Mixing up hardware and software guitar tools

[David Coffin <dpcoffin@earthlink.net>]

Greetings, back from the cold a bit after a long absence and have no  
doubt missed a lot. I've sold off most of my hardware and am now  
exploring Guitar Rig (pretty cool how close I can come to the hardware  
glory days with that alone, I must say), but have the inevitable  
hankering after some hardware toys (Timebender!). So, any of you  
clever folk have some best-of-both-worlds tricks for using hard and  
soft FX and gear together? Or links to threads on same?
Thanks!
dpc