NO - NOT ANOTHER POLAR VORTEX? AAAAAGH

Friday DJ and I took a Coffee Brewing 101 class at JBC Roasters in Madison. Seriously fascinating, understanding exactly what coffee is doing when you add water.

When hot water  (195-205) hits the coffee grounds the outside walls give you that sour taste (acid) and as the water permeates the cells different GOOD flavors start to emerge until it hits for core where the darker chocolate and earthy flavors are. Spend too long and the tobacco dirt flavors are coming up.

This is why the size of your grind is so important.  If you have large rocks (like Folgers) your extraction of the GOOD coffee flavors will not have a chance.  Some people in the past would put egg shells in their coffee grounds.  The egg shells are alkaline and remove a lot of the acids for a smoother Folgers.

A better idea would be to grind finer.  But Folgers is ground for percolators which pretty much burn the coffee which make a nasty cup not AS nasty.

If you do grind your own coffee one way to get a perfect cup is called the Pareto Principle.

When you get a new bag of coffee brew it up and follow flow chart.  The trick is to keep extracting more and more until you go too far and back off just a tad.

Extract More = Grind finer AND/OR brew for a longer time AND/OR use more water.

Extract Less = Grind coarser AND/OR brew for a shorter time AND/OR use less water.

If you have a normal grinder 15 seconds is the normal grind time.  We have a Encore Barista with 40 settings and I'm normally on an 18 which is medium fine (table saltish).   French Drips I'll grind finer.

I'll have more tidbits in the future. So much to cover on other topics before I bore myself.

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The Oscars - best one we have seen in a long time.  Either all the movies were good OR, the lack of a host was a brilliant idea.

There have been some years when all the moves sucked.  Remember when American Beauty won an Oscar?  That was a SUCK year.

This year DJ and I were rooting for Bohemian Rhapsody and The Green Book.  DJ loved Roma (I did not see it) and I was not a fan of Black Panther.  A good many movies we WANT to see but are waiting for the DVDs.

Lady GaGa and Bradley Cooper were amazing in their duet and stunned the world.

https://youtu.be/G0CI8pF2ZGw



The Queen performance with Adam Lambert was . . blah blah . . .you really can't compete with Freddie.  I like Adam but he is no Freddie Mercury

What many people did NOT see was what happened AFTER Rami Malik TRIED to leave the stage.  He fell and paramedics were called in but all seemed to go OK.  I am SO glad he won best Actor.  An amazing performance in BR.

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As some of you might know I've been in the middle of a baseball draft and as I was geeking out over getting Mike Trout I read an article about how him and his wife were storm chasing in Arizona.  WHAT? Storm chasing? 

YEA - it seems Trout is a weather fanatic with his own personal weather station and plans on a weather career after his is done playing baseball in 15 years.   

My 2nd round pick up was Mike Leake who is is an average pitcher that just goes out every 5th day and puts in 6 or 7 innings year in year out.  A freaking work horse.  I am assuming I will have the best offense and best defense in the league. I'm hoping to get by with an average pitching staff.

And this morning I made my last real Free Agent pick up with Adrian Beltre.  This was a brilliant move.  The guy is 40 years old and fills my need for 3B for 1 year.  The trick is when you sign an over priced Free Agent you MUST sign him for 2 years. WAY WAY too expensive for 2 years - EXCEPT he retired.  THUS - I can drop him after 1 year and not pay him that last year.  Perfect.

Now I'll just pass for 3 or 4 rounds until prices come down and I have enough salary cap left for 1 more cheap Free Agent if there is anything worth it.

In this league we have a $350 salary cap.  Trout was $42.  in the rookie draft the first round players are $10 and go down $1 each round.  I spent 42 on Trout, $43 on Leake and $34 on Beltre. I get Yelice $30 for 3 more years but lose Freddie Freeman $30 and d'Arnuad (bust)$32 to free up money for next year.

Then next weekend the rookie draft starts which will last a few weeks.  One round a day and I need 20 players mostly pitchers now and a full time catcher.

I have ZERO catchers on my team (d'Arnuad sigh).  Both of my catchers were injured for the year IN THE FIRST WEEK LAST YEAR.  One was an over priced Free Agent and because he got 15 at bats I still have to pay him. The other was in his last year of his contract and I dumped him to be a free Agent.

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I went to the Columbus Area Historical Society soup/chili function and it was pretty crowded.  Great event - wish I could have stayed longer.

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Winter has been going on since the first week of November and I am tired of it.  BUT - here comes another so called polar vortex. 

Expect snow showers all week starting tomorrow 2-6 inches between Tuesday and Friday and then don't expect temps to get to 15 for a week with double digit below and wind chills in the -20 range for lows and below zero wind chills for highs.

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MEANWHILE they continue to build our deck..  They poured footings this morning and it seems our old deck was not up to code footing (we have found a few things not up to code in the last year). 

I tell ya - We have signed more change orders in the last 2 weeks then the entire basement finishing project (zero).   Michael Simon are REALLY professionals and no wonder they have not had a law suit against them in over 120 years or some big number (not DON Simon this is Micheal Simon - completely different).

The basement was a 95% success.  Some things were missed and some things we WISH they would have done differently. Simon?  WOW . . talk about a company that does everything right.  Weekly updates, time estimates, MANY change orders. 

They are fitting this project in between a few big ones.   Drexil lumber and I asked the truck driver about working for Drexil.  He LOVES them.   Good year round pay and and a company that cares about their workers. What a great company that came to Columbus.

Nuff said for now - I need a hair cut.