Busy New Year

I am not sure if I can remember everything that has happened since I last blogged, serves me right for taking time off while not being at work. With 2008 coming to a close rapidly last Wednesday, I had a few moments to make one final impulse purchase for the year. I've been talking about buying an espresso machine for a while now, the machine I was looking at was one of the Breville models that Woot has been blowing out on occasion. I didn't end up buying it, instead, I bought this:


I'm not sure what the appropriate equivalent would be . . . gasoline to start a fire, brick shithouse . . . this is well above and beyond the equipment necessary for home espresso making. Once I do a little plumbing work, add a 220v circuit, and take care of a couple other small items, I'll be up and running. In addition to helping Deb with her bathroom remodel, it gives me another project to tackle for 2009, redoing the back addition on the house. In the near future, not only will it receive the insulation and drywall it has always deserved (the faux wood panel doesn't quite cut it), but it will also be transformed into my very own coffee shop. The machine needs a little cleaning and I will likely get the panels powder coated a less offensive color. I also picked up a grinder, again more of a workhorse ever needed for home use, but the good news is that if my house gets bombed, the grinder will survive.


I took the grinder apart and gave it a good cleaning. Everything appears to be in good shape and the burrs seem to make whole beans into ground coffee . . . I won't know what's what until I start pulling shots on my own.

New Year's Eve was pretty much a standard one, except this year I was awake to ring in the new year. On day one of 2009, I got out for a nice long ride with the Pinkertons and others. It would have been nice to get out for a ride Friday as well, but I had to get everything ready for final inspection on the garage. That involved moving as much dirt as I could to get the grade up to where it is supposed to be around the foundation. Fortunately the inspector didn't seem to care about much other than seeing that the other inspections were signed off on and that I had the engineering letter for the foundation. In a matter of a few minutes, I was all signed off and official.

For my ride on Friday, I ended up doing a night time urban assault with Brenner on the mountain bikes. I forgot how much fun it is ripping around at night, cutting through the parks and going pretty much where ever. We ended up riding for a couple hours before heading over to Bistro One for dinner and drinks. This was only the second time I had eaten a meal of real food at Bistro One and it did not disappoint. Between the three of us (Shawnee joined in for dinner) we split the Lamb Shank and the Meatball Fettuccine, both were excellent. Dessert seemed like a good idea, so we got the Peanut Butter Cake with Oreo Crust. It was much more sophisticated than it sounds and every bit as tasty. Joey and I hit Herman's Hideaway at the end of the night to see his boss's son playing in a band. I think he is talented, but the band didn't do much to showcase and/or make his skill evident.

Although Saturday was ridable, I took the lazy route for solidarity sake. Deb is still a gimp and we had movies left to watch.


And soup and grilled cheese to eat. The indoor grill/griddle really does make a pretty sandwich, perfect grill marks on top, nicely browned on the bottom. I'll have to try making something a little more exciting on it sometime soon.


Despite the cold and gloom on Sunday, I managed to get out and install the new light over the back door. I also started cleaning up the Astoria, if you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice one of the brew groups is incomplete. There is some funk accumulated from commercial use, but nothing chemicals won't fix. I have a few seals to replace, but again nothing out of the ordinary. Overall, I declare the weekend a success!


I'm sure 2009 will be a banner year, here on January 5th, I have no complaints . . .