lots of news, lots going on. the cd is out- more on that soon. there will be a cd release party, and this will mean that the band will actually play together, all together, for the first time in a long time...the cd is a big deal for me- it has one of my own songs on it, and a lot of my fiddling and banjo picking. now i listen to it much more critically- at the time i was grateful to have any acceptable version of any song, including my own, because i was pressed for time, as i always am. but now i can barely listen to it without hearing other ways i have played it/could have played it. such is life.

just came back from a family trip to columbia, mo, which was a lot like iowa city, old favorite of mine. i could never get my wife to move further north, but i could get her to move to a town like columbia, and this is a place which apparently thinks highly of her. it had a homey feeling in spite of my never having been there, to my knowledge- i've spent almost twenty years within twenty miles of missouri, but never actually lived in the state. The baby was a little sick and was a tough customer; the five-year-old was tough too, but the weather was good, people were nice, and driving was uneventful. memorable scenes- the lakota coffeeshop and the peace nook, a cards-cubs game on television, as you would expect i guess, and a friendly guy at the mcdonald's where corey was asleep in my lap, while eli played on the structure, and we discussed little guys caught in the foster-care system indefinitely. lots more- but these snapshots will have to do for now...others will find their way, slowly, into my writing...