THE MACKENZIE!!!!

Yesterday was the day for the Ohio Scottish Games. Although I have Irish ancestors, I do not believe that there were any Scots. But, being married to a Scot works. We had an enjoyable day, temp about 75 after having thunderstorms for the previous 3 days with flooding. but not our PERSONAL flooding, thank goodness.

This is the guy we call Gimli (for some reason) showing Kevin how to put on a REAL kilt. you lay it on the ground. leave a piece, whatever your width is, then start making folds of it on the ground until you only have a width size left. then you lay down so that the bottom is just above your knees. oh, sometime, you slipped a belt under the folds on the grass at whatever the length to your knees are. you pull the far side over your front, the near side over it, and buckle the belt. then, you stand up. the piece that now falls in front is longer than the one underneath. you can pull this up over your head if it is cold and rainy. you can connect the corners to put plaid on your front and back. or you can tuck in the corners and leave the back long. that's what gimli does. he said that those people who had their kilts with sewn-in pleats were not wearing kilts, they were wearing " catholic school girls' skirts"!!

This is Kevin at home wearing his catholic school girls' skirt MacKenzie Tartan and waving his footlong dagger. It is a dress dagger, he found out.

David in the Black Watch Tartan which was military, and you could be any clan when you wore it. Kevo in the MacKenzie.

A closer view....
This is a great traditional shot, missing only Ryan

We saw caber tossing, the march of the clans, the bands. pretty cool. david checked out a kids' game area to see how to adapt the scottish games for the reunion. oh, the vendors. kevin bought a mackenzie kilt, a dagger, and a (phonetically) skahn dee. you'll see.....

am missing my fam. wish you were closer.

love, mom

The wanderings....

So I went wandering down to cincinnati last thursday to last monday. i had fun. the kids were pretty open to me, and i got to play with all of them. of course, if carolyn is in the room, all bets are off with joel. i went swimming on the way home, so i could get some exercise.

we get a new garage door today. i am waiting for them. this is because the city likes our neighborhood and cited many of us for peeling paint on garage doors. we were also cited for the trim on the house needing painting. this is all true. so david is doing outside stuff until it's done. then, back to the basement.

kerry and braden get internet acces on friday. that's cool. maybe we can IM or have them finish their blog.... i love to know what is going on.

see ya soon. esp those going to virginia.

love, mama