sourdough woes

Since my last post:

Due to the unfortunate placement of my (vomity-smelling) starter container, the starter got a little cooked and had to be discarded. I then started a new starter (non-vomity-smelling this time) and all seemed to go well except that it never seem to expand or rise (I got to the 10 day mark or so). I was supposed to feed it sometime Sunday (yesterday) but since it didn't seem to have risen at all, I decided to give it a little more time (it still smelled as it should at that point -- sour). Then this morning, I opened the Gladware to give it a sniff and a peek. Et voilà -- mold spots. So once again, I chucked it.

Now I'm feeling a little demoralized. I'm thinking maybe I'll give the King Arthur Flour batter-type sourdough starter recipe a whirl. I could always buy a good-to-go starter from KA but I just want to make a viable starter from scratch. It doesn't seem like it should be so hard to do, and my kitchen will never be better suited temperaturewise than right now.