Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
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It seems that my efforts to establish cost savings performance metrics for making coffee at home distracted me from coffee grinder maintenance responsibilities. My aforementioned coffee grinder problems were because of some manner of clog.
Good thing this never happens in real life.
(It seems that during a single day of disuse the grinder stopped working, and the only “fix” needed was to empty and clean it. Also, can you tell how I occasionally have to write?)
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Almost every morning before work I grind some coffee then prepare it in an AeroPress. Not this morning. Today when I went to press START or GRIND or whatever the button is labeled nothing happened. Because it appears to be somewhat microprocessor controlled I don’t think the problem is mechanical, which means that hopefully I’ll be able to easily fix it.
Unfortunately, this was also half-way through a study I was doing on exactly how many cups of coffee I can get out of two pounds of coffee, how many grinds it takes, how many filters are used, etc. Although maybe this will just prompt me to restart and this time take into account amount of electricity consumed, cost of the grinder, etc. I’m wanting to know just how much money I’m saving (or perhaps not) and how much less waste I’m generating by making coffee at home every day, using what I perceive to be an easy process.
Since I uploaded a few more photos today to my moblog, I’ll point them all out:
Leave a Comment· This praying mantis was found next to a gas pump. It was alive, but its abdomen was full of ants which were eating it.
· My coworker Brian gave me some Airborne to try and help make me feel better. It doesn’t taste horrible.
· Some of the urinals at work have these new scented mats in them. The result is that hot urine makes a very strong fragrence waft up while going. It’s unplesant.
· One of my coworkers gave me this cupcake. It’s very, very good.
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I really like Lebanese food and when I couldn’t decide what to have for dinner (I didn’t want leftovers again) I decided to go get some falafel, hummus, and garlic. It tasted really good, but it just didn’t hit the spot while sick.
That said, Lebanese Grill between Costco and Hall Road in Shelby Township is pretty darn good. I’m glad to have that place close by, because it means that I can get good Lebanese food pretty much whenever I want it.
Leave a CommentBreaking down the large pile of cardboard boxes in the basement and carrying them upstairs has worn me out. It’s a good thing I didn’t give into temptation and go for a bike ride.
Now to find some dinner. Last night was some nice Thai curry, but as I also had that for lunch, three meals of it in a row is a bit off putting. Pizza is tempting, but unhealthy. Someone come make me soup? And bring a movie?
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The Michigan Brewer’s Guild 2008 Summer Beer Fest was, at least from my perspective, a great success.
There was a bit of bothersome traffic on the way, but we arrived with plenty of time to meet up with everyone, apply sunscreen, then wander over to the park. Despite being in a rather long line to get in, we were only waiting for about 15 minutes.
There was a set of dark clouds that rolled through and sprinkled a little rain, but not enough to even make one wet.
All in all, it was a really nice time. After the festival closed we all headed back to Brian and Debbie’s place for food and sober-up time and things like that. Unfortunately I just never became sober, so Danielle, who had no problems getting back to normal, drove back to my place.
If you are interested, here is a list of all the breweries and beers at the festival this year, and here is my Michigan Brewer’s Guild Summer Beer Fest 2008 album. All photos were taken with Danielle’s nicely pocket sized Panasonic DMC-FX3. It’s a nice small camera, but it still takes decent photos.
When wandering around we ended up at the tent for Adventures in Homebrewing. Brian knew the person there, and he offered us some root beer in these nice red plastic cups he had. Well, the root beer was excellent, and it turned out that the breweries would happen to fill these cups as well, half a cup for a token. Since 1/3 of a red plastic cup was equivalent to a full normal cup, we ended up with quite a bit more beer than expected. As seen here, Eric had no problem ending up with a large full cup of beer for two tokens.
Oh, and extra tokens were 10 for $5, so near the end of the day Danielle and I acquired $10 worth of extra tokens (one of the red special cups can also be seen here). As most of them didn’t get used we’ll just have to save them for the Winter festival, which is happening on 28-Feb-2009 in Grand Rapids.
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I do declare, Southern Tier makes some of the finest beers I’ve ever had. They are consistently good, with only one or two of their styles ever being something that didn’t set well with me.
Tonight while eating a rather late dinner of leftovers† I had this nice bottle of Souther Tier’s Jah-Va, a 12% coffee stout. I think I spent two hours on this bottle, sipping the 1.5 (or so) pints of it while watching some TiVo’d stuff, balancing my checkbook, talking to friends online, and relaxing. It’s very, very good. I’d highly recommend trying some yourself if you like thick, strong stouts.
Also, based on the flags and sprayed markings in front of my house it appears that either Comcast is installing new boxes or Wide Open West is bringing service to our complex. Here is a photo of the new box, and the short one behind it is specifically labeled Comcast. Maybe I should give WOW a go.
† Thanks, work. At least I got some stuff fixed, I guess.
Leave a CommentFrom #mi2600 a few minutes back:
22:33 < c0nsumer> when i was little i would pick rock salt up off the sidewalk and eat it at school
22:33 < c0nsumer> i'd get horrible headaches for some reason
Also, the MMBA Metro North meeting tonight at Rochester Mills was pretty neat. I got to meet some new people, talk to others, things like that. There was also good beer, and I ate some very nice (but not filling enough, and not rock salty) fish tacos during the meeting, then a basket of fries.
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Last night after Danielle and I met up with
I used my trusty Aerobie AeroPress to make up a cup of the Angry Beans this morning. The Rouge Roastery site describes this flavored blend as follows:
…spicy beans from South America and Southeast Asia, mixed with a hint of cayenne pepper. It’s a nice mixture of smooth spice in the cup, but finishing with a kick.
As can be seen above there is definitely chili in it, as it settled to the center / bottom of the pile of grounds while using the AeroPress.
Perhaps it’s just be, but I don’t really think of coffee + spice as “flavored”, but I guess it’s not pure coffee and has things added for flavor, so it is. Maybe I’m just more familiar with coffees called “flavored” as having lots and lots of odd, sickly half-flavors (hazelnut, vanilla, etc) added ruining any actual coffee taste.
Despite the description on Rouge Roastery’s site indicating that the Angry Beans are “Particularly good with creme and sugar – hot and sweet. Just like Big Dave himself.” I first tried it black.
This coffee seems to start out nicely smooth before the cayenne starts to bite. After swallowing the burn moves down the throat but isn’t too much. The coffee part of the flavor is fairly smooth, but not as smooth as some of the oilier coffees I’ve had. If you are someone who likes Vosges’ Oaxaca or Red Fire candy (chocolate) bars and you also like coffee you’d probably like this.
After finishing half the pint glass of coffee I followed this suggestion and tried it with just half and half, then also with sugar. The dairy alone definitely added something to the coffee, but it really is best with sugar in it as well.
I’m going to have a hard time knowing exactly how to drink this coffee because it seems that there’s a bunch of different ways that I enjoy it. As I said, I normally drink coffee black, but for the Angry Beans I may even end up having a whole serving with both dairy and sugar, which would be a first for me.
All said, this is a great coffee. After this sample is gone I’m going to have to secure some more of it. The Sumatra Gayo Mountain will probably be tried this afternoon or maybe just later in the week. I have high hopes for it as well.
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After being present for the inspection of my sister’s new condo on Sunday, Danielle and I went to a small family restaurant (with good food) in Shelby Township, then stopped at the little shop next door called Balkan Market. We picked up some pastries and some odd chocolate, and this bottle of Schweppes’ Original Bitter Lemon. It’s rather clearly not labeled for sale in the US, but I figured it’d be worth trying.
The verdict? It is great. It’s excellent. It’s a very nice, light bittery lemon soda with a bit of sweetness to it. It’s not syrupy like Sanbitters and (as suggested by one of the employees) quite good when very cold.
After poking around online I found that bitter lemon is commonly mixed with gin, so after half of the sheep glass was gone I added ice and gin, then stirred. It’s all right with gin, and definitely nicer than gin with the crappy HFCS-based tonics regularly available. I think I prefer the soda by itself, though.
That reminds me, I need to get everything required and make my own tonic water. That’s a project for another night, though.
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This is the Doughnet Adapter, a very special network adapter I assembled in 2000 or 2001 from a Dunkin’ Doughnuts doughnut hole and a Compaq loopback cable. It has occasionally been branded with an N, but this seems to fade a year or so after it’s written.
I’ve kept the Doughnet Adapter in one of the overhead cabinets in my cube since I made it, finally bringing it home tonight so that I could photograph it.
A few months back I broke off a small piece from the bottom and tasted it. It is rancid, but still quite sweet and smells faintly of vegetable oil.
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