Here you see the materials required for a french polish (not pictured: extra-fine pumice, which will be purchased soon.)  First off, I love how all of the materials appear as if they were purchased sometime in the late 1950’s.  I imagine Sarah Dukes is loving the aesthetics of it all… Anyway, back to the point.  […]

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OK everyone, it’s time to have a frank discussion: you are driving me crazy.  Lately several of you have taken up the habit of Facebook status update spam, wherein you select any number of obvious causes and write up or repost a schlocky call to arms (usually in all caps, indicating yelling like a braying […]

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Dad’s ukulele is ready for finishing!  All I had to do today was unclamp the fretboard and do some final sanding on the neck.  The masking tape on the bridge covers the area where the bridge will be attached, and this is done after the finishing is complete.  I just got done ordering around $100 […]

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It’s the Fourth of July again!  Mine started off with a decadent session of sleeping in, followed by some reheated pizza for lunch.  After some tummy time with Eve, I headed out to the workshop to get two of my projects further underway.  As you can see from the first photo, I got the fretboard […]

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Tonight was D&D night, our first one in two months.  We opted to play in the living room tonight, which was a welcome change of pace.  We didn’t get a ton of gaming done, but we did have a really good Easter-style potluck… ham, au-gratin potatoes with our normal D&D fare for dessert.  It was […]

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I think this week was the longest stretch that I haven’t been blogging for awhile, not quite sure what happened there… going to chalk this one up to the joys of fatherhood. On Wednesday, I crushed my big toe.  I was walking through the basement and bumped the wooden high chair, which is down there […]

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Saturday was my day to relax, so Tasha watched Eve while I worked on Dad’s ukulele.  I succeeded in getting the front binding on and filled.  Most of the afternoon was spent sanding and scraping and there’s still more to go.  I created a Facebook album to chronicle the progress, it is coming along well!  […]

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This, friends, is the most terrible device ever to be allowed in a karate dojo. Tonight’s workout began with sparring basics: jab, reverse punch, jab-reverse punch, reverse punch-jab, front leg front kick/jab/reverse punch and the like.  We did these in a circle until the group was nice and sweaty.  Then we started in on the […]

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Sensei Tarrant provided a rare dan test preparation class on Tuesday night, with six black belts in attendance.  We went through the test combinations that he wrote down from an exam three years ago.  My Pekin dojomates may be interested to know that several of our old classics made an appearance: sanbon-zuki (three punches), jab […]

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Today was my first Father’s Day, ushered in with the decadent pleasure of sleeping in until it was nearly time to go to Church.  My darling daughter has somehow acquired the ability to purchase a card and write quite legibly at the ripe old age of nearly three-months so I got a really nice Father’s […]

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