Mandolin

Today I bought a mandolin, which I've been wanting to do for a long time. It wasn't my top choice instrument, but it was a great deal. I'm picking it up tomorrow.
R$175 for the instrument, an extra set of strings, a padded gigbag, strap, strap pegs, picks, and free labor for installing the strap pegs.
That's about US$55.

In Boston the instrument alone would probably cost about US$80.

I intend to play lots of choro with it. And of course, bluegrass.

hands-free; bill-paying in Brazil; traffic fine; other violins

A couple weeks ago, I bought a hands-free kit for my cell phone, with built-in mic and speaker. It works ok, although it's not as loud as I'd like.

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Bill-paying in Brazil is a pain in the ass. No one trusts the mail with checks.
I think the usual process is to pay the bill at a bank and getting a receipt for it. Unfortunately, banks tend to have huge lines (up to 2 hours). Fortunately, privileged as we are, we have a driver to take care of that kind of shit.

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Fines:
I got fined by the traffic police.
The reality: I wanted to turn left, but it was illegal. When I saw that, I drove through, stopped for a few seconds, and made a U-turn. This may have been illegal, but the two charges that arrived, "stopping at intersection" and "attempt to turn left at an illegal spot", are both false; but strangely, I may choose not to fight it. The car is in the name of my dad's company, so nobody is going to lose points in their driver's license (what a loophole!), unless I fight, in which case they will know who the driver was.

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Last week I saw 2 violins and 1 viola played by people other than me: classical/MP# violinist at Boca-Livre (free lunch) in Shopping Casa Forte, a noise-metal violinist at Garagem, and violist at a Ska band at La Prensa. I intend to jam with the latter at some point.