Microblog

Built a test rig for the network I’ll set up in our new home. Devices connected to the switch in this prototype include: Google Wifi (mesh), OBiTALK (Google Voice VoIP), and Internet of Things (Samsung SmartThings, and Philips Hue).

Walked back from dinner at Cafe Alma.

Posted Don’t Touch the Concrete.

On a Nordeast Minneapolis walk with a friend, stopped into Hazel’s for a caloric brunch. Top-notch food, and art that demanded attention.

These are our Christmas decorations. The marquee of The Guthrie, advertising “A Christmas Carol,” the “Gold Medal Flour” neon atop Mill City Museum, and the swoosh (lit path in Gold Medal Park) provide additional decoration. We will unbox our other decorations, Christmas 2019.

As the sun set, listened to small groups of musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra playing Baroque to contemporary in an atrium of Orchestra Hall.

Visited Chicago’s Wrightwood 659, a new exhibition space designed by Tadao Ando. The current installation showcases Ando and Le Corbusier, an early influence on Ando. In one gallery, models built by Ando’s students of Le Corbusier’s designs, are displayed in chronological order.

Went on an architecture walk in Chicago, led by a wonderful volunteer docent.

On my Downtown walk, the windows of the Marquette Hotel distorted and reflected while the Foshay Tower stood tall.

Posted Finding Tadao Ando.

After admiring the extensive selection of oysters at Coastal Seafoods, opted for Atlantic salmon. On Tuesdays, seniors get 20% off everything.

Visited the new Bell Museum of natural history where I experienced a digital planetarium for the first time.

Last night’s snow was sliding off Mill City Museum as I walked in search of splashes of color.

Spent all day figuring out light bulbs. Settled on SORAA bulbs with these specs: Power: 7.5W, 9; Color temperature: 2700K (warm); Color Rendering Index: 95% (accurate); Beam: 10°, 25°, 36°, 60°. Incandescents were so much easier.

Enjoyed a murder at Theatre in the Round, the longest-running theater in Minneapolis: Agatha Christie’s “Go Back for Murder.” The staging of the second act was brilliant.

Walked Downtown to do errands. Paused to enjoy the patterns and symmetries in some of the hundreds of carefully cut marble slabs that side this 1966 building. It was designed by starchitect Minoru Yamasaki for the (then) Northwestern National Life Insurance Company.