I called my good friend Harriet to ask if she was watching and she was. I said, "I heard it may be radar problems at the airport that are putting these planes off course." I've considered Harriet my closet friend for over fifty years so when she said, "Whatta you, fucking stupid?" I took no offense. "It's the fucking lunatics from the middle east that want us dead."
Ten years ago today Wanda and I were on our first cruise. We were sailing toward Ketchikan, Alaska. We were eating breakfast when the Captain keyed the p.a. system and requested a moment of silence for the victims of 9-11. It made me feel heavyhearted but also happy. Not only to be on that beautiful ship, but to be alive. Every day I should remember both those emotions. Every day I should remind myself just how lucky I am.
Is multi-tasking a thing of the past for me? I should check into brain exerciser web sites. I think my brain needs a good work-out, or two.
Since I don't know how espresso-steamed milk savvy you are, here is a short lesson. You put the lime in the coconut, damn it, wrong drink.
I put about two tablespoons of fine ground coffee in a metal portafilter basket. Using a tamping tool I exert 30 lbs of pressure on the grinds to form a round level puck. Next I place the basket in the portafilter holder then lock it in the group head. Hot water is pushed though the entire apparatus and I have espresso. I use 1 cup of milk steamed to 145 degrees. I mix the espresso and milk and I have a latte.
I use the Starbucks espresso machine Older Daughter Jennifer 'loaned' months ago. I've made hundreds of espresso shots with it. Last Friday I forgot to properly lock the portafilter holder in place. When I started the brewing process it began to twist away from group head.
Very hot water and soaked fine coffee grounds spewed all over the machine, the counter and my hands. It was a huge mess and a very large clean-up. A few days later the machine stopped working and I panicked. The machine was making noise but no water poured through the grounds.
Facing a morning without espresso I went over my options. I could drive to the coffee shop, drag out my crappy old Mr. Coffee espresso maker or brew regular coffee. All would be the short term. I would need a new machine for future use. I decided to try the Starbucks machine one more time. I pushed the brew button and let it run for several minutes (way longer than ever before). Suddenly it started to pour and I had espresso. Something was clogged from my spillage disaster Friday and finally cleared.
Now I'm thinking I need to buy a nice back-up espresso machine. I'll treat it like a new NFL quarterback. It can sit on the counter observing until I retire the Starbucks machine. Can I find a good machine under $300?
By the way, the steamed milk? I use a chilled metal pitcher. I heat the milk before I pour the espresso. The milk stays hot longer than the coffee and the coffee loses it's flavor quickly.
So to review: First I steam the milk. Then I start the brewing process. I pour the espresso shots and the 145 degree milk into my mug and I have a great latte. One more thing, and you don't really need to concern yourself with this, a green light goes out when the milk is around 90 degrees.
As I was steaming the milk this morning I went to the place I call "Boofland." I spent a lot of time there back in the late 60's early 70's. In the old days I had help getting there. These days all it takes is thinking about, or doing, two things at once. I don't know how long I stared at the thermometer but I suddenly realized it had been pegged at 80 degrees for a while. It's brand new, I knew it was working.
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| DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME |
It's not always me. We were watching the opening of Sunday Night Football...you know the song about waiting all day for Sunday night?
He said: "Carrie Underwood"
She heard: You're an invalid.
I just realized invalid is a terrible word.
a: being without foundation or force in fact, truth, or law
b: logically inconsequent
c: suffering from disease or disability
d: one who is sickly or disabled
There are a few things to consider about the use of invalid. British or American use, adjective or noun. But it seems like an invalid is invalid any way it's sliced.
Another two words I've been thinking about.
Selfish: This should refer to someone who sells fish not a person who is only concerned with their own well being.
Locomotive: Loco is used to describe someone mentally disordered. Motive (noun) is a need or desire that causes a person to act (adjective) moving or tending to move to action or relating to motion or the causing of motion.
Think the first person who invented the train engine was a tad nuts? And while I'm on the subject of trains, how about that caboose? The last car of a train or slang for a persons rear end. She has a nice caboose, but can she TWERK?
Another part of an e-mail from Avie: Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
More to follow..
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