Agfa folding camera i got for $15 many years ago at an antique store. I've shot many rolls of 120 Tri-X through it, it's a really nice departure from my usual digital shooting.

My house in St. Paul, MN was built in 1909. That's about average for my neighborhood, which was newly platted in the late 1880s, and only about 1/2-built by 1910, according to maps from the MN Historical Society. There was definitely even earlier houses here though, as i've found older nails and pottery while digging new stair footings outside the foundation. I grew up in houses built from 1900 to the '50s to brand-new '70s construction, and always love looking at the structure and detail of older homes. You can see an interesting shift in people's housing priorities over the years, away from front porches toward backyard decks and away from alleys in favor of front drives and prominent garages. I also like to see remodeling work and the ways people adapt houses to new trends and technology. I'm just now finishing a kitchen reorganization to account for using a refrigerator, probably 75 years after the house's ice box was decommissioned. There's a neat poster that shows the various types of architecture in American homes, all the way to the current trend of hideous suburban mansions, very useful for knowing the general families of styles. http://popchartlab.com/collections/prints-architecture/products/the-architecture-of-american-houses

I'll add to the number of happy users of the hand grinder. I rarely make more than 2 cups at a time, and hate the waste of the K-cup machines, so for me and my girlfriend, the hand grinder & aeropress combo is perfect. I've been hand-grinding my daily coffee for 2 years now and i love how simple, (relatively) quiet, and consistent it is, and we have coffee in the time it takes to heat water + about 90 seconds.

I'm late to this, but i saw the large exhibit at the Mpls Photo Center last weekend before it closed, and loved it. I'm happy they'll have a permanent exhibit of her work (as Hudson linked above). As part of the exhibit they showed the BBC documentary on Vivian, and it has a lost of background on her life, great stuff. I haven't read the books yet, not sure how much of this was already known, but such a great story. They talked with all of the major holders of Maier's work except for John Maloof, who refused because of his own project. It left me sad that there isn't more cooperation between the current owners. I want to believe that Maloof and the others have her work's' best interest at heart, but this protectionism felt more like exploitation than preservation.

As i prepared to go to my dad's funeral last week, i grabbed several photos from a literal shoebox of barely-organized prints from my childhood. My rate of photography has gone up greatly in the last few years, and i certainly could have printed more recent photos of dad and his grandkids, but i don't have a good printer and didn't want to deal with the low ink in my printer, or risk bringing lousy prints at the last minute. My dad, having retired halfway across the country, always wanted more pictures of the kids, and the value of those everyday candid shots really came home when i found those pictures of use together over the years. I'm pretty good about keeping my current pictures organized, but i'm also going to make a habit of periodically having sets of those snaps printed just to keep around the house. Because for me, at least, it's more fun to dig through a shoebox of photos than a folder from an old hard drive.

I occasionally have the same problem with my kids, who like the pictures i get, but sometimes hate to be the subject. I do a similar bargain of just asking for a couple of minutes, but i request it as a photo for my dad who lives half the country away and always wants new pictures of the kids. When they won't pose for me, they'll often give a couple of shots for grandpa.

I'm also a bagaholic, but more for bike bags. I've owned lovely saddlebags and panniers from Carradice and Rivendell (made by Duluth Pack), and i've made my own canvas and leather bags too. For cameras i've mainly made do with other bags, other than a small Crumpler that i like well enough. I haven't settled on a camera bag of my preferred canvas style mainly because it's hard to find them in stores near me, and i hate buying options online just to return half of them. This series has helped a lot though, thanks for running it!

I was going to suggest the same thing that John does above; fix the drainage issues in the basement and make that usable space. A friend of mine did just that, with drainage tile around the perimeter and new gutters, and was able to install a carpeted living room. I'm in a similar spot with my house, and planning to partially finish my basement because that's the only way i'll get a second bathroom and indoor work space.

I took a lot of car shots last summer when the National Hot Rod Association was in town, because they parade right through my neighborhood each night of the weekend. This shot isn't from that day, just a nice hoopty i saw while biking around last summer:

I've thought of doing this with my film cameras, all of which came from either antique stores or my grandfather's collection. They rarely get used, but are beautiful and i hate to just keep them buried in a closet. Alas, i have little extra space in my house for non-book-storing furniture.

I second the recommendation on trying the dark teas - they look like coffee but have a really nice range of flavors. Once chunk gives a whole day of multiple steepings. The Tea Source is a great shop, and local to me in St. Paul, i'm overdue for a restocking.

Hrm. Part of the reason i just bought a m43 Olympus was the 2-company support for that format, but given the alternatives, this seems like a reassuring move.