I went to my favorite annual party over Memorial Day weekend. It features some of the best in bluegrass - Hickory Project,
(Tioga County-based, internationally known, mandolin player is a top national player)

and some more local folks - Fetish Lane (they were combined with members of another band, calling themselves Woodshed something, but i forget... ah, update: Woodshed Prophets )
Backwoods Experiment (who I don't really like)
Grass Stained Genes (who played in my living room for my 31st birthday party)
and there's jammin' everywhere. I didn't take pix of the whole event, and pretty much no performances except the Sunday afternoon jam in the area we call The Pines, just took shots when the spirit moved me.



The bonfire Saturday night was huge - those are people and trees dwarfed by the fire - and that's after it's died down a lot.


My friend's kid turned 11 at the party.


A's little brother wanted food from our stash because he's a big mooch and didn't bring his own food. We had decided that he couldn't have any unless he paid $1 for each item. He negotiated letting me take pix of him blowing bubbles in trade...I've definitely gotten more than $1 in amusement :-)



My friend Marty is a blacksmith who lives in Ohio. He brings his "portable" forge and tools with him - this is one of his pieces.




Each year, someone flies a small plane over the party and drops a gift for Bucky, the host. (http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/leonardharrison.aspx - there's a little airport near the PA Grand Canyon)


Bucky playing banjo at the "Hardy Hole Cafe" (aka the kitchen)


Cellist Dave Bush playing in the Pines


Sunday afternoon jamming (the cellist is back there playing too, behind the guy with the harp)


More jammin'


The stage area late Sunday night. My friend (father of kid above) is glaring at the other guitarist because he's sick of the same tunes the guy has been playing since the afternoon jam. There was a bassist, the cellist, a drummer, and a couple other folks that he would rather have been jamming with, in more of a rock style.


The pews are where the audience sits when when watching folks play on the stage. The wooden platforms visible at the bottom of the picture are where folks dance. The couple on the right comes from North Carolina each year, but he grew up down the road from the party location.


Just a funny shot.


(if you're really curious about the rest of the party, msg me and i'll send you a link)

These are from Little Pine State Park in Lycoming County, Pa., last summer:













More info about Little Pine State Park:

From Thursday to Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I took about 800 shots. I'm done processing photos through Saturday 5/23 at 1pm... I went home for my favorite annual party, a big bluegrass event in Cherry Flats, Pa., but my dear Uncle Dudley begged me to come off the mountain and photograph the Coal Festival parade Saturday morning. She and her new company, Coal Country Iron Works, had constructed a float and she needed to be on the float to throw candy. So I groggily made it to the parade, unshowered, begged my hairdresser for some gum because I hadn't connected with my toothbrush... and took pictures of the parade and a little of the 17th Annual Blossburg State Coal Festival at Island Park after (where I shot the not-Basra collection ((e:heidi,48783))). The pictures are probably not very exciting for people not connected to Blossburg, Pa., but some of you might be amused by them, hopefully to appreciate the small-townness and not pick on the hicks too much. ;-) The parade features lots of tractors, fire engines and kids, but no curly-wigged Irish dancing girls.

Keith Lindie, town historian & eligible 80-something bachelor, used his beloved John Deere tractor to haul the Red Hat Society float.



My dear Uncle Dudley with her authentic miner's hat. Miners filled it with oil and lit it so they could see in the tunnels.



She has an authentic miner's lunch bucket, too. Her bf Bernie has an extensive collection of mining antiques. (I'm sure she's going to yell at me for posting this!)



But her float won the prize for Best Appearing Float. It features Mabel, a mule considered to be the last of the mine animals. The mules and ponies would bring the coal carts to the surface to be unloaded.



Here's the link to the full album if you're interested:

(official Blossburg Coal Festival website: )


(More photos below)

(e:tinypliny) walked to the harbor the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, had some ice cream at the Hatch Restaurant (peach yogurt for her, soft-serve twist with rainbow sprinkles for me) and enjoyed the sunset...

We intended to catch the train but i was too lazy to run for it and no others came, but I got these two shots as compensation.





And we walked to the harbor.







This is probably my favorite.











That's (e:tinypliny) on the dock (i don't know the right word - is it a slip?), but it's hard to see her silhouette.



Postcard, anyone?



and one really bad picture of the ducks that came begging to us.

There's a new Mexican/Puerto Rican take-out & delivery place on the West Side (no dining in, just delivery & take-out). I'd love to hear folks' opinions!

Carmen's Kitchen
1043 West Ave.
882-7777

Carmen's Kitchen

The menu is in Publisher on the website, so I posted a PDF version along with coupons here:

I have about 800 pictures to process from my adventures Thursday through Sunday. These are the most immediately relevant. ;-)

My hometown had its annual festival last weekend and my aunt asked me to take pictures of her & her company's parade float. She couldn't throw candy from the float and take pictures of it at the same time, she said. After the parade, everyone goes to Island Park for the festival, which this year included a beautiful old tortoise.

:-)

From AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com (only about 1 in 10 images are actually funny)

I was walking along Allen today listening to property law review audio files (really exciting stuff) and passed the lady in white. I looked back and it seemed like she was talking to me, and she waved me closer. She said that her friend (who I was... um... having a little trouble seeing) wanted to give me something. I held out my hand and she said, no, not me, him, so I shifted my hand toward where she was indicating and she said, I'm not sure how this works, but he has something for you. I waited a few more seconds and told her I think I got something, thank you very much. She seemed very pleased.

I have a $25 gift certificate to Shango Bistro & Wine Bar that expires 5/20/09 that I'm not going to have time to use (unless someone wants to go with me tonight). :-( Would anyone like it?

I also have two free admission tickets to the Albright-Knox permanent collection that expire 5/30/09 that I also don't have time to use. Anyone?

I took my work laptop with me when I last went to PA because, ya know, i was working... When I got back to Buffalo, the screen stayed dark instead of lighting up on boot. However, I could still see the images; they were just very faint. I googled up some answers - most likely cause: inverter board failure. Since my laptop is about three years old, I didn't want to invest a lot in a repair, so I found a used board on ebay and also got a new battery because mine's no longer holding a charge for more than 10 minutes of use. $80 for parts and I'll have a functioning laptop for at least a few more months.... or so I thought.

The package came Tuesday and I tried the battery - wrong battery. The list of compatible Toshibas on the ebay listing was huge and mine wasn't specifically excluded... :-(

I installed the inverter board Thursday night because Drew needs something that's stored on that computer and I was going to the church on Friday... 6 screws and two small pin connectors later, I had it installed... Boot up... yea! lights! for 10 seconds. WHAT??? 10 seconds?? try again. same result. #$*!*#$ not just an inverter board problem, it's also a backlight problem. So screw it, I need a functioning laptop for finals, I need a functioning laptop for work... I gotta buy a new laptop.

I'm posting all this just to make sure it is reasonable...

How's this Toshiba look to you geeks?

I like this Sony Vaio but an extra $250 for a better processor (and admittedly excellent sony hardware) doesn't seem worth it.


I'm very hard on my machines so I don't want to spend a lot on them for them just to break because I'm clumsy and dangerous.