Nixie Tubes

My early experiences with electronics was at the very end of the tube era. Five & Dime stores still sold replacement vacuum tubes for television sets and radios. Did anyone actually buy them, though? Not sure. Apple II and Commodore computers were already commonplace. Tubes still fascinated me, and in the past several years I…

White Whale

Being a bit OCD and having far too many interests, I’ve found myself suffering the “White Whale” on more than one occasion. “Call me Ishmeal…,” and all that. More appropriately, “Call me Ahab.” I become fixated, but I’m also lucky enough to recognize that character flaw trait. 😉 This led to an art project I…

Artistic Metalwork

Another of my many hobbies is artistic metalwork. Back in 2015, after years of Melissa asking for cafe lights in our backyard, I designed and fabricated three light poles in an Art Nouveau style. My goal was to bridge both the cafe lights common in French cafes with the famous Art Nouveau styles of Paris…

Letterpress

One of my hobbies and passions is letterpress printing: both the product (e.g., cards, stationary, art) and the activity. Since this is a new version of my blog, it does not have the years of prior posts — including those documenting my letterpress work. To attempt a remedy for that shortcoming, I’ve put together a…

Micro-Trenched Fiber Optic

One of the many, many projects on my home project list was to run wired network connectivity between our house and the garage (which is a physically separate building). The existing WiFi extension to the garage proved widely variable and generally unreliable. It’s no fun to be in the middle of a Peloton class and…

Sourdough Loaf

Since I’ve got this sourdough starter sharing the kitchen, why not throw together a sourdough sandwich loaf? Unlike the bread I made in a previous post, the loaf was exceptionally simple and fast. Dangerously fast. As in: I have to stop making bread before it does bad things for my health.

Sourdough

Baking is not something that comes natural for me. (Cooking is where I tend to shine.) This never stopped me from trying to make something fantastic, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at a natural sourdough bread. Being homebound for the past several weeks has given me the perfect opportunity to do so….

Surviving Fourteen

Tapas turns fourteen this month. Fourteen is definitely getting up there in the life expectancy for a chihuahua. However, Tapas has been a very healthy dog his entire life. Because of that, it came as quite a shock when he became deathly ill last week and had to spend several days at the pet hospital…