Post #12

I've had a very busy day so far. This afternoon, my parents and I went to the coffee machine/pasta store downtown (run by an Italian named Olivieri) to look at espresso machines. When we got there, there was nobody there except the cleaning staff. The lady said thatf the owner was showing a house (I guess he moonlights as a realestate agent), and that it'd take about half an hour, but that she could call him if we wanted. We declined and looked around a bit. After a few minutes, we decided that, yeah, maybe, it would be better to talk to someone. The cleaning lady called the owner, and found out that his wife would be there in 5 minutes. Twenty minutes later, she showed up. She walked us through the Jura Impressas, the line of fully-automatic machines they carried. It was helpful, but not terribly enlightening. Then, just as we were about to leave, her husband shows up. We ask him the difference between the Juras and the Saecos, which we had been consdering buying. He said that the Saecos are difficult to clean, and therefore get broken easily. To illustrate, he took us out into his shop, where he was working on a number of repairs. It was actually really cool to see all the machines opened up, but the real kicker for me was that (I'm pretty sure) this is where Andy has been taking his Saeco to get fixed. He takes it in, spends hundreds of dollars and waits several weeks, it comes back, works fine, then dies. Apparently the time and money were for ordering parts, and this guy has to fix Saecos repeatedly for many people because they're just not as steady once they lose their footing initially. Then we went inside so he could brew us some samples.

Half an hour later, we'd bought the top of the line Jura domestic machine. Teh ubar. $4400.

This thing is insane! You can attach a thermos of milk that comes with it, and it'll make you an entire cappuccino with the push of one button! Espresso, milk and foam! It makes good "regular coffee" (americano), and has a secondary reservoir for grounds of anything you like. It has a hot water spout, can make up to a quadruple espresso in one go, and can be set from extra-weak to extra-strong.

The best part, though, was when we finally figured out how to make it give us just steam (you have to set teh dial to steam, unplug the milk thermos and then push the milk button), I found out that my mom didn't know how to steam milk. She was trying to do it by just letting the blast of steam hit the surface of the milk. I was merciful and corrected her. ^_^

Then Jenilee called and suggested we do something tonight. I agreed, and went to put on soem moisturizer while she drove over. Seriously, I'm considering stealing my mom's digital camera to take a picture of my left shoulder to post here--it looks horrid. All the skin that peels off is wet, like, actually _wet_, but the skin underneath it turns into that of a crocodile's in ten minutes. Unpleasant.

Anyway, Jenilee and I went to West Ed and I made use of my Friends and Family discount by buiying a pair of Curvy Low Rise jeans and a pretty light purple sweater. I swear, these jeans were made for me. They're wider in the hips and narrower in the waist. Kaitlyn, these may even make you go back to Gap jeans. It was a good shopping experience. Jenilee told me that she's planning on moving out, and I gotta say, dude, enjoy the free ride while you can, but she seems to think it's time to leave. Weirdo. She also told me that when her family was at the Calgary Stampede, they bought these expensive "indestructable" dishes at the trade fair, and when they were delivered to their house, one of the bowls was broken. I thought that was pretty funny. ^_^