So, Saturday was just an exceptionally good day. After teaching class outside in the morning, Alex, Lisa, and I went to Pinchot Park to go canoeing. We had originally intended to be sea-kayaking at that time, but after driving to several different states during the last three weekends, we finally arrived at the state of exhaustion, and were tired of hours of driving. But we still wanted some outdoorsy watery thing, so canoeing at Pinchot it was. That was nice, but the real coolness started after that. We went down a side road for some ice cream. Upon leaving, it was a left turn to get back to the main road, and I thought "I wonder what's off to the right.'' Then I said "I wonder what's off to the right." And Lisa turned right. A quarter mile or so down the road, we came across the really cool little cemetary. About the size of vees's back yard, surrounded by a waist hight stone wall. The tombstones that we could read had dates like 1791. But the place was still receiving attention, judging by the American flags placed here and there. So we headed back to the main road, but had discovered that we were in an exploring mood. So we drove randomly for a couple hours. Alex kept asking if we were lost, and I told him "You're only lost if you want to be somewhere and you don't know how to get there." Since there was no place where we wanted to be, we weren't lost. He was starting to get a little bored, when we discovered that we were in the Gettysburg battlefields. Well, he just loved that, so he got to run around the cannons for a little while. Then we went into Gettysburg for a bite to eat. We lucked into a parking space right in the center of town, in the traffic circle. It was about 7:00 by this time, so we only had two pay for an hour on the meter, since the meter is only in effect until 8:00. So what do we find? Fiddles everywhere. Okay, maybe not everywhere. Okay, two bands, but you get my point. They were within a block of each other, one on the square (why do they call it that when it's circular?) and one on the steps of a nearby church. They were playing music that would have been popular around the area and with the soldiers during the civil war (read "celtic stuff"). I was happy, even though they could have been better. The musicians by the church (5 or 6 of them) were skilled enough, but they looked so bored. The fiddler (although I suspect her training is as a violinist) almost cracked a smile once, but that was about it. The other band, a trio, looked more lively, and I liked the music they were playing. But they were using this casio keyboard that just sounded wrong. It would have been less jarring had it been quieter. But hey, let's face it, I would have been happiest with a night of fiddle solos. We checked out restaurants, and went to a place on the northwest corner of the square, and ate outside. It was kitty corner to the musicians with the good music and bad keyboard, and we were able to enjoy that until they finished up. Oh yeah, and some guy asked me about the utilikilt. He thought the hammer loop and other toolbelt-esque accoutrements were neat. Then he said it was fine until you went up a ladder. So I showed him the modesty snaps. :) He seemed pretty impressed by the fact that it was a "brand name" and not just something I'd had made for myself.

Sunday just couldn't live up to Saturday :) We went to Manchester and found that there are no houses to rent, and I discovered that I really don't want to leave the Dallastown area anyway. Neither does Alex. And he was just thrilled to be in the car again, let me tell you. Lisa wasn't too happy :( We went swimming later, and then got pizza and a video. I've never had brocccoli on pizza before. I quess I'm sheltered.

Dropped by the district justice Monday to sign some stuff, wound up taking the day off from work. Didn't get much alse done, but the break was nice. Practiced fiddle, played Nightfire, made rice and beans for dinner.

I've spent much of today fixing bugs created by my boss's sloppy programming and lack of testing habits. For some reason this amuses me rather than annoying me. Just got back from practicing fiddle. I was out in a cornfield doing it, and this one insect just feel in love with my bow. It would land on the bow every chance it got. When it wasn't on the bow, it would follow the bow, to the point where I could move it like a baton and "conduct" the insect. It
was cute. I worked on Haste to the Wedding, trying to get the accenting down and the 1-2-3, 1-2-3 of a jig into the bowing. So rather than paying no
attention to bowing, I'd bow down on one note and up on the next two. This worked fine for the first part, but the second part starts a little differently, and I need to figure out how to bow that. I'll ask Amy about it Thursday if I don't figure it out by then.