Dowling Family Web Home

My dad made a set of patio furniture for me, which is in need of a waterproof stain before I put it out on the patio. I finished the bench with a brush, but I wasn't happy with it. So I tried out my HVLP sprayer on one of the chairs.

I finally bought new tires for my motorcycle, replacing the original Dunlop's that came with the bike with a new pair of Metzler tires. Before I go on, if you're not a biker you won't appreciate how excited bikers get about a new pair of tires. I'll try to keep this relevant to non-bikers, but be warned that you might want to bail out now.

A couple years back I took an interest in hand cutting dovetails, and I found this great video on the Fine Woodworking website about how to do it. It made the layout pretty simple to follow.

Until recently I hadn't actually done anything about hand cutting dovetails. A couple of weeks ago, I decided that a) I needed to be out of the house and b) it was time to try cutting dovetails. I don't have a picture of my project handy, but it turned out not to be too bad.

Last night I discovered that saws are a lot like cars: sitting unused for extended periods does not improve them. My tools have sat idle since last fall, when I finished construction on my shed, mostly because this winter has been too cold to reasonably go outside and work in the garage.

I convinced Elena to do a little modeling for me, and we had some fun with the pictures. You can download her wanted poster below.

My Motorcycle Now that I've had the motorcycle for a few months I have a little more perspective on it. It's turned out to be really fantastic. There is still something a bit scary about being on a motorcycle, but at this point it's a good kind of scared. It's an exhilaration, a bit of an adrenaline rush.

President: Now Available in Black It's a happy day for me. Less so for my right-leaning wife and step son. This is something I've been waiting for since I was a kid: when a black man really could be elected president. To be sure, it took a perfect storm of circumstances. The Republican party needed to discredit itself with the public, and the candidate had to be somebody extraordinary.