Well, my birthday is almost over. It’s been a fairly low-key affair this year, as I’m still trying to get my energy back after getting my ass kicked hard during term-end. Two months to go, and then it’s summer vacation… What did I do today? I ate one of my favourite foods (sushi). I listened to some damn fine music. I hung out with my “favourite person”:http://www.schubertsnose.com/ and my cats. And I did some reading and basically let the brain luxuriate in its own juices for a bit. All in all, not a bad way to celebrate 33 years of kicking out the jams. Speaking of which, seeing as how I’m going to have some time on my hands in the summer, I went out yesterday and bought myself a day-before-my-birthday gift: a Fender Standard Jazz bass. I used to own a bunch when I was playing semi-professionally, but when we moved back to Winnipeg from Toronto I did what I said I’d never do and sold them all. It was just cheaper and easier to just sell them; I didn’t have much nolstagic attachment to them any more, and I figured I’d replace them when we got settled. Well, it’s about time. I’ve been fooling around a bit since I moved back, but it’s always been with borrowed instruments, which never seems right. You can trust that photographic evidence will make its way here if I should make any face-reddening appearances on a stage in the near future. (And no, for those of you music geeks who would notice this kind of thing - the image of the Fender bass above is _not_ backwards. I’ll write a long rant about how it sometimes sucks to be a left-handed musician some other time.) I just hope I don’t drive Ren�e nuts with my practicing. Solo guitar sounds just fine - solo bass seems a bit pitiful, in a Spinal Tap kind of way.