Irony?
February 26, 2008 at 1:17 pm | In Culture, Work | 2 CommentsTags: cappucino, Coffee, getting things done
Me sitting here at my desk, a leafed-through copy of “Getting Things Done” beside the computer on which I’m surfing and blogging, and shopping for a label maker because the author of the book recommends it. He recommends a lot more besides, but some of that involves work. Perhaps ‘irony’ is not the mot juste – my mum’d suggest ‘laziness.’
A Success
Yes, I finally figured out how to work that strange tuby contraption off the side of my espresso machine. It’s a “cappucinatore” and when used correctly, it really does make nice foam. I’d been putting the blue tube into the milk jug and letting the flow out go back into the jug but that was the wrong thing to do. You’ve got to put the tube in the jug all right, but the let the discharge of foam flow into your mug or cup. It made very nice foam and a delicious cappucino.
More On Next Door
There’s apparently a repair crew working on it. So I guess it’s not condemned at all. MTC.
Resolutions
January 2, 2008 at 1:38 pm | In Languages | Leave a CommentTags: Coffee, espresso, moka, new years resolutions
Here, with comments, are my resolutions for 2008.
I will eat within my Weight Watchers points on a weekly basis. Because I need to watch my intake more vigilantly.
I will work out (minimum of 30 minutes’ walk) six days most weeks, and a minimum of five days every week. I will work in the strength training that Neal wants me to do and by the end of February I will be walking 200 minutes a week. I will achieve this by adding 3 minutes a day to my current walking. This may be tough as the gym fills up with people working on their own resolutions, but I think it’s necessary.
I will devote a minimum of one hour to Georgian three days a week. Browsing through the book doesn’t count.
I will order lunch to be delivered only once a fortnight. This should help displace my misplaced halo.
I will explore changing jobs. I will post a resume on monster.com highlighting my language skills by the end of January, I will contact a career counselor by the end of Feburary, and I will explore advanced courses/correspondence courses to improve my German by the end of January. I can’t keep whining that I’m not happy at work without doing something about it.
I will do the laundry at least once a week. Because it’s not fair to expect C to keep doing it all the time.
I will clean up the kitchen after I cook in it. Because it’s not fair to expect C to keep doing it all the time.
I will organize our vital information by the end of January in the Quicken add-on program. Because things are scattered all over.
I will take a good home inventory by the end of February. Because thing are scattered all over and you never know when you’ll need one.
I will switch my will to add my Godson by the end of March. Because I’d like to see him taken care of, too.
I will make a proper web site on my www.angloamssite.com (and the other one for our family) by the end of March. Because I spent all that money on registering the domain and buying the webspace.
I will increase my knowledge of Dreamweaver by the end of February, and of the rest of the Adobe suite by the end of May. Because we spent so much on the bloody things and they can be very useful.
I will do at least one voluntary activity per month. Don’t know what exactly yet.
I will review these resolutions in three months. But i’ll keep my blog and myself updated periodically.
I will only take one day off a month without very good reason. Because I’d like to save up some vacation time.
Well, what do you think? Too ambitious? Missing things?
Mmmmm Moka
I have to say I’m enjoying making good coffee with the Moka Express I got from my brother and sister-in-law. It’s a very classic aluminum coffee pot in two halves; you put the water in the bottom half, the put the filter unit on top and fill it with the coffee, then you screw on the top. As the water in the sealed bottom cannister on the stove, it builds pressure which forces it through the coffee and up into the top pot. It makes a good quantity of lovely strong espresso. I don’t think it’ll make reliable crema but it’s really neat. If you ever come to visit, I’ll turn out something good for you.
Rayed X
December 12, 2007 at 10:38 pm | In Cute Guys, Exercise | Leave a CommentTags: Carlos Ponce, Christmas, Coffee, photography, Rafael Branciforti, walking
Not sure if it’s good or bad but my GP wants me to get the ankle x-rayed and then to see the doctor who made my orthotics. I guess on balance it’s good. Mind you he had a particularly clear case of pain as on my way from my car to my office I pitched over and fell, sprawling, on my knee, then hands and ankle. Yes, the one that’s hurting. I was hobbling about all day. Bloody painful. He (GP) also wants me to ‘cut back a bit’ on the walking; so I’m going to stop trying to increase my time every time. I guess the key thing is consistency. I’ve not been slimming down as fast as I would like so it’s time go to on even more of an intake blitz. Not easy with free time and so many yummy things over the holidays Christmas. I’ll get the X-rays done on Friday, I guess.So into all this walked Neal the personal trainer who was more understanding than I thought he’d be. We talked a bit but I’d not written up my intake logs. Then we did a lot of strength work. I did crunches with a 10lb weight, then with my arms outstretched far behind my head, and then what he calls ‘bridges’ off my exercise ball. Neal seemed very pleased with my partial squats, I apparently can get quite far down and come up with control. I was so down when he showed up and felt a lot better when he’d gone. So that was good. Of course he comes back Saturday so here’s hoping intending for a good report to give him.
Preparations Unfinished
Oh, crap! There’s only two weekends before Christmas. Crap crap crap! Everyone’s going to be getting their cards late. Maybe I can write them out at Ikea tomorrow – we’re going after work to look for things to put our DVDs in. Crap crap crap! I have to get some Christmas shopping done! I have to make a grocery order for Christmas. Oder Stollen and get panforte. We’ve got Christmas cake so that’s okay. And the rumtopf’s been utterly forgotten. Crap crap crap!
A Photo Unfinished
I dropped off the test pictures from the Voightlander on Wednesday, 5 December at the CVS in Beltsville. They were supposed to be back on Monday, 10 December. Guess what? Not back. They’re doing a tracer on them. I’m annoyed because I really wanted to be able to give the vendor some feedback. And of course to share them with you, my adoring public. (Although I notice that my most hit posts are those with the names of porn stars in them…not my other stuff….) I hope they’re back soon because the camera is old and has no built in flash so I can only take pics during daylight hours. I’ll tell you though, once you go digital, all this palaver with running back and forth to the developer is for the birds.Oh, what really has me worried is that they’ve got photos from somebody with the same last name who’s not picked them up. One wonders.
Now That’s Good Coffee
No, really, I think I’m getting better with the Via Veneto. The idea I think is that you put the end of the tube thing into your milk, which is drawn up and then aerated with the steam and then dropped back into the container all foamy. I think though that it’s better to do the foaming first, and then the espresso into two little cups as the coffee cools down quite a bit while the milk’s foaming, while the milk won’t cool quite as quick under its little foam blanket. Made some with caffeine when we got home from our respective works, and will make one more before retiring for the night.
Java and the Blue Boy
Well, okay, it’s a bit of a stretch but there’s a blue vibe in today’s Carlos Ponce pictures, two conventional shots (but no less appealing for it) and one of him getting ready for a comforting massage. Would you like to oil him up and give him a long, slow rub? Click on the little ones to see him enlarge. I couldn’t bring myself to shrink him on the table, that grin looks too good full size.
And for our video delight, here’s Carlos singing “Decir Adios” which translates to “Saying Goodbye.” Not quite yet but I’m hard at work on our next obsession due soon. I am having fun doing Carlos though as there are so many videos.
Continue reading Rayed X…
Dreaded Metatarsal?
December 10, 2007 at 11:32 pm | In Cute Guys, Exercise | 2 CommentsTags: Chuck, Coffee, Rafael Branciforti, walking
I don’t think it’s the dreaded metatarsal but my ankle is hurting like mad now. I could only do about 12 minutes before my legs began shaking and I had to stop. I feel rotten. I have an appointment with my GP on Wednesday to see about it. There are some other things falling or rotting off me I need to see him about. I’m glad my appointment’s just before lunch.
Still can’t figure out this inner tube thing on the coffee machine; it seems to suck the milk up which is kinda not what I’d expect; it then spits milk out. I’m going to have to ask around and try to figure out what to do. I think the Capresso is far
superior for steaming milk. Oh, well.
On the other hand, glad to report that the plug issue with the enormous TV is working and the DVD player thingy is now even as I type this making odd pulsing sounds while C walks a microphone around the media room so it can calibrate itself. Very high tech.
Boo! No Chuck tonight. How’m I to get my action-comedy fix? Or my Adam Baldwin fix? Watched a bit of “La Vie En Rose” – the story of Edith Piaf. Such lovely lovely music. So passionate.
Work is blah
Isn’t it? I just sat there staring at all I had to do wondering how I could get away with not doing it. Right at the end of the day, Chad comes ambling over and wants to talk – about Monika Lewinski, Bill Clinton, and blow jobs, of all things. I didn’t know where to look. I feel sorry for him though; his plan to attract a lady is to get a cigar, go to a singles bar, and play Billy Boy to some unsuspecting girl’s Monica. I said “I give it a million to one you’ll not meet anyone.” He said “well, it only takes one.” Strange; he seems lonely but if he’d just cross to my side of the street, as it were, a military triathlete Iron Man? He’d never have to be alone of a weekend night. Just call him Trixie. Straight women have very self-defeating standards. Perhaps it’s that pregnancy thing.
This is Not Blah
But it is the only video I’ve found with this week’s mini-obsession, surfer dude Rafael Branciforti. It’s the ‘making of’ video (aka camera man indulging himself) from his ‘The Boy’ photoshoot. I hope you enjoy it. More photos to come, to make up for the flubbed links from yesterday. But it’s a bit late and I’ve got a messy kitchen to clean up.
Oh, I’ve a soft spot for my readers; here’s one more, of Mr. B enjoying his reflection in a glass door. We can enjoy his reflection, too…does he have a soft spot for us?
(Being shy’s such a waste of time, he seems to be saying.)
Pump it, Baby
December 5, 2007 at 11:58 pm | In Cute Guys, Friends | 2 CommentsTags: Carlos Ponce, Coffee, K, snow
I’m sitting sipping an espresso from my brand new Saeco Via Veneto and for a non-expert like me, it’s good. Yummy good. Supposedly thanks to the rather powerful pump in the machine.
And the counter’s only a little bit covered in hot water. I still can’t figure out the hose contraption for the steam output but I’m sure I will and I’ll start making lovely cappuccini soon. Now if only the ground fault interrupter in our media room would work so we can fire up our super duper ultra marvellous DVD player and sip coffee while we watch something good. Netflix has sent me “La Vie En Rose” which is the story of Edith Piaf and I can’t wait.
My replacement pedometer arrived and I’m so chuffed; so did “WordPress for Dummies.” Perhaps my blog will soon be less pedestrian. Perhaps.
Let it Snow, But Why Here?
Washington and Maryland had its first snow of the season today, only a dusting but the road crews and drivers seemed a bit unprepared. My normal 30 minute commute took about 50, thanks to an accident on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, just above Maryland Route 197. That was a common theme – overbridges were strewn with prangs and fender benders, and everyone was tailed back trying to get through. Here’s a picture of our house, on our coming home; doesn’t it look cozy? Click to see it a bit bigger.
Particularly ironic was how the walkways on the base where I work were not treated or swept or shovelled. Keep in mind that before every holiday we are frog-marched into the auditorium to get a safety briefing, where I, inter alia, a 40+ year old man (no, really I am) are told how to drive safely…yet that concern apparently does not extend to allowing me to walk safely. Odd, innit?
Meanwhile, there was an accident on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge so I was worried that my best friend K’s husband D wouldn’t be able to come over to this side of the bay and pick her up. I was half hoping <blush> that she’d have to come over to our house to wait for him, I enjoy her company that much. But it was not to be.
So How Can We Keep Warm?
We can remember summer days when we could lie around on the grass, possibly (preferably) with warm friendly people like Carlos Ponce, here looking relaxed and relaxing. Don’t you love it when handsome men lie at your feet?
Or when it was not a freezing prospect to be under a dock warm and wet, maybe even with a smiling person like Carlos Ponce,
damply, drippingly inviting…
I mean, you could have gone out today and get wet, but hardly warm, and I bet you wouldn’t be smiling like Mr. Ponce here, not with the temperature at just below freezing. Despite his ice-blue eyes, he’s more the tropical type, I’d say.
(Doesn’t he get you warmed up?)
How’d You Like a Quickie?
December 3, 2007 at 9:50 pm | In Cute Guys | Leave a CommentTags: Carlos Ponce, Coffee, Work
I hope you like it fast and hopefully not too nasty, because that’s all I’ve got time for this evening. I did manage to make major progress on one of my due-outs today, but I may have been wasting my time, or not, as my boss’s boss may not want it after all. Or he might. Who knows? At first it annoyed me that he called me “son” on the phone, but then I thought – why get upset when he emphasizes the fact that I’m so much younger than him. Shall I call him “pops” when next I see him?
And blech, I have a meeting to go to tomorrow that I only just found out about, and I hate that because I get so nervous I’ll make a fool of myself.
It’s kind of a drag that I see quite clearly that I can never be promoted, not just in my current directorate, but in my current organization at all. I’ve spotted one job in the next building over that I may go for. Wish me luck!
It’s also a drag that my boss said she doesn’t know anything about my job and won’t be learning; I have to educate her beyond her preconceived notions, which is just extra effort. Effort that the others, in the same field as her, don’t have to expend. Whine! But I have to ask how she can appreciate it when I am busy, or do a good job, or both, if she doesn’t know and appears not to care to know.
There has to be a happy medium between neglect and micromanaging – benign neglect? Helpful managing? Continue reading How’d You Like a Quickie?…
En Quatre Couleurs
November 27, 2007 at 10:58 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: Carlos Ponce, Coffee, Ivri Lider, photography, Plastic Bertrand, Voigtlander
Sitting here in the home office listening to C play Plastic Bertrand singing “Ça Plan Pour Moi” and wondering what to blog about. I mean you could be interested in my boring job, or why I need to pull my thumbs out and buckle down, or how hard that is when you feel that your function’s unimportant and unwanted. Here’s the video from “Top of the Pops” in 1978. I still think it’s cool…it was in a rather good French movie we watched (”Times Have Been Better“).
Or about the fact that after two days of indolence and three of very substandard walking times I managed to do 35 minutes in the cold cold Washington night. 
Or about the fact that my new espresso machine is still not here despite being promised but I really really want to give the seller one more day before I give up. After all, I just got a bunch of really beautiful Bodum cappuccino glasses (which I will put to the test before going to bed).Or about the fact that that very same cold dark Washington nights have meant I still have not
managed to take the new old Voigtlander out for a test run to see if it really works because it’s too damned dark by the time I get home. Plan is to take it to work tomorrow and see if I meet a stern Military Policeman with questions as to why I’m taking snapshots of our building. If all goes well and the pics are decent I’ll post them for your viewing delight.
Oh, now he’s playing lovely sexy Ivri Lider singing “Jesse.” I hope this openly gay Israeli singer comes to DC in concert soon. He sang the theme song “Bo” to “Yossi & Jagger,” a really romantic tear-jerker.
Or maybe you’d rather hear about my troubles with figuring out Dreamweaver? Nah, nobody wants to know about that. Not even me!
Could it be you want to hear about our delicious dinner, pasta with walnut and sage sauce?
It was the one healthy thing I ate today after breakfast. Hotdogs at lunch were a bad idea. So were the little chockies my colleagues brought in.
Oh, I know what you want, you want a piece of Ponce, today’s view of our handsome hero. Here’s a picture of him looking young and fresh and lovely by a window…what a view, eh? Just click on Carlos to get him large…and when you’re done, enjoy this video of him singing “Te Vas.” He really is a talented package.
(He looks like he needs comforting…wouldn’t you help him?)
Still Not Dead!
November 20, 2007 at 11:30 pm | In Cute Guys, Family, Friends | 2 CommentsTags: Bessamatic, Cameras, cappucino, Coffee, coffeegeek, coffeekid, espresso, Omiros, Sakis Rouvas, Stathis Papadopoulos
Wow, what a wonderful week it’s been. Thank you for your patience.
My mum and dad indulged me with a very good espresso machine, the Capresso Mini, and I’ve been making C and myself cappuccini and espressi with it ever since. They also got me a little four-cup drip coffee machine with a timer that I’ll take to work; now when I’ve finished C’s lovely mocha that he sends me in to work with every morning, I’ll have yet more lovely coffee waiting for me. If the fire marshal doesn’t nix it first.
My good friends K, D, and J got me some workout gear, and a lovely block of note paper imprinted with a picture off this very site of the rather dishy Michael Lewis. Apparently, it’s all designed to get my pulse racing and me all sweaty. Mr. Lewis and lifting weights have that effect!
All the excitement must have got my head giddy because last weekend, you know, when I had all those plans, I didn’t do a darned thing. I’ve still not moved the blog to my site, and I’ve still not taken the pictures of the art work, and I’ve still not put our other site on its own domain, and I’ve still not edited the movie from our trip, and we’ve still not connected up our super duper TVs video entertainment megasystems, but we do have a four-day weekend coming up so guess what! we mustn’t sit on our well paddeds like last weekend, or like Sakis here (run your clicker on him to see him lounge large). Of course, we always leave time for socializing if the chance comes up.
The other thing the giddiness has done is made me decide, after reading coffeekid and coffeegeek, to buy another espresso machine, this one a Saeco Via Veneto with a pump. Apparently a pump machine is better at making rich and mellow espresso, and these machines, which are universally agreed to be good starter systems, are going on e-bay for $60 for a reconditioned model – they were $250 when new.
Giddy giddy. I also bid on a Voigtländer Bessamatic; it was the first ‘real’ camera (i.e., SLR) my dad ever got me and I lost it (more on that to come) some years ago and still miss it. I’ll do a post or a page on it soon. It is at least fifty years old, weighs a ton, is mostly mechanical, and will teach a person more about focal plane focusing than any new eletronic rig. Not that I’m a photographic Luddite, I love our digital SLR and wish I could use its advanced features more intelligently. 19 minutes to go. I have mixed opinions; I wish I’d not bid so high and that I’d waited to find one with a case and strap; and maybe even I’m slightly hoping not to get it. (Ed: I got it. Mixed emotions continue unstirred.)
Giddy giddy giddy. We also got ourselves a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 3, so I’ll be able to use Dreamweaver this weekend to start up the new site for you. Talk about giddy. It all came to a bit of a crash when C did the accounts this evening, so over a lovely fresh cappuccino we have discussed how important it is to maintain a sensible spending and indulgence level. Of course he’s right, when we looked the other day at our dining out budget and expenses I was shocked. We could buy and run a very nice luxury car on what we spend eating out. And the other benefit is that my personal trainer Neal wants me to eat out much less too. Hopefully we’ll gain more disposable while we lose our avoirdupoids. That doesn’t mean a trip to the Churrascaria for lunch (FNC, dinner?) this Friday is out, though….
Must dash for now
As I say, just like Sakis I have to run (I promise to remain clothed though, unlike our Greek Beauty here, who will get bigger, but sadly not move his leg a bit, if you click him gently with your mouse).
I’ve spent too much time tonight spending money and making espresso and watching another gorgeous Greek, Stathis Papadopoulos (to the left here, what eyes, what a jaw line, what beautiful swarthiness) in Omiros (Hostage). I will try to muse interestingly on Thanksgiving, how I lost the Bessamatic, good coffee, and other things on the morrow. In the meantime, please, keep the comments coming. I really do appreciate them.
(Sakis would not have to run to me, how about you?)
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