Saturday monrning...

This picture was taken by Alain in Sharc Pit (the group I camped with at Pennsic) on the night of the Knowne World Rapier Party (which was hosted for the final time by Sharc this year). The outfit (which I wish was more visible) is one of the two I was working on for the two weeks leading up to Pennsic... More garb pictures will be posted after the labour day weekend when Derek and I will be at September Crown in Ferndale, Washington.

My body is still operating on Eastern Standard time from my Pennsic vacation. I think that is one of the few things in the world that could turn me into a morning person but it seems to have worked!
CD prep work is going VERY well. I was arranging and practicing music in the garden yesterday (I have the best office EVER) and have covered about 80% of my repertoire in terms of arranging. Next week is going to be for smoothing out rough spots with practice and adding any harmonies that I want to learn before the following week when I go to Richmond to record.
I find it really neat that I will be releasing my next album around the same time as Loreena McKennitt (_my_ Canadian idol) will be releasing her new album, An Ancient Muse. She is doing concerts in Spain in the next little while... MAN, do I ever wish I could go there for those concerts. She is going to be holding them in some ancient buildings... it will most likely be INSANELY beautiful.
If you are interested in her recordings go to www.quinlanroad.com
Today Derek and I are going to be going to a matinee of Phantom of the Opera (my _favorite_ musical... though I often get some odd looks when I say that in the "serious" music world - Andrew Lloyd Webber is somewhat frowned upon in those circles). It starts at 2:00. After that we will be going to the Eatery (on Broadway) for my belated birthday dinner with a bunch of friends and then down to the beach for some night swimming. Last year the forest rangers tried to kick us out of the park for having a small beach fire (which we will probably avoid this year) but then relented and let us stay until the fire burned down naturally.
Well, I hope that everyone has as good a weekend as I know I am about to have... Love and hugs to all!

Hi Everyone!

I am back from my wonderful and amazing time at Pennsic War XXXV. I kept thinking that it couldn't possibly be as fantastic as I remembered and then I went and it was even BETTER. I will be blogging about it later this week when I have some pictures to put up.
The much delayed recording of my new cd, Celtic Angel, will be happening the week after labour day weekend and then off to the duplicators. I will be letting everyone know when I have order forms ready and/or which stores in town will be carrying it. It will make a nice seasonal (Christmas, Chanukka, etc.) present as it should be out by the end of October. I will most likely be having a cd release concert/party as well sometime near Halloween (wearing garb too... should be appropriate).
I am going back to Academie Duello this week. While at Pennsic I got all my armour tested and fought in several melee battles. I am really looking forward to getting my form back.
For those of you SCA type, Derek and I will be attending September Crown in Ferndale, Washington (just half and hour south of the border). We will be picking up my new pavilion there (I got a fantastic deal on it during Pennsic from a friend who is getting a new one soon). If anyone else is going to the event please feel free to camp with us (I think we will be near An Tir Royal since we are getting the pavilion from the royal trailer (they were kind enough to transport it back from Pennsic for me).
Massages will recommence this week as well. I will most likely be doing mid-week massages at the Robson St. Saje store. If you know of any companies that would like to hire me to come in and do massage for their staff please feel free to give them my contact info (contactme@saraquist.com).

I hope all is going well out there for all of you...