Espresso

A couple of months back, I decided to splurge a little on myself and buy an espresso machine. I really wanted to get one of those ultra-modern-do-it-itself machines, but I don't have a couple of thousand dollars to spend on a coffee machine. So, I got the Breville 800ESXL. It normally goes for around $400.00 but I got in on EBay for $125.00 plus shipping (not bad, huh?). Anyway, this machine works great! I started to enjoy the occassional coffee in college, but have progressed over the years to the cup every morning type of person. Then, I progressed to loving really good coffee while I was in Italy. Stopping at a cafe and grabbing a shot of espresso.
At home, we had one of those older Krups machines that worked on steam pumping, but the espresso never came out the same. No crema on top. It basically sucked. Then I learned that you needed bar-pump pressure (at least 10 bars of pressure to make a nice crema). The search was on. I could never bring myself to spending the money on the dedicated espresso machine, but I couldn't hold back any longer. Now I've got my machine and I love it every day. It even takes espresso pods, which, although more expensive, make the whole latte making experience in the morning much easier when I'm sleepy. I like to get mine from Espresso Tiamo. I've tried a few brands so far, and right now, I still favor the Segafredo Zanetti brand - it never dissapoints. But a new one I've found is Lucaffe, which makes a great espresso as well. I tried the Illy brand too, finally throwing down the big bucks, but I wasn't thrilled with it. Ah well. To each his own, right?

Thanksgiving... Let The Holidays Begin

Yesterday I had a great day spending Thanksgiving with my family. We had good food and crappy wine. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I'm sick as a dog and I think I'm going to cough up a lung at some point. I've been filling myself with every cough medicine and homeopathic remedy I can get my hands on. I really don't want to get my son sick, so it's been a trying couple of days (I hear him crying now). Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Yesterday started the official "Holiday Season" kicked off by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (or at least that's what they want you to think). Too bad it was so nasty out in NYC yesterday. I felt bad for all the parade-goers.

On a completely different note, we finally got all caught up in Lost. We had never watched it before, and a couple of months ago, we decided to rent Season 1. We were hooked. We DVR'd this season and watched until we caught up. Well... we finally made it. Of course now we have to wait until February for more! Ah well... I'm going to go make some coffee.

VH Reunion?

I can't really explain why I even check on these things anymore, but I do... I looked at the Van Halen Newsdesk today, and all over it were rumors that there was going to be a Van Halen tour this summer with David Lee Roth as the singer of VH again. Is it going to really happen? Who knows? Are people going to go see it? Probably more than who went to see the last reunion tour with Sammy Hagar, but I don't expect it to be the blockbuster tour this would've been had it been done 10 years ago. Personally, I'm not going to go, but I'd be interested in hearing new material.
Also in the news is that Michael Anthony is out as the band's bassist, and Eddie's 15 year old son, Wolfgang is in. At first I felt bad for Mike about this, but then I read that he chose not to come back. The band gave him an ultimatum - either play with Sammy or with VH. He took Sammy. I guess he was finally fed up with the VH brothers crap. Anyway... that's it for now.

NP: Play With Me, Extreme

Lots of Catch Up

So... I've not posted in a while. Having a new baby and working a lot will do that to you. Anyway... here are some things I've been thinking about.

A little over a year ago, we went on a trip to Virginia. Sort of fake camping in a cabin we rented, where we barbecued, hiked in the Shenandoah National Park and went into the caves. One other thing we discovered in Virginia is that there are a bunch of wineries down there. We visited a few, and found a couple that we liked. We ended up buying a bottle of Viogner at the Rappahannock Cellars and bringing it back home with us. A pregnancy followed and the bottle stayed in my wine fridge until last week. It was Rappahannock Cellars Virginia Reserve Viogner, 2004. The thing is, I didn't really like this wine we we decided to buy it. My wife loved it and I just got it to make her happy. But, you know what? I really enjoyed it this time around. It was a really nice bottle of wine.

Another food-related item we tried over the past couple of days was ice cream from 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. This is a New York City based company, and I thought the flavors sounded really good. I got the Staten Island Landfill, which is vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks, chocolate fudge, chocolate crunchies, and cherries and the South Bronx Cha Cha Chocolate which is spicy hot chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips. I really wanted to like these to help support the NYC company, but I wasn't crazy about either. The Cha Cha Chocolate was way too spicy, making it too hot to enjoy. And the vanilla in the Landfill wasn't creamy enough. Maybe I'll try the other flavors, but it wasn't as good as Ciao Bella.

Finally, one last food item (well, drink item), is a bottle of Bordeaux that we bought this past spring while we were in Paris. Last night we made some nice steaks on the grill and wanted to have a nice red wine with the meat. At first we were surprised how harsh the wine was, but either we got used to it or it just needed to breath. In the end, it was really enjoyable. It was Reserve Nicolas Cotes De Bourg, 2004.

One last thing is that the Yankees finally traded Gary Sheffield today to the Detroit Tigers for 3 minor league pitchers. They Yanks got Humberto Sanchez, Kevin Whelan and Anthony Claggett from the Tigers. Personally, I've never heard of these guys, although their minor league stats aren't too bad. But, they are minor league stats. Who knows if they will ever translate into the Major Leagues. I think the Yankees should have held out for more, but I think they were worried that if they got stuck with Sheff he would have become a cancer in the clubhouse. Ah well... There are still too many other things to worry about before Spring Training.

NP: We Care A Lot, Faith No More