Night Terror

It wasn't really night terror, but last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, a few hours after going to bed with thoughts of what wouldn't work at Rise & Shine. The list was relatively short, just the loose ends that I don't have complete answers to yet. Nothing major, nothing that will keep me from opening the doors on Friday, but enough to make me lose sleep.

The shop is really coming together nicely. I know what I am doing, I have put out some good food and coffee drinks, although I need to work on my cappuccino skills still.

Sarah and her mom were in the shop today helping put the final touches on the place. The window seat looks complete with a cushion and some throw pillows.


Deb is really good at picking out colors and fabrics.


The curtains at the back counter will do a really good job of keeping things dressed up and hiding overstock of cups and such.


There are a couple panels left to be hemmed and hung, but putting the fabric up on the walls behind the counter will make a world of difference.


I'd love to pretend that serious life changes don't happen until I am open for business Friday and then every day after that . . . every . . . single . . . day . . . but the changes happened the day I committed to opening the shop. Let the adventure continue!

In Your Spare Time

I'd recommend not taking on this activity . . . switching a Rancilio MD50-AT to manual function. My shop grinder (purchased for a whopping $100 on Craigslist) had an automatic feature where there was a main power switch, a start button and micro switches that started the motor upon four pulls of the doser lever and shut off when the entire hopper was full, two pounds of beans later. It no longer functions that way. Now there is an on/off switch, end of story. Why would I do such a thing? It is a pain when you don't want a hopper full of grounds, which you really never do. It was also a pain when the motor would unexpectedly kick on, at 450 watts, it is a torquey bastard and pivots the entire grinder.

So how do you make the top wiring diagram look like the bottom one?


The answer is patiently follow wires around and start dissecting.


That's what the wiring looked like to start with. I had to pull the switches out of the grinder body and label everything so I'd know how to put it back to the original function if necessary.


This relay does stuff that I don't really understand, but I followed wires around and figured out what wasn't needed.


Half the wires in the grinder are no longer connected to anything. I wish there was something useful to do with them, but I am not that smart.


The jumbled mass of wire got stuffed back in and the bottom cover screwed back in place. The other rearranging I did was to put the on/off switch on the right hand side so you can use the same hand you use to pull the doser lever to switch the grinder on and off. It only made sense that you'd hold the portafilter in your left hand and not juggle it around. I think that counted as work, I shouldn't spend so much time working . . .

Sleep . . .

. . . it is a beautiful thing. I went to bed last night at 8:35, pushing aside all work related things that could possibly be done to try and get caught up on good, old fashioned sleep. In all the running around to get things ready lately, I feel like I have been burning the candle at both ends. I slept in until 7:00, laugh as you might, soon, I will be back on the wake up at 5:00 AM program which is going to hurt for a while.

Preparations are coming along at Rise & Shine. I have some more kitchen utensils that were needed since everything there was pizza specific. I have signage on order and on the way so in the near future, passing by, people will be able to tell that the shop is there. Over the past week, I have played the roll of painter, junior trim carpenter, hack plumber, cash register programming specialist. I am really looking forward to the day when the majority of my activity is devoted to running the cafe/biscuit kitchen as opposed to everything involved in setting it up.


I have some much needed incentive to stay on top of training. Above is the Blue AC1SL, the team ride for next year. We have a whole bunch of new sponsors lined up for this coming year and some new additions to the team. I hope I can hold up my end of the "being fast" bargain!

Variable Conditions

They got snow last night and one by one the lifts and trails are opening.

Snowing in the hills, but our fearless captain is keeping it full speed ahead.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Seth Rubin

Where Does the Time Go?

It seems like days go by between my blog postings. I haven't had such long periods of time away from the computer for a while. I have more distractions on the way since I will have other blog responsibilities in the near future. More to come on that.

Today, I made it down to Mike's house for testing to set what will hopefully be the low bar for the winter fitness. I was just about where I expected I'd be with the exception being my weight. For anybody looking to lose weight, I recommend starting your own company and taking on most of the tasks on your own. One of this week's activities, besides running down pricing, putting the finishing touches on the shop, and all of the other items to be taken care of, was to get the chalkboards ready for menus.


Why yes, that is my kitchen . . . The weather has been so cold that I really couldn't paint anywhere else, but inside the house proper. The garage was way too cold and the basement wasn't too much better. I opted for the brush/roll on chalkboard paint this time which made painting inside an option. The two boards will be mounted horizontally and somebody else is doing the writing since even my typing is barely legible.

Let's go back to the "how cold was it?" question . . . it was so cold that the supply and drain lines to my espresso machine inside the house (in the unheated back room) froze overnight. Fortunately I heard the pump struggling first thing this morning and took the heat gun to the tubing. It was -9 according to the internet this morning. I took Dempsey out for a walk and ended up running to stay warm. I'm over this whole winter thing.

Brrr

With all the action over at Rise & Shine it has been a bit of a struggle to keep up with riding bikes and training. Add to that an arctic blast and a layer of snow and motivation is once again challenged. I am still in pretty decent shape, but I can tell when it comes to the intervals on the trainer that I am a level below where I have been in the past, even for this time of year. I am determined to try to find that motivation and get back to how the workouts should feel. Good thing I had the hardest indoor workout on the menu today. I got it going and just ignored as much of everything else possible, taking advantage of the steady action of Premier League Football. The workout is done and I will feel it for sure tomorrow.

Now that I have that part of the day out of the way, I'm going to head over to the shop and get in my barista workout and practice making some biscuits. Pictures to follow probably on the . . . ehem, cough, sputter, choke . . . Facebook page . . .

Licensed

It is official, I have a legal "Retail Food Standup" establishment, licensed and everything. I'm surprised the license doesn't give me special powers given how many hoops there are to jump through. The question that struck me as I was leaving the Wally E. Webb Building was why the city cares if I have a lease agreement for getting the license. They don't check for it come renewal time, they just take my money. I was very, very tempted to take a picture of the people waiting for service and the counter devoid of any city staff. I am not sure where they go, but they don't seem to have any sense of urgency for getting the job done. They are all easily replaced by a little thing called the internet . . . hop to!

I spent some quality time at Rise & Shine with Craig and Jason from Pablo's getting some more Barista 101 and making sure my Fetco brewer actually worked. Good news it that it works and it is now calibrated to the brew profiles that they have found best suit their coffees. It was a very sad moment when I had to empty the 1.5 gallons of coffee into the sink since even I can't drink that much on my own.

The shop is really starting to come together nicely. I did a little more touch up work on the paint job. There will be spots that I find later on down the road that will never get fixed, but I'm doing my best to make it look perfect.


The comfy corner should be a popular spot for those choosing to enjoy their beverage in house. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the colors selected and the general layout. I am curious to see what it will look like with people passing through.


This space feels somewhat empty right now, but I have to keep reminding myself that once you put a person in the window seat and traffic by the espresso machine for drink pickup, it will be pretty full.


Speaking of espresso, here's the Rancilio in its new home. It got the seal of approval from Jason who verified that despite its lack of bells and whistles, it can hold its own. I have to do some grinder modification because the automatic function on the MD-50AT is a bit of a pain. I looked up the wiring diagrams and figured out what all can be bypassed to make it function like the manual version. I'd prefer to grind what I need and turn off the grinder as opposed to having it run until the doser's hopper is full and then turning on again every four pulls of the dosing lever.


I need to do some clean up and debadge the Fetco thermal pots. I will not be serving decaf drip coffee. If somebody wants it, I'll be perfectly happy to make a decaf espresso drink, but I'm not even going to make provision for that until later. It would require dedicating a grinder to the stuff. I get to play junior plumber and add a sink next to the hand wash sink since you can't wash things in a hand wash sink without making the health inspector really mad. There will also be a grinder next to the brewer to grind the 8 oz. of coffee required for a full batch.


I went to "shop" the competition a little bit to get an idea of what people are willing to pay. Pulling in $4.25 for a coffee and milk drink with some flavors seems crazy. My menu won't be anywhere near as extensive, I will just offer the normal and sane coffee drinks. If people demand fluff, I will cave, but the demands must be significant. I have some sort of standards . . .