Job starts in a week and a half so I'm enjoying funemployment by making a beautiful loaf of bread today and waiting for the TV stand to arrive [Update: FedEx was like "we tried to drop it off" but the fact I've been on my couch all day shows that that is a lie] and set that up so we can really unpack the rest of the boxes and settle into our new apartment. I adopted a California Condor since I'll soon have a steady paycheck. It feels good to be supporting a good cause so I'm glad I'm able to do that again. Don't know what I'll support next but I'm going to try donating to some cause probably once a quarter or so. What causes do y'all donate to that I should explore? I think I found a tennis league to join which is also super exciting. It'll be nice to get moving for the first time in two years. Went and played around with my partner last night though and my knees hurt this morning likely due to moving in new ways for the first time in forever plus the extra weight I'm carrying thanks to two years of not moving, so I might not join until the second half fall league which starts sometime in October or November instead of the one starting next week. kantos a few weeks back you suggested spicing coffee beans to elevate the flavor. I've played around with cinnamon and cardamom and holy hell it really does raise the quality. I really enjoyed the cardamom addition. It was inspired by this turkish coffee cardamom ice cream recipe from a Philly restaurant. Having made that a few times, I would strongly recommend that if you're able to.
So I live in Seattle, home of Starbucks. It ain't quite San Francisco but I hate 3rd wave coffee with a passion anyway so that's fine. But boy howdy can we be pretentious with our beans. A few years back there was a guy in my CNC class. He was learning what he could before going back to Ethiopia to help out at his friend's machine shop. His family? His family had had several hundred acres around Irgachefe seized by Haile Sellasie. THAT GUY knew some coffee. I helped him out with stuff and he gave me a jar. It was tremendous. I had him give me the blend before he vanished; here's the breakdown for my morning brew: 1 T whole beans 1/4 star anise 1 cardamom pod 1 allspice berry 1/8 cinnamon stick (cinnamon, not that cassia shit) Grind. Make coffee. I generally run this blend from about... now until Easter or so. I think it's funny that the pretentious coffee people are about "you must lovingly pourover your burr-ground third wave bullshit", most of America is at "arabica, robusta, whatever, just sprinkle it with mouthwash and call it creme de menthe" and the Ethiopians, who invented the shit, are at "coffee is 75% coffee by volume".