Some Secret Place

Let me preface this topic with a quick note about a few things. I fully understand that you get what you pay for. And I also know that, when it comes to espresso machines, it’s best to get a nice machine that has a pump system instead of steam as well as a thrermoblock heating system. I had made this purchase with an idea in mind and having read some positive reviews on Amazon. With that said, let’s begin.

While the wife and I were at Target a couple of nights ago shopping for gifts for a company Christmas party, I happen to come across a stack of Mr Coffee espresso machines that were on sale for $25. Intrigued, I examined the box of one and found that this unit was a steam driven machine. And at that price I kind of figured it would be. While machines like this are generally a bad idea for quality espresso I thought to myself, it’s a good start up machine and it will also let me see how easy or hard it is to wake up in the morning and make my own lattes. And, as a bonus, save me some money by reducing my trips to Starbucks. I enjoy a cup of coffee most mornings but there are times that I crave a latte.

Wondering if I should really go for it or pass this deal up, I decided to whip out my iPhone and use the Amazon app to read up on some reviews for this machine. It was to my surprise that I found that it had received an average of 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5 with 50+ reviews on it! In reading said reviews I also found that most people said exactly what I was thinking. It’s a good start up machine, won’t brew the greatest espresso shots, and should mainly be used for cappuccino’s or lattes. So I said what the heck, why not and picked one up.

When I got home, I unpacked the machine and found one bad thing right away. It came with no frothing pitcher. While it could have been argued that it’s an espresso machine (just coffee), there was a picture of someone using a frothing pitcher right on the box! But, that’s okay, I figured I’ll just use one my 10 oz. measuring cup. But then I also found that they provided a measuring spoon with a slightly flat bottom and called it a tamper. Um, yeah, that’s not a proper tamer at all. So at this point, I’m just thinking that it was only $25 so not a big deal I can make do. And with that I read the instructions and made my very first attempt at making a latte.

It took a little while for me to produce my first latte, but that’s because I was re-reading the manual as I was making it. And, I’m glad to say it produced quite the tasty latte! I was very pleased with it. And now you’re asking “Why did you name this post The Little Espresso Machine That Couldn’t?”. While the machine produced two great tasting lattes for me, it was the 3rd one I made where I started running into trouble. See, the first two I made, I used the max 4oz method which allowed me to tamper the beans more easily. When I did the 2oz, I could not reach the spoon/tamper in the filter properly to get a good tamper so it made a pretty weak espresso.

In addition to that, when I went to steam the milk for the aforementioned 2oz latte, I ended up getting some back flow through the steam nozzle. Yeah, that’s right, the nozzle turned into a straw and sucked milk up into the machine! Then it turned around and spit it back out as a brown burnt mess. Yuck! Then because the milk had gone into the machine there is now burnt milk in there and it gives off a lovely smell of burning milk when I use it. And I can’t even get in there to clean it because the water reservoir inaccessible. So now I’ve got a machine that smells and adds a hint of burnt milk flavor to my espresso which is no good. I will be taking it back and I’m not sure if I will buy another one at the moment. May just wait till I can get one that’s a high quality machine.

Man, has it really been almost 5 months since my last update? I used to be so good at this, posting every few days. Well I’ve since started using Twitter so I blame it on that as it’s easier to make a quick update rather than a full blog post. Not only that but when you’re someone like me who posts useless information about absolutely nothing, Twitter seems like the best place to do such a thing as people don’t want to read long pages about nothing. Such as what I’ve already started doing with this post.

Okay, now that I’m done rambling, let’s see what’s happened since my last post. I’ve successfully upgraded my MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard which I’m absolutely loving. It’s so quick and snappy. And all my applications work with it just fine so that’s good too! The one app I talked about previously works as well because Rosetta is in Snow Leopard, just not by default. Which is fine by me, so long as it works.

In other news, it’s now Winter and in this lovely (spoken sarcastically) town I live in, that means temperatures of mid 30’s to low 40’s during the day and high 10’s to low 20’s at night. In other words, freaking cold! To add on that, it snows too. It’s nice to look at from inside a warm cozy house or building, but to be out in it just plain sucks. Even more so when having to drive in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m comfortable driving in blizzard conditions, it’s the other people on the road that generally suck at it. It started to snow quite a bit this morning and there were already reports of a handful of accidents.

But, with Winter starting that means that it’s the holiday season. And that also means lots of fun holiday things to do. This weekend the parents, grandparents, the wife, and I are going to see The Nutcracker Ballet followed by a stroll around the local botanical gardens for The River of Lights. The latter being my favorite thing to do because it’s the entire gardens decorated with lights and shapes (made out of lights) all over the place. And because it’s cold too, grabbing a nice warm Starbucks holiday drink makes it all that much more enjoyable. But that’s not to say I’m not looking forward to the ballet as well.

Outside that, it’s life as usual. Work, play video games, work some more, and watch TV. Until next time.

With Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) coming out soon, I need to figure out when I should upgrade my OS. See, the MacBook Pro that I bought almost a year ago now is my first Mac and it came with Leopard installed. So I’ve never upgraded the OS on a Mac before. While I hear it’s relatively easy, the concern I have is that 10.6 is going to be Intel only. While that in and of itself is just fine, the issue I’m wondering about is will it still have Rosetta built in?

I have one application, and an expensive one at that, that is a PPC app and requires Rosetta to run on an Intel Mac. It works absolutely perfect right now on 10.5 which has Rosetta so that’s why I need to figure out if it will be in 10.6. I certainly hope it does because 10.6 looks like it’s going to be an almost essential upgrade. And at an upgrade cost of $30 it would be terrible if that was the only thing keeping me from getting it!

Unfortunately, because Apple keeps the small details mum and doesn’t allow developers to say anything the question still remains. And, from the looks of a quick search, it’s a pretty big question sitting out there. Some say no because it will defeat the purpose of 10.6 being an Intel only OS. But on the other hand some say yes because it will give those still using PPC Macs and software a chance to upgrade to a shiny new Intel Mac without having to get new software too.

Some Secret Place is back! I’ve decided to try building a weblog again. Who knows how well I’ll do this time a round, but we will see. Stay tuned for some more updates.