Thanks for the review @tykee.  Yes, I was on the fence about whether to approach this as a blog or a tutorial myself.  In the end, because it is more a story than a lesson, I decided to treat it as a blog.  But I see where it could have gone the other way too.

I don't think we should avoid all technical details in utopian blogs posts. Compare it, perhaps, to a story about a meal that happens to include a recipe. As long as the contribution is valuable I hope for blog to remain the most broad and flexible of categories.  This makes sense to my mind.

Again, I really appreciate your thoughtful comments.