Hello gang and happy Holy Innocents day. I am now home for Christmas and done travelling for a while. I expect to resume the tour in the middle of February for another four months. It's been a great time, and I'm looking forward to phase two, but happy to have a break too.

I had quite a nice visit with Amos and his friends - we found that we had some good rapport in jamming together. And Edain taught me stuff about the English civil war (didn't even know there was one).

After the long ride northeast I made a quick visit to Rick and Heather's, and heard a sample of the new CD.

It's good to be busking for nice Canadian money again - American money is such a pain in the ass - but I was surprised to discover upon my return that we have a new prime minister. Didn't realize I was that out of touch with the news.

Anyway, sorry it's been so long since I checked in, but I've been very busy. The sumbitches at Greyhound lost my backpack, so I've lost my diary and some writing projects and music learning notes. So I've been working on trying to reconstruct what I can from memory - besides Christmas shopping/celebrating/socializing, of course.

Hi John Hardly. I guess you've got a lot of pull around here, eh?

Mick, I remember that too. Let's do it again.

Stilly River Sage, I'll be in Texas again. Among other things, I hope to be at the North Texas Irish Festival (in Dallas; Jed Marum's playing in it) the first weekend in March. What town are you in?

Mudlark, I'll be in California again, lots of unfinished business there. I thought that I would look you up in the spring instead of this year for the reasons you mentioned a while ago.

Sorcha, I said all that I know about Big Mo on November 29. If inquiring minds want more, you'd best ask BlueJay.

Guest John, to be honest, I didn't like your story as much as Sorcha did. Busking may be a victimless crime, but drunk driving isn't (or am I misunderstanding you?). I would rather you had done the big favour for the other people on the road than for the singer. But thanks for your good wishes, hope to hear from you again.

Open mike, XOXOX.

Rex, I played the tape you made me of your mystery jig over the phone to my Cape Breton friend who knows tons of Scottish tunes, but he didn't recognize it. I'd still like to try the techno approach of putting it in abc and searching on the internet, but I lost the tape in my backpack. If you want to mail me another copy, I could still try working on that next year.

Love, Marion (Perth, Ontario)