Keith - That's just a photo-realistic finish I'm wearing! I could choose between 8 year old boy and goat, so I chose the one less likely to get hoof and mouth. Or maybe that's simply how young I *feel* when I get to play music with my friends. I know you can relate.
Dave - As for the house, thanks. It's waaaaay too much house for us, but it sits invisibly far back off the road in the woods (about 100 feet from where Tracy and I were married), and isn't completed yet. We did everything but the exterior log work and roof ourselves. Ugh. If I could do it over, I would have paid someone to build it. One day it will be finished (or nearly so) and then we can sell it and move to Nova Scotia or back to Alaska. One day...
We never considered the photo-realistic flooring, because it really doesn't stand a chance in a house with my family. We Fords are inclined to destroy that which we touch. We went with bamboo instead (save the trees and such) and are quite pleased.
I think if the Foto-finish gets a young person (or old) interested in picking up an affordable instrument to noodle around on, then that's not a bad thing. If the noodling comes to naught, then we haven't wasted a good tree. If things instead work out and the person continues to play, they will follow their bliss to something that resonates both musically and with their soul, and that's not a bad thing.
John