Well, here's something wonderful: a Dutch university student has scanned an antique printing of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, and made it available online. All the images total to around five megabytes total, so it's no large feat to check it out.

Yesterday was very different, and I couldn't be more glad about that. In the early afternoon my cousin John, along with a woman I'd never met before, knocked on our door. She is also a cousin, named Delmarie (pardon if I'm spelling it wrong). She bought her mother's little plot of land up the road, and she has (along with her husband) rebuilt the little house there, making a nice place to stay for a few weeks (she lives somewhere west of here).

They were here to invite us to a family cook-out, and I was quite excited to go. I knew most of the people there - compared to early childhood reunions that is a grand feat. Not only would we fill anyplace we went at the time, but I was too shy to really recognize anyone. We looked at their house (a brilliant little place), talked a lot, and eventually ate when everyone else arrived. Around ten, it already mostly dark around us, cousin Kevin and Steve (of indeterminate relation, for now) brought guitars, and I retrieved my harmonica. I think everyone there ended up saying they thought I sounded good (their tones said they were surprised). We played for a few hours. I was struck by the beauty of the whole thing when I leaned back in my chair (while Kevin and Glen discussed songs, trying to remember something to play) and saw the stars begin to glow above us. One had to lean back, we were sitting underneath a tree, the four of us, with everyone else arrayed before us.

It was too damp and cool to even try the bodhran, but I showed most everyone how it worked and pulled a few awful tones from its loose, saggy skin. Glen seemed interested (he's the drummer in Kevin's fantastic band), but it wouldn't do much good at all to tell him about Failte Imports, as he's from Ohio.

Kevin was here this afternoon when I woke up, and among other things it appears cousin Tony works at a hospital in Kettering. I wonder if this is the same Tony who headed up Bramble (a now-disbanded band) that was so good. Hm.