Jan’s new guitar is awesome.

So pretty. So versatile. So rich and mellow and prettyful. It really fills in some of the songs in our repertoire.

She has a new mandolin, too.

Of course, now I want in on the second (or third) instrument bandwagon, so I’m looking at things like this and this. Of course, one never buys an instrument through an online auction because one cannot test it, and one is stuck with it, and it always ends up costing more than one thinks it will. But these aren’t the ubiquitous Yamaha or Zeta silent/electric models, and I’d be interested in trying one out in order to get an idea of what they sound like. Not that I’ve tried the Yamahas or Zetas. There’s not much point in creating the opportunity for falling in love if I can’t buy one. It’s more sensible to avoid the potential altogether.

Last week’s rehearsal was phenomenal and everyone walked away happy; we did a lot of music-only work because our vocalist was out of town, and we ended up impressing ourselves with how on the music is most of the time. When the vocals are laid over it we listen to them instead, so we tend to miss how rich the musical lines underlying the voice are. Without the vocals to distract us we heard each instrument and learned exactly what everyone’s playing at any given time. Today we didn’t leave on such a high, but we got work done. We played some songs that we haven’t played for about a month, many which require vocals for timing, and they too were better than we expected them to be after so long away from them. And we worked our first original some more too, firming up the vocal/bass/guitar lines, which in turn will form the foundation for the sax, and soon we can add the percussion beat as well.

I came home tired but looking forward to our outing this afternoon, when we took Liam out to buy more fish! We talked to a staff member about water conditioner and additives too, so hopefully these three new fishy slaves will entertain the prince for a good long time.

While we were out we stopped off to feed some cats whose people are off holidaying, and while we were there Liam grabbed the handle of a little doll stroller and toddled off with it. He took a good six or so steps with my hands positioned an inch or two behind his back to catch him should he fall, but he did quite well on his own. It was very satisfying to watch him, particularly since he’s shown almost no interest in walking up to this point. He crawls like he’s in the Grand Prix; walking holding onto someone’s hands is just too slow for him when he can drop to all fours and race off on his own.

The day began early when a nurse stopped by to do our medical interview and sample-taking for our insurance application, and it’s now very definitely bedtime.