees bordering on Phobic, to working with them, hand feeding them, stealing their honey, and now winning a Blue Ribbon. Just goes to show you…

For a day that started like mine did…Yes, this is a good story, tho not perhaps, a ringing endorsement for adopting Bengals. Lying in bed waking up this morning, I heard Kitties in the room, and called out to them, without crawling out of the covers, as one does…

“Kitties come here…in the bed..I’m awake…What are you doing? It….Kind of…Sounds like..You are…. taking the screen off the window and going out onto the roof!!!!!????”

Darned if the fiends hadn’t managed it.

MIM: Look! I can walk the ridgepole!!!

ME: Get your furry butts back in here before you fall and break all your kitty legs leaving me with vet bills of doom!

MIM: Ok….Sorry…Right…Coming in now…

VENUS: No. You Suck. I like it out here. And I spent a lot of time taking that screen off while you were sleeping.

ME: Venus, darling, don’t make me come out there…

VENUS: I believe that why???? Look, I’m a gargoyle!

And so it went…She came in (ok, was dragged in when she got close enough for me to reach her, she was right, I sure wasn’t going out there for anything) and my day got busier and spiraled downward, a seemingly never ending, never trouble free project I have been working on, collapsing like a house of cards yet again, leaving me in near meltdown mode, using language that Venus herself would have been proud of.

But then I got a Blue Ribbon.

And the world went right again.

And now I am going back to the Faire.

Love and Blue Ribbons,
Lorraine

Today was the day to deal with the Slumgum. A rather messy process. Sticky too.

Before that however, I needed to clean out the freezer. (no, these two things are in no way related, just had to be done.) I know one finds strange things, sometimes unknown things when one cleans out the freezer, but I have to say I was rather surprised to find, well, a bird. Not the eating kind. The kind with feathers. Must talk to the Birdchick about that, can’t possibly belong to anyone else.

(I was going to post a picture, but looking at it, I think not. It will go back into the freezer until such a time as it is needed for , well, whatever it is needed for)

Slumgum. Right. It is what is left, wax, and Stuff, after the honey has all been strained out.

That’s it still wrapped in the cheesecloth. Here it is out of it’s cheesecloth. Lovely, isn’t it?

There are many methods of extracting the Beeswax from the Slumgum (I love that word!) My favorite (and the only one I know) is to heat it in a big old pot (the operative word being OLD pot, you will not be using this pot for anything else. Ever. It looks like this melted:

Mmmmm…..Dinner anyone?

After it has melted, you strain it thru more cheesecloth, and a strainer, which we have no photos of, as it is a two handed process, and quite impossible to let go with one hand and try and take the shot with the other, with a camera that has no screen. I know this.

When it cools, you have wax:

Pop it out and you have this:

Now, this big question: What do I DO with it?? Make a candle? Something else? Anyone know?

I put the rest of the Slumgum (She says to use the word one more time) out for the Bees, who love it. I should also mention that the Oysterband makes a lovely soundtrack for a day of Slumglumming (she says, making up a new word)

Just about perfect.

Love and Bees,
Lorraine