Back in the day fantasy baseball players would agree upon which daily newspaper they would use for the box scores to manually track their players. You had to be a pretty hardcore baseball fan to want to play fantasy baseball. It took hours of work each week just to know what happened let alone all the research etc... to pick and follow your players. To follow America's game was hard enough, to follow smaller or regional sports required either geographic proximity or specialized news letters.
I follow the Iditarod every year. I learned about the sport after I spent part of one summer in Alaska with a musher and his family years ago. Years ago a back page blurb in the paper announcing the winner was about all you could find. Now there is real time gps tracking that allows you to follow almost every minute of the race. ( Except for now since the tracker is down).
Speaking of the Iditarod this year has been a fantastic race. Four or five mushers in a tight battle at the front for hundreds of miles. Iditarod sled dogs and mushers are fantastic endurance athletes. Nine days of arctic conditions covering a thousand plus miles. The winner should finish sometime tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to follow the last few miles live on the web.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Southern Tier Unearthly Pale Ale
Fantastic Imperial Pale Ale particularly for the price at 6.99$ a 650ml bottle. Beautiful color, a rich reddish amber. Lots of rich head with lovely lacing. Strongly hopped but very well balanced and very drinkable. Packs a punch at 11% abv but it doesn't taste particularly alcoholic. Nice treat.
The joy of coffee
Nothing is better in the morning than a hot cup of joe at my desk. Now I take it a little further than most and not as far as the real coffee nerds.
My basic set up for making fantastic coffee in the office includes four main components.
A Britta water filter. Brand isn't important any filtered water will help because better water makes better coffee.
A decent coffee grinder. Mine is an Armin Trosser I picked up at an antique store for 15-20$. Fresh ground makes a huge difference. You need something that can give you a consistent grind. I know many a coffee nut that says if you are going to spend 550$ on coffee equipment spend 500$ on a mazzer mini grinder and 50$ on a nice french press set.
A good french press. There are many good ones out there. My press of choice is a Planetary Design desk press. http://www.planetarydesign.us Double wall vacuum insulated steel and it's unbreakable and dishwasher safe. I have had coffee hot two hours after I have brewed on those occasions where work interrupted my coffee drinking. It is also easy to clean which is important because clean equipment makes for much better coffee.
A hot pot to heat the water. I have a nice one at home and a 12$ cheapie at my desk.
Water Filter 20$
Grinder 15$
French Press 30$
Hot pot 15$
Total 80$
You can spend more if you like frills or less if you look around.
Now you can get a drip maker for 30-50$ but the coffee is going to be thin and bitter in comparison. For the extra dollars you are going to get consistently superior coffee. For me the routine is pleasurable. I get a fantastic pot of coffee in about eight minutes. Four minutes for the water to come to a boil and four minutes to steep.
This may seem like a lot but it only takes up about 2 square feet of space in my cube. Not significantly more than a drip pot. If you can't have a setup like this in your cube it is also easy to store in a cupboard in a break room.
I did forget the most important item. The coffee. If you are happy with Folgers or some other cheap bulk coffee then this whole post was a waste for you. This will make your whole bean grocery store coffee taste significantly better. Although for not much more you can get significantly better coffee.
Here in Madison Wi we are fortunate to have several outstanding artisanl roasters. My favorite is EVP http://www.evpcoffee.com/ who use a Sivetz Fluid Bed air roaster. This makes for a very consistent roast. I have not purchased online but I drink their coffee every day but their brick and mortar shop is very professional.
Another outstanding roaster not from Wi is Uncle Beanz http://www.unclebeanz.com/merchant2/. They are based out New Jersey and have some fantastic rare and exotic coffees you won't find elsewhere. They have fair prices and outstanding customer service.
It is really a simple set up and the coffee is the best you are going to get without serious material investment. It really does bring some joy to my morning routine. You also get a lot of appreciation from co workers when you offer them a cup.
Cheers
My basic set up for making fantastic coffee in the office includes four main components.
A Britta water filter. Brand isn't important any filtered water will help because better water makes better coffee.
A decent coffee grinder. Mine is an Armin Trosser I picked up at an antique store for 15-20$. Fresh ground makes a huge difference. You need something that can give you a consistent grind. I know many a coffee nut that says if you are going to spend 550$ on coffee equipment spend 500$ on a mazzer mini grinder and 50$ on a nice french press set.
A good french press. There are many good ones out there. My press of choice is a Planetary Design desk press. http://www.planetarydesign.us Double wall vacuum insulated steel and it's unbreakable and dishwasher safe. I have had coffee hot two hours after I have brewed on those occasions where work interrupted my coffee drinking. It is also easy to clean which is important because clean equipment makes for much better coffee.
A hot pot to heat the water. I have a nice one at home and a 12$ cheapie at my desk.
Water Filter 20$
Grinder 15$
French Press 30$
Hot pot 15$
Total 80$
You can spend more if you like frills or less if you look around.
Now you can get a drip maker for 30-50$ but the coffee is going to be thin and bitter in comparison. For the extra dollars you are going to get consistently superior coffee. For me the routine is pleasurable. I get a fantastic pot of coffee in about eight minutes. Four minutes for the water to come to a boil and four minutes to steep.
This may seem like a lot but it only takes up about 2 square feet of space in my cube. Not significantly more than a drip pot. If you can't have a setup like this in your cube it is also easy to store in a cupboard in a break room.
I did forget the most important item. The coffee. If you are happy with Folgers or some other cheap bulk coffee then this whole post was a waste for you. This will make your whole bean grocery store coffee taste significantly better. Although for not much more you can get significantly better coffee.
Here in Madison Wi we are fortunate to have several outstanding artisanl roasters. My favorite is EVP http://www.evpcoffee.com/ who use a Sivetz Fluid Bed air roaster. This makes for a very consistent roast. I have not purchased online but I drink their coffee every day but their brick and mortar shop is very professional.
Another outstanding roaster not from Wi is Uncle Beanz http://www.unclebeanz.com/merchant2/. They are based out New Jersey and have some fantastic rare and exotic coffees you won't find elsewhere. They have fair prices and outstanding customer service.
It is really a simple set up and the coffee is the best you are going to get without serious material investment. It really does bring some joy to my morning routine. You also get a lot of appreciation from co workers when you offer them a cup.
Cheers
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)