A Violin!

One day a friend emailed to tell me that he was sending me a package.... A violin! I haven't played violin in years (I've played cello since I was nine or ten, and fiddled with the violin - no puns intended - before that a bit).

It arrived over a month ago, and I instantly downloaded some Etudes, scales, and lots of pieces I can't play by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and the like. I set immediately to practicing scales on an instrument I hadn't played in over a decade, and hoping my ear had been accurate enough to tune it without a piano. After repeated groans from the bedroom, my friend Jess laughed, "You don't have to master it in a day!"

Dad and Antoine decided Rachel playing the violin was a fun photo subject.