Thursday, June 22, 2006
I have an addiction. As addictions go, I guess it ain't such a bad one. I cannot begin any day unless I have a Kaldi's Espresso Malta in hand first thing in the morning. My espresso machine was a bargain several years ago. Only $7.95 on eBay, and that might include the shipping. We're talking cheap! It's a Salton, probably with an original price of $29.99 from Target. I had a Salton that was a reject from my parents' house. It began to fail, entered hospice, and expired.
The frothing of the milk is nearly ideal, but in order for the pressure to be “just so” one has to use finely ground espresso.The little Salton is a marvel, as long as the espresso is ground to a fine, fine, granular size as in Turkish.
To make a short story longer by a mile, I’ll admit that I’d run out of Kaldi’s espresso and had traded the Salton on the kitchen counter for the Brun coffee maker in the cabinet—the high cabinet above the oven. Yesterday (as in any day this week before today), I bought a pound of my beloved grind out at the flatland Kaldi’s. Perhaps they call it Chesterfield Flat or Chesterfield Mall; out there by Annie Gunn’s where the land used to flood, but now they hope it doesn’t. This morning I reached up to grab the Salton from the high cabinet with one hand, when two hands clearly would have been better, but the other hand was holding the Brun, and I lost my grip. I saw the very heavy cap that screws down on the water tank sliding forward. Wham. This small cap must weigh five pounds. It fell and hit me right in the mouth, nearly breaking a tooth. Fortunately, the very heavy cap only gave me a fat lip and marred the new kitchen floor. And the Salton, too, fell slowly to the floor.
Alas, when I filled it up with water and espresso, finely ground, NO steam was emitted from the frothing spout. C’est une catastrophe!! Je peux vivre avec une grosse lèvre mais pas sans expresso.
What to do, what to do? I searched eBay. No Salton to be had. Ruh roh!! This is a very bad day.
NEWS FLASH!
This just in.....
Guess I'll offer this update on the little fella who went to the zoo after his big day at the hospital. He's scheduled for surgery on July 10 and will have three weeks of quiet activity. This child has never had a day of quiet activity since he was maybe three days old.
June 21,2006
Things to know
When a two year old is eating greasy pork ribs covered in barbeque sauce, his hands and mouth and nearby surface areas are a mess. You will want to wipe off his hands, at least, before letting him leave the table, even if you are picnicing outside.
Do not approach the child with wet cloth in hand saying, “Here, let me wi….” because before it’s out of your mouth he will be off and running. The table, chair, floor, walls, doors between you and far away from you will be covered with rib grease and sauce.
Honestly, the only thing you could do that would be worse would be to make a sinister face and in a creepy voice say, “I’m going to get you.” It would elicit the same reaction. Simply, approach the child, preferably from behind, with the cloth hidden until just at the last moment you swiftly, in one motion, grab one of his hands and scrub. Hold on tight, grab the other hand, and then go for the mouth until the messy child is clean once again.
