Went to the baltimore aquarium. Good times, but now I'm tired

Came home early to listen to more headphones. It's akin to having a solo meet in my home with all the cans HR provided for Saturday's meet. A unique opportunity I don't intend to squander.

I love the Baltimore Aquarium.

we're members now. Cheaper to buy a membership than to go as a family

Completed the Studio Course at Community Media Center of Marin

Which means I'm qualified to sit in front of fun stuff, like

Sweet!

I took a course in electronic music composition in college just so I could sit in front of a Fairlight CMI. I'm sure your ambitions are higher than that, of course.

Nice going Grahame! Looking for a new line of work?

No, just something that happened when my neighbors asked was I interested in helping them make some TV for the local cable community channel.

MOA on TV? Who knows

Went to the beach. Drank beer at lunch. Napped on couch afterward while the horrors hung out with Granny next door. Win.

Cut the grass today, and now need to go back out with the weed wacker but I'm taking a break from the sun (86 today).

Drinking tea. Watching sea.

Drinking tea. Watching sea.

No Woe is me?

Replaced some of the seals/o-rings/etc. with Dad. No pressurestat/thermostat means this thing generates some nasty pressure if you aren't careful. As in, a two foot jet of steam shooting out horizontally.

Drinking tea. Watching sea.

Reminds me of "Swimming to Cambodia" for some reason.

Completed the Studio Course at Community Media Center of Marin

Which means I'm qualified to sit in front of fun stuff, like

Were these guys in class, too?

if you don't get a blast of steam shooting out horizontally to a distance of two feet, you aren't doing it right. wait a minute, we're talking about sex, right?

Sure.

Pretty!

Replaced some of the seals/o-rings/etc. with Dad.

Got a mental image there. Hoping it's wrong.

No pressurestat/thermostat means this thing generates some nasty pressure if you aren't careful. As in, a two foot jet of steam shooting out horizontally.

Wow, that's old-school. Having fun with it and getting good results?

Crashed the web server yesterday uploading several webinar videos that I edited w/ Premiere. I exported to movies rather than 'share' as WMV, so the files were huge. Why they have different export filetypes in 2 completely different toolbar dropdown panels is beyond me.

I just now finished reading the hellstorm of emails about the issue.

That was fun.

Pretty!

Got a mental image there. Hoping it's wrong.

Wow, that's old-school. Having fun with it and getting good results?

I hope so too.

As far as being old school, the machine was actually made in '89, but the design is from the '50s. It's essentially a rip-off of a La Pavoni Europiccola.

I've never used a 'proper' lever machine but I used to make my home shots with a Presso, a different sort of manual-pressure machine. The extra degree of feedback and control it gives you is really interesting. One of my favorite blends had a particularly arm-wrestling-like profile: it would fight back really hard until a certain point, then go from there to okay-okay-you-win really really fast. With a pump machine you can watch flow rate over time but you don't get anything like the same feel for what the coffee is doing from moment to moment.

I've never used a 'proper' lever machine but I used to make my home shots with a Presso, a different sort of manual-pressure machine. The extra degree of feedback and control it gives you is really interesting. One of my favorite blends had a particularly arm-wrestling-like profile: it would fight back really hard until a certain point, then go from there to okay-okay-you-win really really fast. With a pump machine you can watch flow rate over time but you don't get anything like the same feel for what the coffee is doing from moment to moment.

I'm fairly new to lever machines, but yes, there definitely is some room for adjustment with varying the pre-infusion time and the applied pressure of the actual pull. Beyond that, you can get into the really over-the-top accessories, like naked/chopped portafilters and convex tampers. Personally, I'd rather have a better grinder.

if you don't get a blast of steam shooting out horizontally to a distance of two feet, you aren't doing it right. wait a minute, we're talking about sex, right?

That's not steam.

Personally, I'd rather have a better grinder.

FWIW I'm getting shockingly good results with a Zassenhaus hand-cranked grinder. And my standards are high. Inexpensive, and quieter than an electric grinder too, which is a factor for me since I'm the early riser in the house.

Yeah, I have to hand-crank my own early rises occasionally too. That's marriage for you. Luckily, my standards are low.

Woke up, then promptly threw up my dinner from last night. Came to work and spent the first couple of hours periodically dry heaving. Now I'm heading to a 2-hour long meeting that probably will last longer.