Calgary is cold. The people have been fabulous and their warmth has made up for the frigid wind howling down the city streets. And the food has been AMAZING! I don't think "amazing food", let alone amazing vegetarian food when Calgary (land of the fat cows) comes to mind, but I will have to re-program this part of my thinking. Vegetarian oil barrens? Hmmmm.... I had the most awesome veg food at this miniature restaurant called the "Coup". I am salivating just remembering the experience.... And a very cool space too, and I liked how even the servers were miniature! (I am only 5'4 and I felt like a giant!)

So last night we played in this very large church in Calgary and in the middle of sound check we started joking around about playing the pipe organ. Then just for the fun of it I ran up the 22 flights of stairs (maybe a bit of an exageration? or not?) to where the organ command station was located. This think was like the turbo dual engine ferrari of pipe organs. There were two keys which one had to turn to engage the machine, and more keyboards and stops and knobs and buttons than an octopus could dream of. (Of course octopus's don't have fingers, which could potentially pose a problem, although I don't doubt the dexterity of the talented octopi). So I started playing a few notes-- WOW! I loved the Colon shakers down in the low register. So did Jim. And Hugh. So guess what? Yep, we added pipe organ to one of the tunes last night. I already love running bewteen the fiddle and the piano on stage, but the joy of bounding up and up and up the stairs in the middle of the show leaving audience members wondering where I was off to and then re-appearing in the highest reaches of the church balcony seated at the pipe organ...well, I was silently giggling and actually tingling with excitement. So then I just waited a few verses to come in, which was also great, because it added to the suspense and gave me time to figure out where to put my feet. Then the pipes entered.

You just had to be there-- it was something else.

(The song was "The Fires of Calais", for those curious to know.)

Well, it's off to Banff. Bye for now...

Jaime