kitchen appliance

kitchen, originally uploaded by Jrome.

End of Summer

pencam, originally uploaded by Jrome.

This is the look of a contented summer boy. It was a fabulous summer in 2008. We look forward to the fall, as we grow up and learn to do wonderous things. Just you watch.

The Race of Race

From Letters to the Editors @ Fort Worth Star-Telegram
How Racism Works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said "I do" to?

What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the "Keating 5"?

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth

Don't forget: What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter......

Periodic Table of Awesoments

FLW

One of the best things about Twitter, is mining it. I noticed Jason Fried of 37Signals started twittering on his own, so checking it out, I found this:

http://twitter.com/jasonfried/statuses/931007374

No Bad Days

Woke up Saturday with no plan. Went to coffee to do some journaling. Saw a bunch of the neighborhood goofballs.

The sky and weather were so cool and interesting that I decided to go for a long ride. I've been thinking about doing Eureka Canyon forever, so I packed up and headed out. It was gorgeous as I remembered. There was a short scare when I misinterpreted my bike map and thought I had an additional 9 miles to climb after already climing 9 miles, but I was confused. Best day ever when I came to the intersection at Highland and realized I was done. Cruised down Old San Jose, super fun, and then 43 miles and 3,000ft of climing later I was home.

Checked my messages and VickiChicki and Hotdog were rallying for lunch. So I grabbed a shower and headed out on the cruisers to get down to the Harbor for lunch.

Our ride home:



And then Vicki and Hotdog came in to watch Flight of Conchords until Nicole came over to finish the job. :)

Packed a lot in my Saturday.

1960s La Pavoni Professional

LaPavoni, originally uploaded by Jrome.

We now have a vintage 1960s La Pavoni Professional in our kitchen. Complete with a manual toggle switch for steam, labelled "minimo - massimo" in a cool 60s script font. The story as Nicole recalled after paying The Lady $20 at a yard sale in poshposh Noho, is that a friend brought it back from Italy (new), used it for years, then gave up coffee. Hence the machine came to The Lady. The Lady used it for a while on and off. It needs to be cleaned but otherwise the seals are fresh, the boiler heats strongly, in less than 10 minutes, and the aesthetics are fantastic. No cheesey parts anywhere on the thing!

Even if my pulls can't really benefit from yankin' a Fellini (http://www.home-barista.com/forums/fellini-does-espresso-t1106.html), I'm still charmed. I woke up this morning at 3am, with stress filling my mind and my son's screams filling my ears. I never got more than an hour sleep after that. I was carrying him around the house by 7:30. So when Nicole called and said "I'm staring at a La Pavoni manual machine, looks chrome and industrial, she wants twenty bucks for it, you want it?" I said, "Of course!"

After soccer at 9 (Maddy had one of the most gorgeous assists I've ever seen and her joyful dance is something I should really write about) I didn't get a chance to peek at the machine until 11:30. By then my curiosity was peaked.

I pulled maybe 8 shots total before we headed out the door bound for CT. First one was crap. I didn't let the boiler heat up enough. The rest, each and every one, were nuanced and delightful. Nicole could taste it. I could taste it. The smell could taste it. We did a little dance with each sip. Full whitey crema top. With shitty Starbucks French Roast no less! (Got a huge 3 pound bag for $15 at Costco for emergencies, and well, we're into $$ pinching now and dipping into the giant Harbucks baggy.) Ground the sheit to my usual X-1 fav espresso grind with the Capresso burr grinder. Steamer wand hardy and true. Lovely foam with Mapline 1%.

I'll experiment with other grinds and certainly other beans, including our standard Trader Joe's Shade Grown Organic. I'm placing an order with Blue Bottle tonight, $$ pinching be damned. Dennis in SF, who, works up on Pollard Pl above Cafe Trieste raved about Blue Bottle beans. I'm thinking the Hayes Valley Espresso, cause I like my morning love dark, black and strong. What do you think? I can venture into medium roast light bodied Italienne land in the coming weeks...which I have a feeling purist snobbery will be championing...but for now, I'm sticking with my instincts.


Here's the HVE from http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/

faith and happiness

Happy (17Sept2008), originally uploaded by Jrome.

Dictionary sites

When IAC bought Dictionary.com, it was clear in my mind (at least) that the dictionary website experience was going to change, probably for the better. If you look for reference and dictionary sites in the top 100 on Alexa (don't read too much into Alexa, but the list is helpful) you'll find Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, Answers.com, About.com.

Does the web need another dictionary site? Mr. Bebo seems to think so....

clipped from www.wordia.com Wordia. Search, define, share. Coming soon...

Beam's Pin-Bottle unopened

Photo 9, originally uploaded by Jrome.

1964 bottle of Schenley O.F.C. Canadian Whiskey "Aged 8 years"
Old Grand-Dad without the gov't warning label (when did that start?)
And a bottle of Beam in a Pin-Bottle, complete with IRS sticker and the vintage hang tag explaining how to open use the "exclusive patented pouring feature"

If you're interested in these let me know by commenting

morning

morning, originally uploaded by Jrome.

big americano

First Day of Kindergarten

First Day of Kindergarten, originally uploaded by Jrome.

life moves quickly but isn't it grand?