[silverbullet5774]

Glad to hear you are feeling good tbk! I am gonna haveta ask my Botany prfessor about the tomatoes being a cause of stiff joints, thats very interesting. I can say from my experience to treat your hands good. When I first started learning 2 years ago I though I should be great overnight, it was a summer break when I got my first guitar so I pretty much had all the time I wanted to play. I started off practicing 10 hours every day but the weekends. Then I got ahold of some of the stuff from the John Petrucci DVD Rock Discipline and tried the stretching exercises. I couldn't do them and became so frustrated I started to stretch my fingers everywhere I went. This turned out to be a BAD idea. My fingers swelled up and hurt for about 2 weeks straight, and I learned my lesson that things must take time. I later learned of a famous composer named Schuman who was a piano player. He had done something similiar to what I had done and it destroyed his ability to play. Of course he could still compose, but I think at the end of the day Mr. Schuman wished he hadn't done it. I am very glad I learned my lesson fast.