icedlatte.com

Happy 4th of July!

While Team Icedlatte.com is at the Diamondbacks vs. The Padres.

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..are you doing reading this?  Well, finish reading this site, then go see WALL-E.

Easily one of the best movies of the year.  The spirit and caring you get in the first 30 minutes, with no talking, mind you, is amazing.

Nods to having Sigourney Weaver as the voice of the computer.  In the movie spoof of Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, she played a character who’s only purpose was to repeat what the computer said.

All in all, an amazing movie with incredible visuals.  And the short before the film, Presto, about a very hungry rabbit and a magical hat, was the funniest of their shorts yet.

It was a great movie to get that nasty taste of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull out of my mouth.  Man, that sucked.

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..yes, it’s supposed to be 113 today.  Ouch.

So that means it’s back to staying indoors most of the time. And if you know me, you’d know that’s where I try and spend 365 days a year.  I’m very careful.

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So 8 years ago today, I got married.

Crazy times.

Of course, I still love her, so I’ll keep her for another 8.. or 50.

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..is always fun.

So some of our friends went to Hawaii for two weeks, and we told them we’d babysit for them while they’re gone.

No, not a child.

We’ve been watching their West Highland Terrier, Snowy.

She’s been a great dog to watch, though.  And it turns out they don’t bother my allergies very much, which is great.

While they were away, I created a new website, snowythedog.com, which was a ‘blog’ that the dog made.  Their kids really thought it was cute.

Other than that, not a lot going on.  It’s now pretty much over 100 degrees here until the end of Summer, so it’s nice and hot.

This week (6/10) is our 8th wedding anniversary.  Crazy!

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The bane of any XBOX360 owner…

..the ‘red ring of death’. At least Microsoft extended the warranty by 3 years.

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Watching the Arizona Diamondbacks…

..versus the Washington Nationals.

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First Krispy Kreme …

..since they reopened the first one in the Valley.

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I wish I could say that the reason I haven’t updated lately is because we’ve been busy with stuff. But that would just be a lie.

It’s been pretty slow lately around the house. With the cost of gas, of course, we really haven’t taken any trips lately. Just trying to stay cool, since today it’s supposed to be 110 today.

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I have a confession.

I’ve had the same espresso machine since 2000.  A Starbucks Barista machine.

Okay, there, I said it.

A wedding gift, actually, from my Aunt. (Which I appreciated very much!)

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing to have the same espresso machine for 8 years, but the machine has definitely been going downhill in the last year or so. Since the closest Starbucks (or any coffee house, for that matter) is about 10 miles away, I was missing my iced latte’s.

And, when your website is icedlatte.com, you have to have iced latte’s.

So I started looking around on Ebay to see if I could find any deals on espresso machines.  After looking and looking, and even bidding on a few, I did a “Buy it Now” for a Saeco Easy Espresso Machine.

I was originally looking for another ‘manual’ espresso machine, one where basically you have to do it all manually.  However, I got a pretty good price on this super-auto model.  That means that on this one, you just press one button, and off it goes:

1. Grinds the espresso beans.
2. ‘Drops’ the beans into the portafilter.
3. Forces water through the portafilter to make the espresso.
4. Pushes the espresso grinds into the dump box.
5. Is ready to go again.

Now, just because it’s a super-auto doesn’t mean that you can’t adjust anything.  You can adjust:

1. The grind (fine/course)
2. Amount of espresso per shot.
3. Amount of water to run through each shot.

Once you get all that adjusted, you just press the button on the upper left, and wait for it to make the sweet, sweet espresso.

All in all, I’ve been pretty happy with it for the week or so I’ve had it.  I’ve used it everyday, pretty much, and the espresso it makes is very good.

The downsides?  Yeah, it has a few:

1. Just one ‘red light’ to tell you about 3-5 things that could be wrong.  I’ve pretty much figured out that depending on when the red light comes on in the process, I can figure out what’s wrong.
2. A little bit of espresso drops down into the drip tray at the bottom.  That’s pretty common with super-auto’s, I discovered, though.
3. The size.  A super-auto is a little bigger on the counter than just a manual one, but again, that’s just something to get used to.

All in all? I’m very happy with this purchase, and I hope I’ll be keeping this one for 8 years or longer.

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