Visualize...

iTunes' Visualizer is dang cool. Over the weekend, Jet and I loaded up a bunch of my CDs onto my laptop and he and I spent a good hour just watching the visualizations, lots of them at full-screen at top speed. We both loved it.

Yes. We're both very easily entertained. :-)

Visualize...

iTunes' Visualizer is dang cool. Over the weekend, Jet and I loaded up a bunch of my CDs onto my laptop and he and I spent a good hour just watching the visualizations, lots of them at full-screen at top speed. We both loved it.

Yes. We're both very easily entertained. :-)

Wings and Things

Fat Tuesday wasn't that fat for us. I got home from work, exhausted, and eyed a recipe for Lions' Heads with some distaste and decided to just go to the Buffalo Wing place. Jet had fallen asleep in the car on the way home, and we just left him that way. I carried him into the restaurant and John and I sat down, up front, and discussed what we wanted. He ordered. We got our food and Jet was really mad at me for setting him down, sitting, on the counter and moving away. He yelled at me to be where he could lean on me, and he fell asleep again. Poor guy.

So I held him while we were waiting for the food, carried him to the car and then we went home and ate. Jet woke up on the way home, while getting strapped to his car seat, and since he'd been asleep nearly an hour and a half it was about right. He plowed through a mountain of "snow noodles" and ate a cup of mandarine oranges and a tube of yogurt and was ready to play video games...

Hee. So we did. John had a church meeting, and that was cool.

When he got back home, Jet headed for pajamas and bed, and I made the mistake of starting Perfect Circle. I was halfway through it before Jet asked me to come upstairs and nurse him. So I did that, and I nearly fell asleep before he did, which was fine incentive to just go to bed and not touch the book and be tempted.

No. I am NOT giving up that book for Lent. Couldn't stand it. :-)

I think, this Lenten season it would be appropriate to give up self-doubt for 40 days and see where it gets me...

Wings and Things

Fat Tuesday wasn't that fat for us. I got home from work, exhausted, and eyed a recipe for Lions' Heads with some distaste and decided to just go to the Buffalo Wing place. Jet had fallen asleep in the car on the way home, and we just left him that way. I carried him into the restaurant and John and I sat down, up front, and discussed what we wanted. He ordered. We got our food and Jet was really mad at me for setting him down, sitting, on the counter and moving away. He yelled at me to be where he could lean on me, and he fell asleep again. Poor guy.

So I held him while we were waiting for the food, carried him to the car and then we went home and ate. Jet woke up on the way home, while getting strapped to his car seat, and since he'd been asleep nearly an hour and a half it was about right. He plowed through a mountain of "snow noodles" and ate a cup of mandarine oranges and a tube of yogurt and was ready to play video games...

Hee. So we did. John had a church meeting, and that was cool.

When he got back home, Jet headed for pajamas and bed, and I made the mistake of starting Perfect Circle. I was halfway through it before Jet asked me to come upstairs and nurse him. So I did that, and I nearly fell asleep before he did, which was fine incentive to just go to bed and not touch the book and be tempted.

No. I am NOT giving up that book for Lent. Couldn't stand it. :-)

I think, this Lenten season it would be appropriate to give up self-doubt for 40 days and see where it gets me...

Vacuum Brewing

A lady at work let me borrow her Bodum, Mini Electric Santos Vacuum coffeemaker for a few days. I took it home, yesterday, and, this morning, I carefully set it up with water in the bottom, grounds in the top, and turned it on. The water shimmered, heated, swirled, and then started bubbling, and as the vapor collected in the bottom it pushed the water out and up to the top. When the water cleared the up feed tube, the coffee infused water above bubbled violently (and almost out the vents, as noted in the Sweet Maria's Review of the beast) until the heat turned off.

Then, the vacuum in the bottom sucked the coffee from the top, through a filter, and I ended up with a container of nearly dry grounds, and a pot of coffee. Piping hot coffee. So hot the first sip nearly burned me, but it was complex, interesting, and very, very tasty. The freshly ground coffee was from Coffee Jones, their Dragon Blend, and I was very, very pleased with the results.

John didn't like it as much, not cool enough to drink; but the whole spectacular show of just doing it that was just gorgeous. It turns out that vacuum pots have been around much longer than French Presses. I was curious about them, but hadn't wanted to shell out the money without at least tasting the results. A French Press I can get at any good coffee shop, and drip coffee is everywhere. Vacuum brewers are much rarer, so it was very sweet that I got to try someone else's out before I bought my own.

Yes. Mine is more manually controlled. I'd rather control how long it brews. Also, with the experiment, I found that the heater in the electric boiler was so powerful that it really made the coffee boil and burst around the top, which think a lower flame would control much more readily. Plus, there was a good deal of sediment from the plastic filter. I can get that from John's gold filter drip brewer. :-) Plus, since John usually brews his coffee, I don't really intend to use this as often as every day. It's more for show and for fun.

Huh. It would be really fun to have a coffeehouse where I could give people a setup with ground coffee in the top, warm to hot water in the bottom and then set up a spirit lamp to actually do and finish the brewing process for themselves. Then they could control how strong their coffee was and watch the gorgeous process for themselves.

Vacuum Brewing

A lady at work let me borrow her Bodum, Mini Electric Santos Vacuum coffeemaker for a few days. I took it home, yesterday, and, this morning, I carefully set it up with water in the bottom, grounds in the top, and turned it on. The water shimmered, heated, swirled, and then started bubbling, and as the vapor collected in the bottom it pushed the water out and up to the top. When the water cleared the up feed tube, the coffee infused water above bubbled violently (and almost out the vents, as noted in the Sweet Maria's Review of the beast) until the heat turned off.

Then, the vacuum in the bottom sucked the coffee from the top, through a filter, and I ended up with a container of nearly dry grounds, and a pot of coffee. Piping hot coffee. So hot the first sip nearly burned me, but it was complex, interesting, and very, very tasty. The freshly ground coffee was from Coffee Jones, their Dragon Blend, and I was very, very pleased with the results.

John didn't like it as much, not cool enough to drink; but the whole spectacular show of just doing it that was just gorgeous. It turns out that vacuum pots have been around much longer than French Presses. I was curious about them, but hadn't wanted to shell out the money without at least tasting the results. A French Press I can get at any good coffee shop, and drip coffee is everywhere. Vacuum brewers are much rarer, so it was very sweet that I got to try someone else's out before I bought my own.

Yes. Mine is more manually controlled. I'd rather control how long it brews. Also, with the experiment, I found that the heater in the electric boiler was so powerful that it really made the coffee boil and burst around the top, which think a lower flame would control much more readily. Plus, there was a good deal of sediment from the plastic filter. I can get that from John's gold filter drip brewer. :-) Plus, since John usually brews his coffee, I don't really intend to use this as often as every day. It's more for show and for fun.

Huh. It would be really fun to have a coffeehouse where I could give people a setup with ground coffee in the top, warm to hot water in the bottom and then set up a spirit lamp to actually do and finish the brewing process for themselves. Then they could control how strong their coffee was and watch the gorgeous process for themselves.