–One more dreary day.
–Made another sheet pan pizza, with Jack cheese this time. Not great.
Month: January 2024 (Page 3 of 4)
–Big recycling toter got swapped in today.
–Revived Affinity Photo. Removed most fluff from most menus. Develop is the only persona I need now, with a keyset command for Export. It is blazingly fast (not necessarily because of my customization), MUCH faster than Lightroom, which was turning on my computer fan and being extremely sluggish with big Leica SL2 photos. Don’t know why it took so long for me to do this.
–Started cleaning up Christmas stuff.
–Took a look at Sherry’s downspout that’s leaking on our fence. Got the snake to where it goes underground (I think), but no further. She’ll have her gutter guy come out to take a look at it.
–Slow day. Made a sheet pan pizza from a recipe in the Cooks Illustrated book. Not bad, not great.
–Another dismal, dank, cold day, with not enough rain to make it worthwhile.
–Played with knives, had amazing success getting many Shams to open easily, close hydraulically. Opening seemed mostly a function of lockbar pressure (I don’t have my spiffy new arbor press yet to play with detent ball height); while closing was related to pivot tightness.
–Played with knives, mostly. Discovered the little arbor press I got (220 pounds) was not enough for detent balls. Ordered a 1 ton press (with ram stop) from Amazon. That will work.
–Took Grace to Dr. Firoz–no news. Took us both to the dentist. Grace had a cleaning, I had a filling and crown (started). Pretty uncomfortable.
–Proxxon arbor press came in. Nicely made (especially for the price). Tried it on a hard-to-open Shamwari detent ball, and it worked! I could feel the ball moving in (which was scary, actually). Highlights the need for a very smooth rack and pinion mechanism, so you can feel the knife, not the machine.
–Bad news in the neighborhood: homeless guys sitting in front of Bel Air and Rite-Aid, and further mailbox tampering in Miners Village. Crap.
–Picked up Swarovski crystals at UPS: too small I think.
–Tried to sort out all my cameras. Did okay. Just missing the box for the D-Lux 7. Can’t imagine it came without one (it came with a manual), but I sure don’t see it.
–Went to Target with Grace for sundries. I had breakfast (and bought a dozen bagels) at the nearby Bagel Cafe (formerly New York Bagels, I’m pretty sure). Still run by Asians, likely the future source of bagels.
–Played with cameras again. Resurrected the Leica C-Lux, which I had forgotten I had. Heckuva camera: 20 megapixels and huge zoom range. Seems to take a decent picture. I guess I had gone with the D-Lux 7 because of its low-light lens (f1.7)–not something one really needs much on a point-and-shoot zoom camera. Also: After looking at (and getting dangerously close to buying) a Canon 1 DS or DX, I looked anew at the 5D Mark II I have. Turns out it has 20 megapixels, not the 6 or so I had thought. Also read up on the 50mm 1.4 lens on that camera: seems to be a dog. Put an offer at eBay on a Tamron 45mm that got high marks at reddit for its auto focus and shapness. Hoping that will turn the 5D into a really nice vintage digital camera.
–Pizza for dinner: Grace’s instant pot meal didn’t firm up.
–Went to Bel Air for bagels. Cinnamon, blueberry, sourdough cheese garlic, everything, cheese—not a plain bagel in sight.
–Took a shower and shave.