There's News and There's NEWS.

As mentined on the home page I'm getting married in October to Ingrid Frances Stark. We met several years ago when I was hosting the Open Mic at Mother Fool's Coffeehouse in Madison, WI. If I have the timing right, that means that we must have met when I was still married to Pat Lisle (who passed away in January of 2002). My earliest memory of Ingrid is from just after I became the regular host of the Open Mic at the now defunct Speed Jump Java Joint (how's THAT for a coffehouse name) in Madison. From that point, we clicked almost immediately. We have, from that start, been interacting like two people who have already been married for quite some time. In July of 2004 we moved in together. This past spring we decided to make it all official and take the vows. We chose Oct.8th because A) it falls on a Saturday, so none of our friends or family will have too much trouble getting out here to attend, and B) because it falls on the day between my birthday and her mother's birthday thus leaving niether one of us a decent excuse for forgetting our anniversary. The tile of this entry, however is about news. Recently I sent out the folowing e-mail to the people on my monthly mailing list. "Howdy! I'll say one last word about Hurricane Katrina and then I'll shut up about it. I've put my money where my mouth is. The profits for sales of the CD anthologies "Acoustic Dog: Volume 1" (Pachanga Records) and "Tappin' Out A Rhythm. Pickin' Out A Tune" (Travenia Records), and my solo CD "Facing Monday" if purchased from CD Baby.com will go to the American Red Cross through the end of September. Meanwhile, back at the ranch the Open Mic @ Urban Market and Coffeehouse (1 Sherman Terrace, Madison, WI) is still going strong every Friday night @ 7:00pm CDT. I'll be the host up through Oct.7th. I'll be taking a couple of weeks off after that because I'm getting married. Bowen Marvik will fill in on Oct.14th and Aaron Nathans will take the duty on Oct.21st. We'd love to see you there. Please, join us to play or to listen. The BIG news is that Sandy Andina and I have finally finished our CD "Because We Can". It should be available through CD Baby.com before the end of the month. Meanwhile, you can hear a couple of tracks from it on my website." I've been taken to task for mentioning the wedding in passing and playing up the Andina and Rich CD as the "Big News". As I mentioned, we became engaged last spring. All of our friends and family have known about it since then. The planning and worry over putting the whole thing together is, at the moment, an ongiong part of our lives. It's not news. The newly finished CD, however, is. Thanks to all who have sent congatulatory e-mails. We'll try our best not to screw this up. More later. Be well. Stephen Lee

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