eBay fun and wrong items, messing around with my fiddle, and new houseplants

Posted On January 15, 2022

Ah, the joys of eBay…

So, a while back I bought a pair of sequinned bellydance face veils because bullshit reasons.

I bought 2 thinking that down the road I might make them into a bra top or something.

This week, they arrived.

Well, not really.

See, I ordered 2 of these:

But I got 2 of these:

It’s like the eBay fairies heard the end plan and not the short-term plan.

And I’ve got boobs like Jessica Rabbit so ain’t no way I can wear these (B cup, I’m guessing?).

I did send photos to a more petite friend who I thought might be able to wear them but based on the measurements she figured they wouldn’t work for her either.

Sigh… well, I can always harvest the sequins and use them for some other project. For now, they’re still sitting on the corner of my desk.

In other eBay news that I hope will turn out more accurately, I’ve been wanting to jazz up my old, cheap fiddle and I decided to order a more ornate tailpiece and pegs:

I also need to get a new chinrest for my violin, because the ergonomics suck shit. I’ll head down to look for a couple options in Victoria; hopefully they’ll let me paw at them and try before I buy (or at least hold it up to my face and make sure the chin rest doesn’t hurt my jaw like the one that came with the violin does). But if not, chinrests are cheap, and I can always get a couple options, try them at home, and maybe return the losers.

I definitely need to get things set up better for the ergonomics, because I’d like to play more and start taking lessons, but I need to get a more comfortable set-up first.

Anyway, the tailpiece and pegs should be here in a month or two, and I will swap those out, along with some fine tuners I just ordered since the new tailpiece won’t have any.

I’m still thinking I kinda want to get a prettier fiddle, but for now this will work. I figure if I get a decent set up figured out on this one, then after keeping up with practise for at least a couple months, I may well go ahead and get an inlaid or carved fiddle off eBay and then I can have one in standard tuning and one in a more folksy tuning.

At least that’s my rationalization. LOL.

The clarinet will also be getting some upgrades, since my teacher is dropping hints that it’s time. I’ve got an old plastic Schreiber that I got a number of years ago used from Long & McQuade for a couple hundred bucks. The first step will be to get a wood replacement barrel, which I will order next week. It should make the sound much richer from what all the reviews I’ve heard say.

In other music news, I’m getting reacquainted with how to use MuseScore for typing up exercises for clarinet and violin and learning the hard way about concert pitch vs. transposition.

Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall.

Moving on… it’s that time of the year when I get a craving for fresh victims to neglect to death houseplants to brighten things up around here.

Who got placed in my office, by my iMac in the master, and on the kitchen sideboard:

Well, to be fair, not all house plants get neglected to death. I still have 2 orchids from a couple winters ago that are still alive (although they could use some repotting, I’m sure). And I do have a Norfolk Island pine from 3 Christmases ago, a couple cactuses, and a few other survivors, too, like the snake plant and Christmas cactus that inhabit the upstairs bathroom windowsill:

As for outside plants, the snow is mostly melted. And I’m almost getting the bug to do some weeding.

Almost.

Lastly, I’ve been having some fun with Irish translations for my web series: working on a script wherein Pádraig is teaching Nick some Irish phrases for his upcoming shows in Ireland.

eg:

“Remember Nick, ‘I have nothing to declare in my suitcase’ is “Tá buama i mo pholl'” *

“Hmm… that sounds like I’m talking about my bum or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, mate. I told you ‘buama’ means ‘nothing’.”

“Alright, Padraig. As long as you’re sure… because I don’t want some fat ugly Irish TSA woman with her 4-inch-long plastic claws poking around inside my backside. Bad enough that that happened the last time I flew into Atlanta.”

* Tá buama i mo pholl = There is a bomb in my ass. (It should be noted that Pádraig never says the Irish he’s teaching Nick has the meanings he’s telling Nick it has. Rather just “this is what you say in this circumstance.”)

Ah, Nick… you really should ask more questions. Or at least use the Google.

Anyway, no garden pics today. Next week, I promise. Maybe.