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Shots of the Second Roast

Here is a shot of the second batch. This is more for me, so that I can compare the colors of each. The lighting and location are different, so this is more of a rough estimate than anything else.

Second Roast

The other day I wrote about my first home roasting of fresh coffee beans. After I wrote that post I realized that it was only about the first (and less important) part of the process. Yesterday morning we ground up some of my first batch and gave it a shot. Some notes on this:

- They reccomend that you only do about 2/3 - 3/4 of a cup of beans. The reason for this is that the popcorn popper can't really handle much more than that.

- This makes about 2-3 pots of coffee depending on how many cups you brew. I tend to make at least 8-10 even though Tara has about half a cup.

- The roast smelled REALLY great after letting it sit overnight to cool. The first pot came out too fine, as it seemed to grind faster than the stuff I normally buy. That was corrected on pot #2.

- The coffee was really smooth with no bitterness whatsoever. My initial thoughts that I might have inadvertantly made a Vienna roast seemed to have been incorrect (I think). It tasted like what was described as a Full City Roast, and was a really nice cup of coffee.

Today I ran out of the first batch so I fired up the popper and tried out the Ethiopian Wet-Processed Sidamo. This bean got to "first crack" faster than the first batch, and let off A LOT of smoke. The color was not as even as the first batch. Hopefully it tastes halfway decent.

Home Roasting

As a coffee fanatic, (or at least one who would love to be able to call himself a coffee fanatic) I have always heard that the best coffee in the world regardless of the bean is coffee that is fresh roasted.

By "fresh roasted", I don't mean vacuum sealed by Foldgers with little lame crystals imbedded in it. I mean cooked in your own home for consumption shortly after completion. This Christmas, Tara made that a reality for me. After much searching she found an excellent source for "green" uncooked beans and the instructions needed for home roasting.

Armed with a metal collander, a professional grade kitchen thermometer and an unused popcorn popper (seriously, that's what you use) I set out to make my first batch of home roasted coffee. I selected from the sampler that Tara got me, the El Salvador Monte Leon "Miel", that 'Sweet Maria' calls "thick bodied, sweet malty, with raw honey flavors".

Here is the result of my first attempt:

Surprisingly, the coffee is very evenly colored and the smell is fantastic. I believe I was successful in achieving what is called 'Full City Roast', although I may have pushed it a bit far and gotten more of a Vienna Roast. Either way, it's my first shot and all the equiptment is new so more experimentation will have to take place.

Blog Confession Leads To Jail Time For Teen

From the Information Week weblog:

How dumb can some bloggers be? That's a question 18-year-old Blake Ranking is pondering as he faces five years in prison and 10 years on probation for causing an accident that killed one friend and severely injured another. "It was me who caused it," Ranking confessed in a blog three days after the October 2004 accident.

Ranking should be credited for owning up for his actions, but when authorities began to investigate, he rescinded his admission -- that is, till investigators discovered his blog entry on Blurty.com .

Blake, sitting in the back seat as he and then-17-year-old friends Jason Coker and Nicole Robinette left a party pulled the steering wheel as a prank, causing the car to somersault off the road, according to a story in the Orlando Sentinel. The driver, Robinette, was seriously injured. Coke died three months later. Ranking was drunk; his blood alcohol content was more than double the legal limit.

"It was me who caused it. I turned the wheel. I turned the wheel that sent us off the road, into the concrete drain ..." Ranking blogged. "How can I be fine when everyone else is so messed up?"

******************

From Dave:

- I did NOT rob a bank, steal a car, club a seal(s), launder money from the mob, set fire to a church, yell out any racial slurs, shoplift from a store, flip off a cop, or break any windows. I swear.

(Disclaimer: If in the future it is determined that I actually DID commit any of the above mentioned crimes, then I reserve the right to claim that the entire contents of this website are intended for entertainment purposes only and are not a true and accurate reflection of actual people, places or events.)

GIFT WRAPPING TIPS FOR MEN

I realize that it is hokey to take prewritten, emailed 100 times, "office jokes", chain letters and inspirational stories and post them on your blog but guess what?

Suck it up! It's the holidays and apparently I am phoning it in for today.

Enjoy. Thanks Brian.

GIFT WRAPPING TIPS FOR MEN
==========================
This is the time of year when we think back to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men; Gaspar, Balthazar and Ralph, went to see the baby Jesus and, according to the Book of Matthew, "presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of wrapping paper. If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so:
"And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than the frankincense."

But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics:

1. They were wise.
2. They were men.

Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion: This is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I know.

One is "Old John", who said the only time he ever wraps a gift is "if it's such a poor gift that I don't want to be there when the person opens it."

The other is "Red", who told me he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than 15 seconds per gift.

"No one ever had to wonder which presents daddy wrapped at Christmas," "Doc" said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."

I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a sector of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this sector with a marking pen.)

If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by Scotch tape.

On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.

My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills like having babies that come more naturally to women than to men. That is why today I am presenting:

GIFT-WRAPPING TIPS FOR MEN:
* Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If, when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognizes it, you can claim that it's myrrh.

* The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. They must be smoking crack.

* If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper! Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning:

YOUR WIFE: Why is there a Hefty trash bag under the tree?
YOU: It's a gift! See? It has a bow!
YOUR WIFE (peering into the trash bag): It's a leaf blower.
YOU: Gas-powered! Five horsepower!
YOUR WIFE: I want a divorce.
YOU: I also got you some myrrh.

In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it. The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt.

~Male Author Unknown~

A bucket full of Jesus, just $4.99.

I was listening to "Silent Night" on the radio tonight and this line caught my attention for the first time:

"Holy infant, so tender and mild..."

Tender and mild? Are we talking about the baby Jesus here or a honey BBQ chicken strip?

Stuck with Two Stars

We all knew Randal was going to be hired. He's got the educational pedigree, the project manager record, and stood out by returning to the show after attending his grandmother's funeral (I seem to recall that she raised him like a mother), which was a stong indicator of his character. But one of the big reasons that people wanted Randal to win, that even Donald Trump cited, was that he was nice. Randal was able to lead without dividing. He was affable and humble—kind to others. We liked that about him and felt good about him winning, because it feels good to see a nice guy come first.

But were we all duped? At the very moment Randal had the chance to show his most magnanimous side—his most generous spirit—he spun so fast in the other direction that even the live audience was dumbfounded.

Trump asked if Randal would be willing to give the second job to Rebecca—in her own right a hearty competitor who stuck to the process, even with a broken ankle—and he emphatically declined, with no better reason than: there is supposed to be one apprentice.

It was not even a request to share the prize—Rebecca's hiring would have in no way taken anything from Randal's winnings. But somehow, in his mind, giving a hand up to the person in second place wouldn't be right. I would not want to work for a person with that leadership mentality.

Many bloggers agree.

GoreyBoy says:

"It was disappointing to see Randall's [sic] raw and ugly ambition surface."

Vic Holtreman:

Randal stunned everyone (including Trump, I'll wager) when he said instead:

"This isn't The Aprentii, it's The Apprentice."

Considering his personality and history to date, I was completely and utterly floored...

Mike Jr.:

Randal has lost major points in my book and I wish I never would've cheered for him.

The point of the whole job interview is to look for those 'unforgivable' mistakes. It's a shame that Randal's had to be after he was hired.

I will consider Rebecca the "True Apprentice" and I will forget I ever cheered for Randal.

My response to Donald Trump's boardroom lament that he was "stuck with two stars" is that no, Donald, you aren't. That final test of leadership and character was failed by Randal. Rebecca is the clear winner and the right choice for the job.

~This, my friends, is even bigger than the Kelly Monaco Scandal~

Deadlines

Funny Quote of the Day

Douglas Adams - "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Tooth Fairy Confessions

Trevor lost a tooth yesterday, and this is the note he left for the tooth fairy.

Freak.

Actual Conversations

...with Trevor.

Dave (in car) - "Buddy, you ok back there?"

Trevor - "Yeah, I am ok."

Dave - "You look sad, or like something is bothering you"

Trevor - "Cool sometimes looks like sad. That's why it's cool."

Dave - "Oh, so you are cool right now? Because I can't tell in the dark."

Trevor - "I am so disturbed by you" (Followed by a goofy 7 year old's laugh)

Move to Trash -> Delete

The "Move to Trash" command must be causing the folks at Google a lot of consternation. Back in October of last year, they were moving it around on the Gmail dropdown command list. Causing me confusion.

This week, they changed the name of the command from "Move to Trash" to "Delete." Causing more confusion and prompting this conversation:

(Actual transcript.)

Dave: Hey did you notice— (I interrupted. I interrupt a lot.)

Tara: Move to trash, right?!

Dave: Yeah!

Tara: WTF?

Dave: WTF.

Profound, eh? We are easily confused people.

X-Men 3

I know that it is still six months away, but I can't wait for X-Men 3 to come out. I mean come on...Angel? Colossus? Beast? Callisto? Does it get any better than that?

Check out the trailer.

Ants dude!

Tracey and I are here in Tampa attending the USSOCOM CBRN show (United States Special Operations Command - Chemical Biological Radiation Nuclear), and if you can handle the name then you are all set.

Last night Tracey and I watched "Wedding Crashers", which was a pretty funny movie, but it dragged on towards the end when they should have just gotten to the sappy scene faster. After Trace left, I received this email from him...

"Hey!

When I got back to the room I had ants. It appears someone left a tray outside in the hall and the little ant dudes found my un-ant friendly room. I had to call the “ant guy”. Now it smells like ant killer from the ant killer that kills the ants. "

Hah, ants. dude.