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I checked out The Wooden Boats of Lake Leelanau show.

Well, it seems one person is anxious for this report on the simple mantle. The original idea was to make a mirror to cover a niche over the fireplace that had been occupied by a Madonna and Child sculpture for many years at Claire's family place in Michigan. The other idea was to incorporate decorative tiles made by a local artist that Claire's mom had collected. I built the mirror up here using vintage mirror glass that was in a basic frame and had Sat in the attic for decades. I milled some curly walnut from a chunky board I bought locally and also some nicely figured walnut from a chunk that was in the shop here for many years. Here is the mirror, with one place holder for a tile we have to add later: I didn't like how high the mirror Sat in order to cover most of the niche. Doug was here visiting for a few days so we decided to make some kind of mantle to add to the fireplace. I was thinking about walnut like the mirror but ultimately felt it did not match the simple room or the paneling that is pine, fir, or cedar or something in the soft wood family. The winning idea was to match the paneling to blend it in. In the shop, Doug immediately pointed out a 2 x 12 that was 6.5' long. I never would have thought about it but we used that to make the mantle. It was *just* wide enough and long enough to make a 6" deep top and the tapered legs. We drew out the legs on opposite ends of the remainder and used a jigsaw to separate them before using a tapering jig screwed to a long board to run it through the table saw. I also managed to get Doug to use the Kreg pocket jig and pocket screws to attach the top to the legs and the mantle to the wall. I still felt the mirror was too high. Claire and Doug separately suggested flipping the paneling boards above and below the niche so that the longer bottom boards were on the top and the pierced boards were on the bottom. Hard to explain without a before photo but here is the niche after I flipped them and made a new middle board from the former ledge shelf. I also really like the metal low profile French cleat I got for the mirror. So here's the mirror and the mantle as it is now. We are debating a little stain for the mantle versus waiting until it ages a bit, and secondly whether to chamfer the mantle edges or perhaps make a miter cut across the front to give the simple mantle a little visual interest.

Zoodles with cherry tomatoes, All from the garden.

Also in the absence of real diners, looking for a restaurant open weird hours, with a variety of items on the menu (last weeks favorite may be hated this week), and both a discounted kids menu and truly kids friendly (that was a learning experience)… well, the options narrow quickly. Basically Esmé popped and my relationship to Denny’s did a 180. And yes, also problematic Black Bear is preferred, though you lose the hours.

nah, this scrapey pointy thing But beware of getting a thumb in the way. Not really recommended - but it does work if needed. a little extra iron in my zoodles.

How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? Big Red Machine 2021 https://album.link/i/1571575880 Example: I went into this one blind, like I do with most new music. And it was all over the place, and in the end I really liked it. It has some Elliot Smith type stuff like the example. And then there are things that I didn't like. But there are songs with Anaïs Mitchell , Fleet Foxes and Taylor Swift among others. Just before posting I had to look them up.. helmed by Bon Iver's, Justin Vernon and the National's, Aaron Dessner, ah I understand more now and how they had pull of getting big names. Anyway, I think I will have to put this into rotation to figure it all out more.

That '41 Chris Craft gives me wood.

So, two woodworkers, both with incredible skills. One known for reasonable deadlines, the other known for projects that span the length of Halley's comets orbit around the Earth. Both known for biting off a lot. One of them is flying to the other, with a project in mind. The project? A simple fireplace mantle. Timespan? A few days. Absolutely no news so far! Tune in next week for the dramatic next episode in our serial... "Here, hold my wood."

We dumped health insurance (we used to have BUPA) four years ago. We don't have anything equivalent to Medicare. The NHS is free anyway - like totally free. Any shots you need are free for anyone. And if you are over 60 any prescription drugs are free too. The only downside is the length of waiting lists for what the NHS see as elective procedures (like hip replacements). And anything we need that is elective we'll pay for. So far an operation on a finger which cost £2k, around a third of the annual BUPA insurance cost. But is our NHS in crisis? Well yes. They are currently a total of 40,000 short in staff numbers. And ambulance response times, supposed to be less than 15 minutes are currently around an hour. And that is a critical problem if you have a heart attack or a stroke. Why are the NHS short of staff? Well - underinvestment by successive Tory governments as a result of an "austerity" program post 2008, and Brexit (also a Tory failure piled of failure). I'm starting to sound like a Johnathan Pie rant! Or as my son says, an old man shouting at clouds. I remind him that once I was a young man who also shouted at clouds!

Going to build an outdoor version of this. Found some 8/4 Sapele for most of the build but trying to come up with an outdoor wood for the accent slats. White Oak? Any other ideas?

I think the more interesting question is why are you eating at Denny's?

Lou Reed's Words & Music, May 1965 Ex.

Annihilator "Alice in Hell" Very cool the instrumental "Crystal Ann" with Spanish guitars and acoustic guitars

Day 4.

According to Doug's tutorial on I-bonds, you could just set up a bunch of LLCs for $50 in filling fees each and pay for much of your equipment costs without all the other hassles.

Bonus question. I have now 6 orders for chairs from locals. Is anyone here using Section 179 to write off their equipment and setting up official businesses for tax purposes? I could use a Naaman level CNC and Hammer Jointer.

R28 and R29 are the bleed resistors for the DC output (typically 400V or 450V). R30/31 & R32/33 are for the DC input and are in series since the voltages they see will likely be above 500V. In general, the capacitor bleed resistors are set to around .4W to .45W or thereabout - independent of whether they are in series or not. They can be a bit more or less. I usually like less. Any values that get you close are fine. Just make sure they are still 500V each and at least 1W. This chip storage is mentally fatiguing... or... a great way to hone your skills. Pick one

Here is my CFA2 built on dip 16 sockets as 2 balanced dual mono amps with 2 GRLV power supplies (also built on dip 16 sockets). Balanced input is from a Benchmark DAC and balanced output is to Grado PS500e with Mogami quad 2534 cable (each amp cabled to each ear). There are eight sockets with 125 pins used (3 pins are not used on the opamp) and 40 wires. Six wires go the the heatsink components. First channel is running 150 mA bias and DC offset was 30 mV without the opamp, 0.2 mV with it. Still have to build the other three channels.

Also why is the seniors discounted menu at Denny's basically the children's menu? Mmm jr. grilled cheese.

I'm being pelted by Medicare offers. Calls, emails, mail offers every day. Starting to get those final resting place ads as well. Getting old sucks.

This was actually yesterday. We went to Oxford to a concert by this wind quintet https://lumaswinds.com/ . First rate professional musicians. Three fiendishly difficult pieces https://lumaswinds.com/concert/university-church-oxford/ Astonishingly for such amazing musicians, the concert was free! And because we are now "senior citizens" we have a bus pass that gives us free travel. And the bus stop is within a hundred yards of our house. What is not to like? We got away with "free" before we blew out on a meal at Quod https://www.quod.co.uk/ 🍽️

I'm being all butch again. Thursday dinner with Dorothy Corrin and Alden.

The Salzburg Recital (Live) Evgeny Kissin 2022 https://album.link/i/1630346272 Example: Kissen doing Kissen things - and that is a good thing. Interesting how he can make Gershwin sound like a Russian composer. But most of the performance is really good and a nice simple clean DG recording.

Took my 13 year old grandson Logan up to see the Mariners vs Padres yesterday. It was his first ball game as well as his first train ride and his first time to Seattle. Fortunately we squeezed in before the rail strike caused a bunch of cancellations. It was a great day. Perfect weather and the short walk from King Station to T-Mobile Park takes you right by the Seahawks stadium so it was cool to see that. It was Hispanic Heritage Day and Rodriguez and Suarez both homered in the 1st inning so that was pretty badass. Mariners won 6-1. I am really liking the M's this year. Rodriguez is the real deal and Saurez is a beast, and they have good defense and pitching so the pieces are in place for a deep playoff run 🤞 I am a bit of a purist so in the past I was always a National League guy because I hated the DH rule and I loved the chess game-within-the-game and small ball type baseball. Now, given the ubiquity of the DH rule, I have decided to dump the Dodgers and go full rabid fan on the Mariners. I just can't do the Dodgers anymore. They are the new Yankees (best team money can buy). So GO MARINERS!!! The other American League team I thought about are the Angels. The Angels and I were both born in LA in the same year and I really like Ohtani but I don't think he's going to be an Angel for long and in the end I decided to go NW local. I also looked hard @ the Rays because I admire how they are perennially competitive despite their relatively low salary and TB is my initials 😆. Speaking of purism: stop fucking with baseball! The rule next year forbidding shifts is ridiculous. They should play wherever the hell is most strategic and if it's causing you grief as a hitter then learn to go opposite field. Adapt. Although I suppose the shift is a relatively recent phenomenon so I dunno. Seems like they are trying to make the game more offensively oriented and for me a 1-0 pitcher's duel is a thing of beauty. So crack a cold one Al, there is one less Dodgers fan 🍻

Been playing with Cobalt digital emulations as they’re currently on sale. They’re model based, so in these cases specifically Leica SL2 to match specifically first Leica M Monochrom (M9M). Still have to tweak, but leaning heavily, too heavily, into blacks, they’re promising.

My guess is the purple is purple cayenne, the thin red ones are arbol, and the chubby red ones are fresno.

We call them tomatoes.

Upgraded awhile ago. No issues. Same thing without the sharp edges and menu In center rather than left corner.