coffee

My caffenation this week has been difficult.

Thursday I was washing out the french press (aka bodum) and the screw fell out of the screen/filter assembly and went down the drain. And it's not really a normal screw (more like an inverse screw or nut that screws in), so replacing it is going to be difficult. None the less, I did make coffee by pushing the screen down with a fork (this resulted in slightly crunchy coffee, but a drug addict is willing to put up with a few imperfections). And just to totally gross people out, I drank the microwave-reheated leftovers on Friday. But clearly this was a temporary solution.

Saturday I was at Canadian Tire (buying someone a new car battery as I had to move their car for snow plowing and it wouldn't even turn over and I don't desire to be jump starting their car all winter long) and decided to pick up a stove-top espresso maker (Moka style) for $20 (of course I had to buy new plates, windshield wipers and a shovel as well - I'm quite an impulsive consumer). I've had a camping espresso maker for years that works great, so... Does anyone have any idea how to get this stupid thing to work well? My camping one works perfect every time. I've used it a few times now with varying degrees of success. Here's my problem and questions:

Problem: The water boils, but only about 1/4 of the water actually makes it to the top chamber, the rest stays down below eventually boiling off as steam if left long enough. I'm pretty sure its supposed to boil fast and violently passing up to the upper chamber in 30 seconds or so of boiling.

Questions: I've ground the coffee quite fine and packed it quite full and firmly (following others instructions and a quick search online. I've also put the water right up to the pressure valve. I tried it a 2nd time (with the same grounds) but after removing a scoop of grounds and it seem to work better. Perhaps I just have too much and too fine off coffee and its not letting the water boil up enough?

So anyway, today's espresso only created about 2 ounces of elixir, but the consistency was very thick and the results have been equivalent to drinking a pot of coffee (after adding milk and additional water to make a full coffee cup). Zinger! If this were beer, it would put Guinness to shame.

radio3

Ever listen to radio3? I'm listening to some streaming new age hip hop rap electronic shit right now (No Luck Club from Burnaby) on radio3.cbc.ca. Actually now it's the New Pornographers (The Bleeding Heart Show). The basic streaming music website focusing on Canadian indie/alternative music, but with neat multimedia stuff. You can click on what's playing and get band info and other songs and stuff. I haven't been to the site since they re-did the website, though I've been listening to the radio3 podcasts via iTunes. Anyway, I checked the site out again because I saw it won an award in the US for best online multimedia programming or something (despite being Canadian... but I guess since it's online it goes cross border).

I'd recommend the blog and the blog archives for some neat links too...

P.S. Me edited this heres post cause my mom saids there was an grammer error - thanks to me mom for catchen that there error here cause I think me fixed it and me wan'ts not to sound iliterate.

snow & sports...

It mid January and it has finally snowed!! I went skiing on New Years Day (or was it the 2nd? I can't remember) and the snow was okay (though all man-made) on the green and some blue runs, but the blacks were ridiculous with either no snow or ice (I guess they've been focusing on snow making for the easy & groomable runs first). I went down a chute where I literally should have been wearing ice skates. The ice was smooth and polished as if the zamboni had just been there. I'm lucky to be here talking about it.

Of course the snow means I just had to go dig my car out because they're plowing the side of the street my car was parked on. Definitely not San Francisco. And San Francisco tires are what are on my car. Okay, they're all-season radials, but let's call them "performance-oriented" all-season radials, so it's going to be scary!!

Let's see, what else is new? Hmmm...

I'm back getting some exercise with hockey and climbing both happening weekly. Some jerk defenseman last week at hockey threatened to take me out because I was getting a jump on him and got two breakaways. Now seriously, I don't take hockey too seriously, but someone coming up to me and telling me he was going after me with the intention of taking a penalty and hurting me if I cherry picked and got behind him again ticked me off (out strategy for the game was to keep a winger at or above the blue line at all times). So a few plays later I very innocently laid my shoulder into him in front of the net - a nice solid and clean mid ice bump, not even a hit, but possibly enough to get me a penalty (I should mention we're in a non-hitting league). Of course we can all imagine the brain power of someone who was giving threats in the first place, so he came up looking for a fight and calling me a girl (though he was the one lying on the ice and going on, somehow I was being a girl - sorry for the sexisms here). Ummm... yeah, good one.

But it gets better. I had figured I was going to take a penalty, but figured he'd go with me. It turns out largely because I kept my cool and he was himself that he gets a penalty and I don't. So all is good from point of view. He doesn't like this however and starts going ballistic on the bench. And then a play later there's another minor hit on the ice (not involving me) and he starts going crazy in the penalty box because my teammate did the hit and doesn't get a penalty. So a few seconds into his 2nd tantrum he gets booted from the game. We've got a real winner here I tell you. Anyway, I was quite happy with myself :)

Since I'm going on about sports... I've been climbing with a couple new people and one of them wanted to do their lead test. I said I'd belay for him, but little did I know that they don't distinguish between lead belay and lead here, so I got stuck doing my lead test. Of course I haven't lead squat in over a year, never mind that I've barely been climbing at all! Turns out I did fine on my lead climb (clips weren't the smoothest ever), but he didn't like my lead belaying. He thinks I'm too easy going and don't pay enough attention to small details and he thinks I leave too much slack which I completely disagree with (while belaying I was thinking I was keeping him too tight). It kind of annoys me how different gyms/people are so particular yet inconsistent. Anyway, he reviewed my belaying before the other guy belayed so the other guy knew what he was looking for and had no problems. And I took a fall so the other guy could pass but the other guy passed without having to take a fall? What's up with that? So there's a bunch of lead climbers climbing who've maybe never taken a fall?

So does this make those of you who I've belayed scared or what!! But don't worry, I've caught several really good lead falls and I'm still arrogant and full of myself. Of the latter, I'm sure none of you had any doubt.

area codes

Isn't it funny that I used to live in area code 415 and now I live in area code 514. Makes you think, doesn't it??