So, I might as well write it here because the delivery time and distance are the shortest possible, and the postage on my site hasn’t gone up 2¢. Yet. The government can achieve all manner of miracles theses days, so it’s only a matter of time.
So, the Austin vortex is capturing another two hapless, helpless souls… this time from the left coast. Welcome D & A, let’s hope you can at least stay on the event horizon and get jobs (that you enjoy) within a reasonable span of time, unlike the mass of bodies worm-holing their way around the far reaches of the many universes known and unknown. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the whole house deal works out in your favor and that the property isn’t located on the one and only earthquake fault-line in the state, which consequently would be exactly the length of the lot.
On a more personal note I’m still looking for acceptable, gainful employment. I have managed to fill that void with coffee snobbery — a new and meaningful force in my life. It started with the simple, yet powerful need to replace the coffee maker that was manufactured during the Roosevelt administration — when coffee was untreated tap water filtered through road gravel and dried beetles, "and by god we liked it that way" — which admittedly was free, but in the same vein so is yellow fever, and neither of them is good for your kidneys.
So, after much research and opinion asking, I bought a 12 cup French press pot and an electric kettle. Why the electric kettle do you ask? Need you really ask that question? Yes? Ok. The electric kettle is for rapidly heating the water to a boil (4-5 minutes for 8 cups of water cold from the tap) and turning itself off when the temperature is within 195 to 205 degrees which is the magic range of temperatures with which to extract all the goodness from the beans without leeching out the bitterness. Yes, I have the badge to prove that I am a coffee geek. It’s right next to the beer snob badge on my sash.
I could very well have bought an automatic drip coffee maker and saved myself a little bit of effort in my pursuit of a cuppa’ joe, but frankly it is only a little bit more work to use the press pot. I also get better tasting coffee because the optimal conditions are met for brewing — drip coffee makers either under or over heat the water, and the water doesn’t spend enough time in the grounds for proper extraction. Finally, I’d have spent over $100 to get a drip machine that was at least better than half-assed at what it does, and I spent less than that gathering up all the fun gadgets to make coffee my way. Frankly, with a cheap thermometer and a little extra time you can just use a stove-top kettle and simply shuck out the $40 for the 12 cup French press pot and be done, but where’s the fun in that?
I’ve also been made the bitch of a board game called Settlers of Catan, more specifically, the expansion Cities & Knights Of Catan. Think tabletop Warcraft. It’s an amazingly well designed game that forces you to use your brain for complex strategies, and has awesome replay value. I’m not the only one addicted to it, both Lady and ToppledGod have tasted it’s sweetness and are drawn to it like a junkie is to a little baggie of smack. We have the Californians to thank for this phenomenon. I think they were setting us up to be their thralls before they breeze into town and take over.
Austin remains an awesome town to live in, in my opinion. I’ve been riding my bike around Town Lake a few times a week, and it never ceases to amaze me how picturesque a setting it is, how many people are out there running/walking/biking at any given time of the day, and how much "smoking hot trim" is included in that crowd. In keeping with my angry roots though, I am never far away from the urge to knock a few of those motherfuckers off the path and into Town Lake if they don’t stop hogging the available space for people to pass them. I mean c’mon, the path is only about 6′ wide and if you assholes walk three or more abreast (or even worse, two mommies with their extra-wide athletic strollers) so you can gossip and otherwise chitchat, then that leaves about 2′ for everyone else to use. Bear in mind that this is a 2-way path and that remaining 2′ is to be used by folks coming the other way and folks passing your slow ass up either on foot or bike. Can you see my frustration here… I gotta’ slow my speed to a walking pace (a pain in the ass on a bike) and wait for oncoming foot traffic to clear before I can pass you, when I should have been able to do it easily in the middle space your are currently occupying. These buffoons notwithstanding, it’s still a pleasant ride.
And that’s all I have to randomly gibber about today, kiddies. Catch you another time.