Breville’s Cafe Roma Espresso Machine

Ten years ago, Darcy convinced me to buy a Breville Cafe Roma Espresso Machine on a one day Woot.com sale for $94.

That little machine has been a work horse and stands as my single highest use appliance to date. It has made two cups of coffee almost every single day for ten years. Add in the occasional morning of 4-6 cups when guests are in town and we’re talking 7,500 shots of espresso.

Keep it up little buddy. I appreciate you.

Busy

I have a lot to share. It’s like a lake of words has collected behind a dam of time deficiency. Between high demands on the work front, chores circling J.Atlas and his daycare debut, and my unquenchable pursuit for self improvement, each day turns into a game of optimization. Most days I lose this game. As this blog admittedly lies low on the scale of criticality, it’s been often abandoned resulting in waves of guilt surrounding the neglect.

Things I’m happy about:

J.Atlas is the best. This week he learned how to say “water.” Although with his undefined ‘t’ it’s more like waawaa.

I got two new board games this week: Magic Maze, and Love Letter. Both are uniquely fun. Try ’em out.

I am podcasting like a champion: 2x speed to and from work. It’s exposing me to so much INFORMATION. I love it.

Meditation. Yeah, I’m trying it. So far it’s going poorly.

Reading: Is there a book that fundamentally changed the way you look at the world?
Give me your recommendations! I need to formalize my list.

 

 

Ford Service

I really enjoy my Ford Fusion. And, until recently, it’s been problem free. This changed a few weeks ago when I noticed something funky happening with my transmission. I brought it to a local dealer, Hammonasset Ford, for an investigation.

The bad news? I needed a new $4,000+ transmission.
The good news? It was covered under my extended warranty. Woo!

The repair work took about 10 days which included some time waiting for insurance assessment etc. In the interim, I was given a rental car. Like any warranty claim the interactions were stressful at times, but overall I would describe the experience as smooth. I got the car back about a week ago and all’s sunny.

Yesterday morning Sander pointed out the really bad news:

WITHOUT MY PERMISSION THE DEALERSHIP PUT ONE OF THOSE STUPID LICENSE PLATE ADVERTISEMENTS ON MY CAR.
NOT COOL HAMMONASSET FORD!

I am passionately against those stupid license plate advertisements.
Unless under extreme duress, I assure you I will never return to Hammonasset Ford.

Not cool Hammonasset Ford. Not cool.

The Red Headed Woodpecker

When it comes to bird watching, Jen and I clock in somewhere around Vireo. We know what a vireo is, but I wouldn’t be able to pick one out of a lineup of lookalikes. BUT, when we see a new bird we are quick to jump up, take pictures, and look up the details in our Peterson guide (thank you Tom & Mykal).

So it was a few weeks back when Jen, in a startle, pointed to the window and exclaimed “WHAT IS THAT!?”

That, it turns out, is a Red Headed Woodpecker. What made this an extra exciting find is that the Peterson Guide didn’t even reference is as local to Connecticut. AND, where it was local, it was listed as uncommon!

Was this a truly once in a lifetime sighting?!?! Well, no. The bird came back twice over the next few days. BUT! when we notified our local Audubon society, they got Giddy. We sent them our pictures and they promptly posted them on their Facebook page.

Further, they sent our address (with our permission) out to a few of their birding colleagues who voiced an interest in coming to our street to see if they could also find the bird.

I think it’s marvelous that we can be surrounded by unique gems of nature, but be completely oblivious to them. If this bird had visited us a few years ago, we might not have noticed at all. And if we had, it might have been not much more than a momentary curiosity.

I’m glad we were able to celebrate its uniqueness. Thanks for visiting us, Red Headed Woodpecker!