The Sect of Rama

(Woah, I can't believe its been five months since my last entry. Gonna work on that...)



I've got a several year old Gaggia 16002 espresso machine that does a fine job of making espresso, but a mediocre job of steaming milk. Its been on mothballs for the past year as I've favored french press coffee to the time consuming morning ritual that is cappuccino making. Now that my holiday vacation has started and my mornings are not rushed, I decided to roast an espresso blend and dust off the machine for a change.

This Gaggia has a small boiler, so properly frothing milk has always been a challenge. The problem has been compounded by a steam valve that hasn't been sealing well, so a lot of the steam gets vented through the group head rather than building up in the tank for the steam wand. Sitting (drained) for a year made the problem much worse, so it was time to take it apart and see what's going on. It was simpler than I had anticipated- I really should have done it as soon as the problem started. If for no other reason than to give everything a thorough cleaning. It seems running Urnex Cleancaf through the machine every few months (and a brush on the group head after every session) was no where near enough to keep things tidy. This is a photo of the group head (screen and steam valve removed) after a Cleancaf cleaning:



You can see coffee build up that the brush and solvents didn't touch, and hard water build up on the head assembly. This same build up was also present on the steam valve parts, which was preventing it from seating all the way, causing the steam lost through the group head during frothing attempts:

That part should be black, no grayish/green. (ignore the bubbles, I didn't bust out the camera until after it was soaking in Urnex).

Cleaning was pretty simple once it was all apart. I used my fingernail to scrape off the deposits on the valve part, so it wouldn't get nicked, and a stiff nylon brush and a dental pick to clean up the valve seat and group head assembly:



That's all it took to get the Gaggia back into shape for steaming. Looking forward to the cappuccinos tomorrow morning!

I've finally replaced my popcorn popper coffee roaster with the Hottop KN-8828B drum roaster. Why? The most pressing reason was the need for larger batch sizes. The Poppery could only handle up to 4.2 ounces at a time, and doing back-to-back roasts made the second batch go way too quickly- often with no time between the first and second crack. You could approximate a roast profile manually by flipping the heat switch on/off, but most of the time its just roasted too quickly- and you have several under developed beans.

Why the Hottop? It does 9oz at a time, very evenly. It does internal voltage monitoring, so you don't need to mess with a Variac. I'm also into light roast coffee lately, and the Hottop has a really slick cooling cycle to stop the roast really quickly. Here's a short clip initiating the cool mode manually- embedded below. The high pitches "pop" sounds are the beans in second crack (this particular bean called for a darker roast than most I favor):



Its quieter than the Poppery, so hearing subtle cracks is not an issue- and it has a nice viewing window to keep tabs on progress.

But it does have its down sides. It is higher maintenance than a Poppery, with not one but two proprietary filters that eventually need replacing. It also has anti-lawsuit programming: when certain temperatures are reached, you need to hit a button within a short timeframe or it dumps the beans, whether you like it or not (due to potential fire hazard.) Lastly, the internal temperature monitoring is inaccurate, and while there is a fully programmable model, it should be avoided.

However, I am happy with it. It makes really good coffee with practically no effort (if you choose to roast on Auto), yet has plenty of room to grow with its option to save roast profiles. If you're just getting into coffee roasting, I'd still suggest a popcorn popper to learn the ropes. Once you graduate from that, the Hottop is a solid machine.

This weekend wasn't the first- and certainly won't be the last- time I've offered up my help technical support with a friend or family member's computer problem. Helping my Mom and Pop stay current is recently paying off in the forum of old family photos scanned in and sent via email. This time the reward was a half case of wine, care of a brother-in-law with a dead computer and good taste!

The haul was a bottle each of: 2004 Kongsgaard Chardonnay, 2003 Turley Rancho Burro Zinfandel, 2005 Brewer-Clifton Ashley's Pinot Noir, 2005 Zin Alley Vicolo Della Zinfandel, 2006 Roar Gary's Vineyard Pinot Noir, 2003 Aida Vineyards Vineyard 29 Zinfandel.

I've had each of these before, besides the Turley, and am a huge fan of the last four. Thanks Joe! Perhaps I should extend my tech support offer to anyone with an impressive cellar. :)

I promise I'll come up with something to blog about myself, but for now, here's another report, on our now 18 month old, from my lovely wife:

We took a ride to Burlingame this morning. Now that her car seat is facing forward, Bean is able to recognize places, so when we hit Burlingame Avenue, she clapped and shrieked with delight and didn't stop until I unbuckled her from the carseat.

Our first stop was to hit the drycleaners to drop off your dress shirts. Bean helped me carry the pile of shirts and kept pointing to her shirt and my shirt to let me know she knew what it was she was carrying. As we walked town the street, a fire truck came by with 5 firefighters inside (it had a huge cab in front). Bean saw this and started waving like mad and they returned her greeting with a 5 bell salute and lots of hooting and hollering and waving. Bean was in her glory.

Still on a firetruck high as we entered the drycleaner, she waved and smiled vigorously at the joyless, unfriendly employee who stared blankly at bean. This lack of response only inspired bean to be more friendly and she waved and smiled with more gusto and threw in some grunts for good measure. Blank stares made way for blanker stares and we left with our ticket and headed for friendlier turf. Bean likes the music and the drinking fountain at Anthropologie and I like the merchandise, so we stopped in and made a bee line for the fountains, conveniently located in the sale rack room. Bean has at last mastered the art of drinking from a fountain and was so excited by her new accomplishment, she threw up a half cup of the contents of her stomach all over me, herself and the floor. Fortunately (or not), she missed the clothing racks so I didn't have to buy anything. Another joyless woman (it is spring, people, get happy!) witnessed our little regurgitation incident and shot bean and I a dirty look and made a tsk tsk sound as I quickly cleaned up the mess with a baby wipe I pulled from my purse.

It was a beautiful day and not even a surprise barf or a second encounter with a bitter woman could break our spirit, so we proceeded to Gumshoe, a rather upscale but friendly shoestore for kids. Bean let out some noises I've never heard before, which I translated to mean: OH MY GOD WE'VE FOUND MECCA. Tiny shoes displayed at heights ideal for toddlers' roving hands opposite big poofy round seats to climb and lounge on. Bean was drawn to a pair of sandles with big chunky metallic flowers as well as the entire row of euro-looking boys shoes. She proceeded to rearrange them as if she were the display merchandising director and the sales girl came over and applauded her efforts and for some reason started encouraging her to pick everything up and relocate it. I apologized for bean, but she said as far as she was concerned a kid that cute could do whatever she wanted in the store. Bean quickly caught on to the powers of her persuasion with this woman and proceeded to show off. Teeth were flashed, eyelashes were batted and shoes were traded back and forth. Bean then started grabbing from the top shelf ($80 and above toddler shoes) and pulling the price stickers off each shoe. As I frantically tried to match her de-stickering pace with reapplying the sticker,s the very kind and bean-smitten lady said: she can put the price stickers wherever she likes. Since I had no plans to buy anything, I decided we'd better hightail it out of there and I said something like, we'll be back with grandma. The sales girl replied: Come back anytime - you don't need to buy anything. And as we walked out the door, I heard her say to her colleague: "OMG, I want that baby!".

So for every 2 joyless women, there is one kindhearted one that makes you forget about the others.

I think @mcjenveigh was encouraged by the Life of Bean series feedback, she sent me a whopper tonight:

I'm writing this down while its still fresh, or otherwise by the time you get home from tennis, I'll have forgotten the details.

So I usually hit the proverbial wall in terms of entertaining bean by about 4:30 pm each day, and then I just lie on the floor and let her beat on me with her bath toys until you get home. But since I knew you were playing tennis after work, I decided I should probably plan ahead in terms of additional options for keeping her majesty happy and productive. Here's how that went down:

{But first, a sidenote about the CRAZED GREEN-EYED MONSTER you call 'the cat': Some good news and bad news:The bad news first: Around 4 or so, she managed to undo your temporary barricade on the auto kitty feeder and pulled out about 20 kibble, ahead of the regularly scheduled dispensing time. I put the remnants of the destroyed protective mechanism you built on the breakfast nook table. The last bit of plastic from the original guard she broke also came off in this latest scuffle. The good news is, the replacement guard the auto cat feeder people sent arrived in the mail today.}

Now back to bean. I knew I wanted to take her downtown, maybe pick up some dinner because getting her out of the house not only wears her out, but generally makes her happy. Before we left, we went to inspect the cat auto feeder to make sure it was clear of debris, and all of a sudden bean leaned down on all fours and put her face in the bowl and started making chomping noises, followed by a series of meows, and then, because she apparently is one who believes in embodying the entire character of that whom one is mocking, she cupped her hand like a paw, and began tapping the auto feeder's kibble tower to try and release the food. I_am_not_making_this_up. I took that as a cue to leave and so we headed downtown.

We parked 2 blocks from Draegers. When I took her out of the carseat, Bean immediately started hooting and hollering(sp?) like horshack from welcome back kotter (eww ewww eww, mistuh kottah, mistuh kotter!) only without the mistuh kotter part and so I asked her to show me what she was excited about. She pointed towards draegers and we walked the 2 blocks until she led me (with pointed finger) to the frog shaped cookies behind the counter at the bakery section. I asked her if she wanted the frog and she said: YEAH!. There was a kid in front of us, also getting a frog cookie. She looked at his selection and then pointed to the smiley face cookie and requested that instead. I tell you this, because it makes me proud that she already has her own style and is not afraid to veer from the pack.

Next we browsed the wine section where she pointed out her favorite labels to me (she's big on those with animals - frog's leap, rabbit ridge, etc.). Then we headed upstairs to the housewares section. They have about 100 different soaps and candles and we had to stop and smell every single one, including those without any fragrance. At that point she spotted the section with children's things - most intrigued by the selection of about 10 different stuffed animals. Her favorites were a giant panda and shark. We had to touch each one's nose about 30 times. At the end of this strange ritual, she gave me the biggest, unprompted hug in the world, which unbeknownst to me, was witnessed by an older man on his way to the men's room from the Bar at the Restaurant down the hall. He said: Wow, she is like an angel isn't she? And I smiled. And then he came back (and oddly enough he smelled a little like Negronis with a hint of lime) and looked at her again, and said, I just wanted to make sure she was a girl after I said that. I was ok with this, since most people just assume she is a boy for I don't know what reason. We said goodbye to him, and to the giant panda and shark and then on our way out, bean insisted we stop to smell every single bucket of flowers, including the artificial ones.

We headed down the street and I noticed a tour bus of people parked in the lot apparently getting their gourmet shopping on while the exchange rate is still decent. (this applies to the story later). We walked past the pizza joint and bean stopped at the window and waived to every single patron and employee. Only the employees noticed her, but they all waved back, which made Bean very very happy. We headed to the japanese takeout place, got a teryaki bowl, and bean said her variation of "thank you" upon our exit and then made our way back to the car. As we walked by the parking lot, the tourbus was exiting and bean waved to the entire bus. I think she got a few waves in return, but by this time it was dark and I couldn't really see very well. As expected, she was having too much fun and cried and kicked and screamed when I put her in the car seat. I noticed that she stopped crying once I shut the door and then resumed when I got into the car. I can only chalk that up to her understanding of the principles of energy efficiency.

After the short ride home, I went to retrieve her from the car and I asked her if she was still mad at me. She said: "YEAH!" but I felt okay with that answer, only because she doesn't know how to say "no" yet. But once inside she proceeded to stomp her feet for 30 seconds as if to close out the episode of anger with a physical manifiestation of an exclamation point. And then she was back to her old bean self.

We ate dinner without incident and I discovered that an unexpected perk of having this particular kid is that she will eat my broccoli! Then after I applauded her for eating the veggies I can't stand (without revealing my disdain for them), we went upstairs to get her bath ready. For kicks, I started shouting out commands to see what she would do. "Go find your rubber duck". "Go get your frog". "Pick out your pajamas". "Grab a fresh diaper". "Take out the trash". She completed all but the last without faultering, and we went into the bathroom and began to draw the bath. She wandered away from me and I looked up to find her walking in circles as the toilet paper she had grabbed began to envelop her like a mummy. It was too funny to stop and I knew that ultimately the roll would run out. It finally did and she gracefully stepped out of her paper toga and proceeded to wipe the floor with all of the toilet paper. And since the floor is not exactly sparkly, I didn't stop her. Eventually the tp started breaking apart, which she seemed to view as a welcome challenge. She picked up every last piece and put them in the trash, again unprompted. OH HOW I LOVE THIS KID.

The rest of the night went on as usual -- playtime, milk, 1/2 a yo gabba gabba episode, books, a little bit of bedtime protest, then sleep. Oh, except she definitely missed you. Everytime a daddy came up in the books we read, she looked around. Now I sleep.

I'm guessing only Liz appreciates these, but here's another daily update on our 17 month old:

(1) We went splashing in puddles at her request. Unfortunately I did no know in advance this was her agenda, so her leather/suede shoes are pretty close to ruined (drying out on the heater vent now).
(2) She picked up one of the chocolate wrappers off the floor, opened the cabinet under the sink, and threw it in the trash (w/o me prompting her)!
(3) She protested sleep so I told her I would read her one book; we read the book and she immediately stood up, grabbed her frog and hippo and paci and climbed on me to take her to bed (w//o me prompting her!)

Little bean is growing up.

I've mentioned before my recent career choice to jump back in the trenches. And now, thanks to some smart people taking smart actions (I'm not sure I'm at liberty to discuss in more detail), most of my old organization is now part of Sun's new cloud computing effort.

I'm crazy excited to be working with the likes of Jim Parkinson and Lew Tucker again, and (continuing to work for) Will Snow.

Sun's discussion forums has just exceeded four million messages! And one million contributors is just around the corner too. Linda has the full scoop.

Hilarious video. Be patient- its worth it:

Another email update on our 16 month old:



If Bean kept a to-do list or a daily calendar, here is what it might look like for the morning of Thursday, January 29, 2009.

1:15 AM Wake up crying. Wait impatiently for Mama to rescue me from crib so we can snuggle for 3 or 4 hours together on the couch while I involuntarily, but violently kick her in the abdomen during my restlessly cozy sleep.

4:53 AM Wake up crying and kicking and punching when Mama tries to put me back in my crib.

4:55 AM Drink warm milk until I feel sleepy enough to fall asleep in my crib as soon as my head hits the mattress.

8:27 AM Jump up like a jack-in-the-box when my mama opens the door to check on me.

8:28 AM Run to kitchen to watch Daddy pour the hot coffee for Mama.

8:33 AM Eat buttered toast. Offered buttered toast bits to kitty cat, but pull it away at the last minute. SUCKA!

8:55 AM Charm daddy into letting me watch Noggin Theme songs via YouTube on his laptop.

9:00AM Wave Bye to Daddy as he speeds off on his zoom-zoom motorcycle to a place he describes only as "work".

9-10AM run around the house with no pants, while goose bumps envelop my legs because it just feels right.

10AM Go to downtown with Mama. Shriek with delight when I drop each coin into the meter. Get angry when Mama says we don't need to put more coins in the meter, or put coins in other people's meters.

10:10 AM Go into new French Patisserie and cause such a commotion over $5 chocolate rodent-shaped pastry that entire wait staff comes out from behind the counter to see if the pastry version of the mouse has transformed into a live one.

10:11AM Settle for a small plain butter cookie because my mama will not (a) feed me chocolate (b) pay $5 for a single-serve pastry regardless of how much it looks like an edible version of one of my kitty's toys, and (c) in spite of what my daddy thinks, I do not "own" her and am not in charge.

10:12-11am Walk around downtown and wave at every passer-by I see; offer my pacifier to all dogs (living or plush).

11:02am Cry hysterically when I have to go back into my car seat, because even though I am so exhausted I could keel over, I would much rather take in the beautiful day and see new places and faces, than sit backwards in the car.

11:15-12:15 Eat some fruit and dance, dance, dance while shaking the new musical eggs mama bought me this morning (http://www.mastermindtoys.com/store/product.asp?product_code=49115&subcat=139&agecat=0&cat=14&brand=0&page=1).

12:20 Practice walking backwards. Practice walking forwards.

12:25-12:30 Practice zipping my fuzzy pajamas up and down and down and up as a way to sharpen my fine motor skills while simultaneously pushing off my much-needed nap.

12:35 Read Olivia and laugh as if someone said something very, very witty, even though there is nothing funny about a pig with a pesky brother after the 400th read -- this is yet another way to push off my much needed nap.

12:40 Scream and cry hysterically when placed in my crib as if I have just been wronged in a way that only horrendous crime or betrayal victims can identify with.

12:45 Sweet, sweet sleep.

Our cat has a problem. When we free-fed her, she would eat until she was obese- even when we swapped to a "diet" cat food. As easy as it is to fill a food bowl once and just let her at it, it was threatening her long-term health. So we swapped to a 1-cup breakfast and a 1-cup dinner. This worked well in bringing her weight back to normal, but at the cost of our sleep- she resorted to meowing, opening our shutters to let the sun in, and generally making as much sound as possible in order to wake us up early so she could have her breakfast.

So after enduring this far too long, I began searching for automatic feeders. It didn't occur to me that this is a common problem, but after reading the overwhelmingly positive feedback for the Super Feeder on Amazon, including one review suggesting I would once again be able to sleep to my own schedule, I bought one from their site.

I opted for "blemished" versions of both the feeder and base to keep the cost down- and when it arrived I was pleasantly shocked that I couldn't detect any sort of defect in either product to qualify it as blemished. Of to a good start. I was also impressed by the build quality, and that it was it was flexible enough to include auxiliary inputs and outputs to allow for things like tying into home automation systems (who doesn't want to brag they can feed their pet by sending a text message to their house?) And in about three weeks, our cat realized the feeder dispensed the food at a set time that didn't involve us- and STOPPED waking us in the morning! An added bonus is that we're now able to leave the house for periods spanning more than one meal, and not have to worry about our cat eating all of the food right away and starving the rest of the time.

The only downside has been that our cat has since figured out how to "pick" the dispenser and get it to drop a few kibble each throw. The Iam's diet food is particularly small, so apparently even when adjusted to its tightest setting, a tenacious cat can manage to work some free:



Besides negating the benefit of a fixed calorie intake, she tended to do this late at night and the sound was annoying. Luckily this problem has already been solved via the optional chute cover, which I ordered tonight, and have little doubt it will solve the problem.

These facts alone would be enough for me to overwhelmingly recommend this product to anyone else with a similar issue- however the email exchanges with Gerard (owner?) may very well make this the best customer experience I've had in recent memory. When I described the problem prior to ordering the chute cover, he took the time to write a long and detailed replies suggesting other approached before we concluded the food pellet size was the issue.

The Super Feeder may very well been my best purchase of 2008. Highly recommended if you have a pond, or demanding cat or dog.

UPDATE: I've installed the chute cover and it's 100% effective! UPDATE #2: The cat's managed to break off two chute covers. No idea how. So I've fabricated a metal shield to keep her from picking the roller and getting kibble to drop out. It's been over a week, so it seems effective.

Continuing this entry into a potential series, here's another update I just got in email, regarding our 16 month old's first day in "music" class:

Music class wasn't what I was expecting, but it is good. I'm glad we're taking it. When we got to the rec center, there were several other rooms with aerobics classes going on -- [baby] really wanted to be in those classes, because the music was blaring, people were moving, and the rhythm was really fast.

Our class was small, which is good for a first class for her, but I didn't expect it to be that small. Also, there is only about 5 mins when actual music is played -- the rest is the teacher singing and using body movements (clapping, tapping, swinging arms, marching, etc.) or music instruments that are passed out. Everyone was really, really nice, including the teacher, moms and kids. There was one young mom with a 2.5 yr old boy and a 4yr old girl - they took the class before. Another mom who looked about my age with a 20month old son. And then a nanny with 2 little girls - one in a stroller (about 6months maybe) and the other about 2 years old I'd guess. And then the teacher has a 20month old but he was asleep in the car with his dad apparently. So the size was good. The room was small and depressing, but I guess that's what you get for a public facility. [baby] just stared at everything the first 10 mins and then when there was an exercise where they sing a lullabye and everyone pretends to sleep, she started to cry hard. I explained that she doesn't like sleep, so the 4 year old shouted, wake up! and [baby] stopped crying because everyone woke up. Everyone was nice about it and very sympathetic. Then they passed out these eggs ([3yo cousin] had them - you shake them) and [baby] liked those, but kept wanted to trade me for my eggs. Shake, then trade, shake, then trade, shake then trade. When it was time to turn in the eggs, the tears came again, but it wasn't as bad.

Then the teacher turned on the music and passed out a bunch of different instruments to choose from - maracas, symbols, etc. I gave [baby] maracas and she seemed to like them. We also had a part when we get drumsticks and a thing to beat them with, which she also liked, but again, cried when we had to give them up. She was happiest when the music played and freestyle dance could occur. The teacher seemed impressed with her "microbeat" rhythm during the freestyle portion. Then at the end of the class she wanted more more more. I asked her if she had fun and she nodded. She was in a really good mood the rest of the morning so i'm assuming it was a success, especially for her first organized class.

My car is down getting the tires rotated now, so we'll pick it up after [baby] gets her nap and eats her lunch. She went down around 1:10. I put her in about 12:45. She didn't cry, but just played for a long time with bunny. Bunny must have been very bad, because she was scolding her quite a bit. Poor bunny.

Today marks my twelve year anniversary at Sun. That's an eternity for any job, but seems at least four times that in the tech industry. Why so long? The primary reason is the people. I've worked with enough bosses and peers to recognize a good thing when I have it, so the years keep rolling by. Secondary is I believe in our products, more than ever. Sure I would certainly change lots of things at Sun when given the opportunity (everyone drives better from the back seat :)), but I find myself recommending our stuff to anyone who would listen- with what little reputation I have at stake- because I genuinely think they're the best. So I'm still here, and happy.

Today was also a tough one. I communicated to the team the details on my toughest role change since entering the work force: I've chosen to hang up the boss hat and don the worker bee hat once more, after a three year run. I've changed positions and orgs numerous times, but this is the first time it affects other folks so directly- so I've been mulling it over for a long time.

I hesitantly accepted the position because it was such a drastic departure from what attracted me to the field since grade school: creating stuff by writing code. Over the years, I've hired locally and internationally, absorbed existing teams, suffered attrition and dealt with RIFs, and more than anything learned the importance of team cohesion and what it means to be a good manager (and good report). I'd like to think it's been a net positive run for the team and the company- I know it has for myself. The team has been massively productive and the current group is super low maintenance. And they're all my friends, so it's even harder to walk away, partly because I feel it my responsibility to see them done right, partly because I may be spending less time with some of them.

So why change back to individual contributor? I've come up with lots of reasons both for it and against it. And I'm just as hesitantly switching roles again, this time to something that's currently undefined (dealing with the transition was the top priority, figuring out what's next is just starting to enter my mind.) But at the moment, it feels like our org has plenty of strong leadership but not enough folks in the trenches getting stuff done. So I'm picking up a shovel and getting back to work partly because it feels like the best thing for the extended team, partly because I know it'll be refreshing to get into it again.

I haven't ruled out switching back again at some point in the future. In fact my boss thinks it's just a matter of time before I ask for just that (and he tends to be right about this sort of thing.) Time will tell. :)

ISO 100, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/2500sec on an 18-200VR (cropped and tweaked in Lightroom2):

I just replaced my Nikon D70 with a Nikon D90, and it no longer seemed right to house it in a hand-me-down camera bag (courtesy of @lowbit) that wasn't quite big enough, or in the neoprene wrapper thrown in my Timbuk2. So I picked up a Domke F-803 (the makers of the awesome Gripper strap @lowbit turned me on to), along with a Domke FA-210 insert, which is wide enough to house the camera body and mounted lens, a Nikon 18-200mm VR with a B+W 010 UV filter. In the insert that comes with the bag, there's just enough room for my Nikon 35mm F/2 with a B+W 010 UV filter and Nikon SB-600 flash. There are also some small pockets for the iR remote, circular polarizer, extra memory cards, etc. Here's how it all fits together (but the 35mm now sits below the flash so its more secure):





It'd be great if there were room for my Nikon 50mm F/1.8 also, but in reality I rarely swap lens in the field, so I can always pack the 50mm rather than the 35mm if the need arises. The latching hardware has its pros and cons- it's quite difficult to unlatch, which could deter pickpockets I suppose, but also does quite well at keeping me out. I am glad there's no velcro though. Whenever I go to reach for my camera in the Timbuk2, the loud velcro "sssscritch!" often thwarts my attempts to preserve candid moments. So far I'm digging the bag- perfect size, great build quality.