This post brought to you by Too Much Coffee Man.

I've had an espresso renaissance this month.

I've had this La Pavoni Europiccola for about 3 years, and just this year I took a real interest in it, after 3 years of putting out some pretty mediocre shots, each time wishing for something as good as the local espresso shop, each time wondering just how much trouble it might be to install one of THOSE machines in the basement somewhere.

The seals were leaky. I looked on the internets and found whom to buy them from. It turns out it was the importer of my particular machine waay back in '96. I'd had no idea of the provenance of my machine other than it was owned by that guy I bought it from, off craigslist.

Then I got a fancy tamper from Stumptown here locally- they had to order the wee little 49mm, and it was worth the wait. I read that some people tap a few bulges into the walls of the filter basket so it does not flop out of the filter handle at the slightest provocation, so I did that and it worked.

I buy my beans from a local roaster, Ristretto, or Stumptown, or sometimes Whole Foods downtown, typically within 5 days of the actual roast date. I store them in light proof, vacuum sealed leftover wine bottles, even though no one seems to be able to prove that it improves the taste or life of the beans.

I thought that the Weiss Distribution Technique might be for me, and so I cut the top off of a Crystal Geyser bottle and made a funnel for that, and bought a titanium tent stake to stir and level.

I read on the internets how to modify my rebranded Starbucks grinder for a finer grind, and now I know where to dial it optimally for the three most common beans I use. I flush my group head before and after each shot, and clean it before I put it away.

I cannot believe the quality of shot I'm pulling these days. The incremental improvements along the way have been nothing compared to the quantum leap of improvement now that I've put it all together. I crave my own espresso, over places I used to worship, like here or here. I can't share the taste or the fun with you, even with Web 2.0, but I can enthusiastically tell you that it's a journey well worth the effort.

I knew that my ancient, finger-burning, chrome plated anachronism still could work wonders. No electronics needed, just good old fashioned trial-and-error, some elbow grease, and a stout caffeine tolerance.

more random thoughts

My triumph tonight: fixing our beloved 3ccd Panasonic GS250, which went belly-up on our trip to Italy sometime. It simply stopped working without any external indication of what might be wrong. After finding out that the Panasonic flat fee for fixing the thing was nearly $300, I figured, "What could be the harm in taking it apart?"

Let me tell you, there are a LOT of little screws and connector ribbons inside this thing. There was also a leettle tiny circuit board floating floating around in there, suspiciously loose, and a loosened ribbon to the LCD flip-out. These just pressed right back into place. I managed not to 1. break anything 2. shock myself on residual flash voltage or 3. lose any parts. Also I got it back together and it works like a dream again. Score: Panasonic [-]$300, Me [+]10,000 awesomeness points.

Now we can try and capture the joy that is toddlerhood. Getting DV out of the thing into my computer is a damn pain in the ass, so no samples for you tonight.

Maybe I need one that records to SD media....

Status quo for us, and lucky at that.

Not a lot of activity around here these days. I've been using the internet passively lately.

Through my Dooce reading, I found Sweet Juniper. Through Dutch's posts there I found Sweet | Salty, which has turned out to be one of the most thoughtfully written (mommy)blogs I've seen. When I started reading, Kate was pregnant with twins and I've been hooked ever since. The way she described the alien beings inside her, taking over was wonderful to read. It felt like tuning in to a favorite TV show every day.

It turns out that twins are not a simple thing to pull off (doctor speak: "high risk pregnancy") and well, very nearly the worst thing imaginable has happened. After an urgent c-section with twin-twin transfusion, we watched Ben and Liam's progress in the NICU with rapt attention. Friday when I got home from work, I pulled up all my blogs to read in tabs... no one had posted anything of significance except Kate, who had the courage to tell the whole world about the death of her 6 week old baby boy Liam. I am in awe that she could somehow be eloquent and sorrowful and so well-adjusted after it. If you choose to read it, you should be warned that it is not easy to read. It is the first time I have personally mourned the loss of anyone I've never met on the internet. She's written so beautifully about him, it's hard for me to imagine that level of composure after your six week old child had been intubated repeatedly, had several brain hemorrhages, and had neurosurgery. And then didn't make it. I would be literally out of my mind with sadness and the farthest thing from my mind would be blogging. Being able to do it well would be unattainable.

I'd had what I thought was a "bad day" on Friday. I went to work over-tired, had some scheduling goof-ups and was generally out of sorts far out of proportion to anything that actually happened to me. Simply reading a blog gave me instant perspective on just how fortunate I am, how fortunate T and I are to have this rambunctious running screaming kicking throwing hooting nutball kick-ass toddler that we do. Effortlessly, we are all alive and well, and for that, I am immensely grateful.