§ My annual springtime battle with the neighborhood deer community kicked off this week with some nocturnal noshing on my raspberry and strawberry plants.

§ I only really have something like 30 sq. ft. of prime full-sun garden space. Less if you consider the area taken up by established perennials. So deciding what new plants to experiment with each year is always a challenge.

I had completely forgotten I planted asparagus a few weeks ago until all of a sudden I noticed an unmistakable spear sticking up out of the soil, already almost half a foot tall. I guess at peak season they can grow more than two inches per day.

§ One of the new quail might have bumblefoot—a silly name for a not so silly infection.

§ I was wrong, my new glasses were spotted less than an hour after wearing them at work for the first time. I have a sneaking suspicion that other people noticed something about my face was different but they don’t have the confidence to ask.

§ I’ve been spending a bunch of my down time researching potential locations for my honeymoon in July. The one firm requirement is that it must be a reasonable driving distance from Cleveland. Ontario is looking like a serious contender—Tobermory by way of Toronto?

§ I was able to finally recreate my favorite kimchi soup—the one served at Tree Country in Coventry. It’s been more than a year since my last try which wasn’t even close. I think the key, this time was using a dashi base.

Now, I will say, a spicy soup isn’t a great warm weather meal and the fact that I made a big batch of this right before a string of 80° days was a little bit silly.

§ Late Night with the Devil was weird, risky, ambitious, and fun. Recommend!

§ At work we are building a nearly 10,000 sq. ft. interactive replica of the International Space Station entirely out of clear packing tape. Think Numen For Use but space age. My job is to make it look less like a series of interconnected tape cylinders and more like, well, the ISS. My best hope is projection mapping but also have you ever tried projecting on tape? It’s both translucent and reflective—neither exactly ideal qualities for this type of thing.

§ Links

  • It turns out the Rabbit R1, the cute orange AI gadget, is basically an android phone under the hood. I think that’s fine? Expected even? How else would you reasonably build a device like this?
  • Keenan’s review of “Float On” is beautiful