So, yesterday I find out MSSS is pregnant. Last night, Mrs. NFB and myself figured out that she's timed it so that she'll be full-term almost EXACTLY when her husband's current coaching contract runs out. So there's a chance that she'll be having the baby outside of current insurance coverage. That is, if she plays it right and convinces him not to get COBRA coverage or allow him to get another job lined up immediately following his current one.

BRILLIANT!

Then you've got the wonderful story of the kids upstairs huffing dusting air.

Then there was the bus wreck. A car swerved into a bus and knocked it off the road and tipped it over. I think only the car driver died, and a bunch of people on the bus were injured. Mrs. NFB knows the guy who owned the bus. Something like 58 passengers and 54 of them were injured in some small way. A few of them severely.

And then we wake up this morning to the thunder/snow-storm. Truly, the end is upon us.

I told Mrs. NFB that it just may be the end of the world. Her response, "Wouldn't that be nice. I could use the time off."

Can't say I disagree really.

BREAK

I got my order from the fiddle shop last night. New strings, a pickup, and a pre-amp. I spent a good chunk of time filing my bridge so the little transducer would fit under it, then replaced my strings, then hooked up to the computer and played.

Wow. The strings made quite the difference. Through the audio system you'd almost think this was a quality instrument. It may not need replaced after all.

I fiddled around a bit (<--pun intended), then flipped over to one of my favorite guitar patches, kicked on some stereo modulation, and started bowing. The results were pretty surprising. I was a bit worried it would harsh up the bowed notes way too much and I'd have to back off the gain. The truth is that it just made the notes sound fuller, and rings after the bow is removed from the string sounded more complete, more soft-faded than they do acoustically. Outside of that, it just sounded like a violin, but bigger.

Nothing recorded that's worth sharing yet, but I have things circulating that I'll be trying in the near future. This is an early week so by the time I got done re-stringing, re-tuning and getting everything put together I just didn't have time to work on a real song. This weekend or next week though, you'll get to hear my supah-distorted violin prowess. Unless something unexpected happens.

That's about it. Outz.