Geeky Girl Engineer – Page 4 – Nature, travel, pets, home renovation, and geekery

Solar Eclipse : The solar eclipse is the main reason I came out west for vacation. I have seen a partial solar eclipse before, but never a total solar eclipse. It was like Continue Reading →

Snorkeling in Alaska : While planning for my vacation in Alaska, I learned that there is a company, appropriately named Snorkel Alaska, that leads snorkeling tours near Ketchikan. If there is a way for Continue Reading →

Carrie Blast Furnaces : I’m in Pittsburgh for the long weekend. Today I took a tour with Rivers of Steel of the Carrie Blast Furnaces. The area is part of the former U.S. Steel Continue Reading →

Nuttallburg : I started exploring New River Gorge National Park today. It is second on my list of things to see in West Virginia after the capitol. The park is really spread Continue Reading →

Bridge Walk : I spent today doing more exploring of New River Gorge National Park, but I started the day by walking across a bridge. The walk across the bridge was under the Continue Reading →

Christmas decorations

Posted on December 2, 2022 by geek

I am thoroughly getting into decorating my house for various holiday by sewing decorations. Similar to other holidays, I sewed a table runner for the dining room table and for the buffet. For the buffet table runner, I quilted it with a snowflake stitch that came with my sewing machine. I free-motion quilted the dining room table runner. For the dining room table runner, I used all the triangle fabric pieces left over from sewing the Christmas trees on the top to make part of the back. I also sewed pillow covers for a pair of pillows that I switch out the covers for each season. Finally, I sewed a door decoration hanger for my front door. Most of the fabrics are from Dear Stella.

Buffet Christmas table runner

Fabric in buffet Christmas table runner

Christmas dining room table runner

Back of Christmas dining room table runner

Christmas pillow covers

Christmas front door hanger

Thanksgiving decorations

Posted on November 21, 2022 by geek

I found some fabric that I loved from Dear Stella that is Thanksgiving and fall themed. I used it to make table runners, pillows, and a front door hanger for Thanksgiving. I created just a simple design for the table runners. I used machine fabric appliqué for the pillows and the front door hanger. The appliqué pattern is from OESD.

Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Close up of Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Thanksgiving table runner for buffet

Thanksgiving pillows

Thanksgiving front door hanger

Late Summer Door Hanger

Posted on September 9, 2022 by geek

I have really liked decorating my front door for various holidays such as Mardi Gras and Easter. Last month I used some fabric from my Independence Day table runners and the Thanksgiving table runners I have started making to create a door decoration for later summer. No holiday to celebrate. Just a celebration of the season and flowers. I found a nice sunflower appliqué, and I added a button to the center, and it created a perfect focus for the hanger.

Late summer door hanger

Sunflower applique on late summer door hanger

New Hampshire Telephone Museum

Posted on August 19, 2022 by geek

While touring the New Hampshire State Capitol, there was inexplicably a telephone booth in the Governor’s Reception Room. A sign near the booth said it was on display courtesy of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum. This museum was not something that I knew existed, and yes, this grabbed my attention. I needed to know more about this museum. Thus, after visiting the capitol and surrounding area, off I went to the New Hampshire Telephone Museum.

At the museum, I learned that they are not in fact the only telephone museum in the country. Clearly I need to do more niche museum research. The museum was founded by people who built a New Hampshire rural telephone company. It is actually quite interesting as they have telephones from various eras. They also had interesting displays about the various components that make up the telephone system and equipment used to repair and construct the system. They also had a working set of telegraphs powered by modern batteries, which I found funny.

New Hampshire Telephone Museum with front door painted like UK telephone booth

Original type telephones

Telephone operator desks

Candlestick phones

Old intercom phones

Not quite modern anymore phones

Telephone system repair equipment

Telephone system wires

Telephone system circuitry

Elevator painted to look like a UK police call box

New Hampshire State Library

Posted on August 18, 2022 by geek

While visiting the New Hampshire State Capitol, our unofficial tour guide highly recommended walking across the street to see the state library. He said it was a beautiful building, and that also there is a portrait of Daniel Webster that is the scariest painting he had ever seen and belongs in a haunted house. He was right on both counts. The state library building was originally built for the state supreme court to be on one side and the state library to be on the other. Eventually the supreme court got its own building. The building has gorgeous marble fireplaces and other lovely touches like skylights.

New Hampshire State Library

Room formerly used by the New Hampshire State Supreme Court

Skylight over room formerly used by the New Hampshire State Supreme Court

Fireplace on first floor

Second floor hallway with fireplace on left

Stacks room on second floor with skylight

Giant relief map of New Hampshire. One inch equals one mile of distance. One inch equals one thousand feet of height.

Famous scary Daniel Webster portrait that everyone agrees belongs in a haunted house

New Hampshire State Capitol

Posted on August 18, 2022 by geek

Today I visited the last New England state capitol that I hadn’t seen yet. [Sort of, as I still will need to go back to Connecticut when I can see the Senate chamber.] I toured the New Hampshire state capitol. Unfortunately, they did not have guided tours, but they had a nice pamphlet explaining what to see. Then while visiting the Governor’s Reception Room, we met a couple of very friendly, informative employees, including a man, whom I think worked in facilities, who took us to see a couple of sites not printed in the official guide.

New Hampshire’s state house is the oldest state house in which the legislature still occupies its original chambers. I almost feel like some praise should be given to the original builders and designers for building a capitol that has fulfilled its original use for so long and also not managed to burn down like so many other capitols. Similar to other New England state capitols, it is not overly ornate, but it still has some nice touches. It is fairly small. The House representatives don’t even get a desk. Their chamber is essentially an auditorium. New Hampshire has the largest number of state representatives with 400 elected, yet is in the bottom fifth of states by population. However, New Hampshire has the fourth smallest Senate with 24 elected members. The printed guide did not give any explanation for why there is that dichotomy.

New Hampshire State Capitol

New Hampshire House chambers

New Hampshire senate chambers

Artwork in New Hampshire senate chambers

New Hampshire Governor Reception room

Hall of flags at entrance to the capitol

Our unofficial tour guide who works in facilities, took us to see this painting of Daniel Healy. The reason he took us to see the painting, is it appears he has six fingers on his right hand. Our unofficial guide had no insight if the man actually had six fingers or if the artist just painted the hand weird or what. I can’t find any information on this man. Thus, I am sharing this mystery with anyone who reads my blog.

Portrait of Daniel J. Healy, longest serving state representative

Vermont State Capitol

Posted on August 17, 2022 by geek

Today while on a New England trip, I continued on my quest to see all the state capitols and visited Vermont’s state capitol in Montpelier. The Vermont state capitol reminded me of the Alaska state capitol solely on its somewhat casualness and friendliness of people there. However, the Vermont state capitol is much prettier and ornate. Our tour guide was a now-retired state representative (because he didn’t run for reelection). I don’t know why I find it so funny that a state representative would be a tour guide when not representing, but I do. He was a wonderful tour guide though. The capitol is small really, but the rooms are lovely. The current capitol is the third state house. Probably by coincidence, the senate chamber is predominately green, and the house chamber is predominantly red. I noticed this because this is the exact opposite of a couple of state capitols such as California and Colorado, where the house is green based on the UK House of Commons, and the senate is red based on the UK House of Lords.

There are some neat details in the building. For example, the law dictates that the Vermont coat of arms must have five elements: a deer head, a cow, haystacks, pine tree, and mountains. However, the rest of the details are evidently up to interpretation, so our guide pointed out at least five different versions on the tour. A “bonus” detail we got to see because it not part of a the tour was a gorgeous fireplace in a lounge area that has all these different stones mined in Vermont. We got to see it simply because he was leading us to the elevator as a member of the group needed to use it. Something that I also found amusing is that the capitol does have a dome, but you can’t look into the interior as it is unfinished wood. Our guide pointed to the part of the ceiling that is below the dome at my request because I am weird.

Vermont State Capitol

Vermont House Chambers

Vermont Senate Chambers

Vermont Governor’s formal office

Ceiling in Vermont Governor’s formal office

Cedar Creek Reception Room

Vermont coat of arms on wall of House Chambers

Stairwell

Ceiling on first floor which blocks view of dome (also I think second floor also blocks view)

Hartford, Connecticut

Posted on August 17, 2022 by geek

I was in Hartford to see the Connecticut State Capitol, so while there I did a little wandering around. Hartford is like many older cities with a mix of old and new buildings. I rather like old cities that keep many of their older buildings. Not too long ago, Hartford reclaimed its connection to the Connecticut River, and now there is a nice riverwalk in some spots.

Old State House

Elevated walk near riverfront

Bulkeley Bridge over the Connecticut River

Hartford City Hall

Bushnell Park

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch

Goodwin Square Tower

Connecticut State Capitol

Posted on August 15, 2022 by geek

I am once again traveling on my quest to see all the state capitols. Today I visited Connecticut’s state capitol. The visit was somewhat disappointing because they would not let visitors see the Senate chamber. I understand some people may find my disappointment silly, and some woman on the tour did. However I traveled all this way to see the capitol, and the chambers are the most important parts of the capitol in my opinion. I have seen enough capitols to say confidently that seeing one chamber does not mean you have seen them both, as they are always different in rather interesting and important ways. So there is my criticism of the tour. If the website said you couldn’t visit that chamber, it was not clear because I certainly did not see that warning on the website. This adds to my annoyance.

With that gripe out of the way, the Connecticut state capitol is quite beautiful. It looks like a capitol. It has intricate decorations, and the design clearly has symbolism. There is a reoccurring theme of compasses and flowers that resemble compasses to represent that what happens in the capitol affects the entire state. Dark red, black, and browns are used throughout, which gives the building a very cohesive look. There are not that many statues, but the ones present are rather meaningful. There is also a whole lot of stenciling, which is gorgeous, but I can only imagine the time it took.

Connecticut state capitol

Connecticut state capitol dome

The Genius of Connecticut

Rotunda

Looking up the rotunda into the dome

Nathan Hale statue in atrium

Stenciling on balcony

Fountain that used to provide water for people to fill in buckets for their horses outside

House chambers

House chamber viewing gallery

House well and speaker’s desk

Ceiling of House chamber

Grandview at New River Gorge National Park

Posted on July 2, 2022 by geek

Yesterday I went quite the hike within New River Gorge National park, and it was more of a hike that I thought it would be. I went to the Grandview area, and I hiked along the Grandview Rim trail. The trail is one way, so for the leg of the hike walking towards Turkey Spur, the end of the trail, I took the Castle Rock trail, which parallels the Rim trail for the first half mile. Castle Rock trail is gorgeous, and it takes you just below a wall of rock. At one portion of the trail, the wall of rock has a visible coal seam, which is extra interesting. However the footing on the Castle Rock trail is not even, and there is lots of ascents and descents, so it is a good workout. The rest of the trail, once back on the Rim trail is fairly easy going, especially compared to the Castle Rock trail. The start of the trail is the main overlook, which overlooks a bend in the New River, so you are viewing it from the base of a U shape. The end of the trail is Turkey Spur, which also overlooks the river, but at a location where in the foreground you see the river headed to the west, where it curves, then behind a hill, you can see the river looping around again and headed east.