Lisa and I spent most of the day out of the house. Since we've gotten Carly we haven't done that so much, and it was nice to take the opportunity. As far as we can tell, the doggy did fine on her own — she seems to have a bladder of steel anyway.
We went to a farmer's market downtown that's held in the building used by a culinary school, which means we got to see food being made as well as sold. The main reason for going was an amazing carrot cake made by a local woman, and sold at one of our favorite restaurants, Lula Cafe. I had called her asking where I could buy her cakes elsewhere, and she told me about this market. Today we bought a couple slices, but she also gave some advice on making cakes, including where to buy larger pans and other good kitchenware.
Later on we saw John McCutcheon at the Old Town School. The show was excellent. He's a great performer, storyteller, and a totally badass hammered dulcimer player. As an encore, he performed some hambone (body percussion) which was cool and made me want to work on it.
In a fit of inspiration and folly, I also picked up an irish tin whistle in the Old Town School's music store. Fortunately, this flight of fancy is less expensive than a set of uilleann pipes, or even a guitar, so if I ended up going nowhere with it, no big deal. Many of the bodhran players I've met here try to play whistle, and I figure it might help me learn tunes if I get somewhat competent on it. We'll see. Maybe I'll just be another idiot drummer with a whistle.
After we got back, and got jumped all over by the dog, we wrapped up our day watching The Closet, another wonderful movie from French director Francis Veber (who also directed one of my all-time favorites, The Dinner Game. The Closet is about an accountant who gets fired from his job at a rubber manufacturer, and for a variety of reasons thinks he's ready to kill himself. His new neighbor comes up with a scheme for him to make the company think he's gay, so they'll rehire him to avoid a potential scandal for discrimination. It goes on from there with great scenes, wonderful acting, and a variety of great comic touches that Veber knocked my out with in the Dinner Game. I highly recommend this movie. Strangely, the main character's last name is Pignon, just like it was in the other movie. Is there something inherently funny about that name in French? One other note: allegedly it's based somewhat on Herman Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener, although I have no memory for the story and can't say.
No session at the Abbey tonight, so I've been home looking at whistle tutorials and reading comics instead. My bodhran is ready, too, so I am going tomorrow to get it. I won't be able to play it until later in the week when the skins are fully dried out, but I can't wait just the same. My first green drum, how exciting!