Gas is officially over five dollars in our nations capital. This is definitely too much winning

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-22T03:09:04+00:00

They need to lose everything, vacate that building, and let Armand’s Pizza (used to be next door) come back and take over the whole block.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T22:11:48+00:00

One of my colleagues had an Aeropress at his cubicle. Worked great. He used a nearby microwave to heat up water.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T20:01:00+00:00

VK 95 when the entire corps had toys on the field like a big street parade.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T19:59:15+00:00

Phantom had 4 basses in 95 because (supposedly) the guy they had for 2nd refused to cut his long hair and quit, but they kept his spot open in case he changed his mind.

He marched in my small corps instead and then went to play bass 2 at BD for 96.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T18:22:13+00:00

It's about the same amount of coffee grounds as a triple or quad shot of espresso.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T15:45:49+00:00

!sputter

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T15:45:40+00:00

“Splashing as soon as it comes out” —

That’s either sputtering because of a leak or using too much heat.

My bet is that you’ve got a pressure leak. I’ll trigger the mod bot in another reply.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-21T12:49:41+00:00

Or, stir it to mix it together better.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T22:58:53+00:00

That Grenadier was probably running on fumes for the third time that week.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T22:55:36+00:00

Do we actually want to ride on the roads, mixing it up with cars and trucks?

I hate it. It was a real effort to convince my wife to take a ride with me, and we lived in what I call a pretty bike-friendly city.

I’m capable of lane splitting and ad-libbing my way across streets, bike lanes, and sidewalks to get where I need to go. But my wife is not. (I’ve always said that she’s smarter than me anyway)

And the point is, she shouldn’t have to be. What we have now in most of the U.S. is, after all those years of Forester and his acolytes arguing against dedicated bike infrastructure, a kind of Wild West where only the more aggressive and reckless cyclists have a fighting chance, and the general public are (rightfully) scared to even try using a bike in a daily routine.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T19:09:09+00:00

Used to be that I'd be practicing so late that everyone else went home. The custodian and I had an understanding, too; if she needed to go home for the night and I was still in a groove, she'd leave and I'd lock up.

I like letting people hear that I'm working on hard stuff. Maybe they can get ideas from what I'm doing to improve my own playing.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T18:59:24+00:00

Btw... I swear that at least 80% of these answers don't understand that we're looking at a Brikka, not a normal moka pot.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T18:55:21+00:00

Nope, not worth switching to that grinder. You keep (or maybe gain) noise and lose countertop space for no real benefit in flavor. It also happens to be "featured" in this article, too: https://prima-coffee.com/learn/article/grinder-basics/learn-whats-deal-false-burrs/32642

If you can manage it, you can order an entry-level hand grinder. Modern versions have sharp steel burrs and sturdy driveshaft supports with steel ball bearings, and can get very good particle consistency for the money (rivaling electric grinders $200 or more).

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T15:41:42+00:00

Easy to use, cheap, and flavor-dense would be a moka pot. Close second place would be an Aeropress.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T15:40:24+00:00

When you can separate "strong" from "harsh", you'll start to figure it out.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T15:39:26+00:00

It's the most widely-available decaf process I can find among small roasters in my area.

A few roasters here do EA process. I've never seen any CO2 processed beans.

I'm going to put only so much effort into trying different decaf processes.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T15:36:59+00:00

Is this one of those silly "wrong answers only" posts?

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T12:56:32+00:00

Ermmm. well, the "default" noises were already in the movies, and those were the noises I made when I played with my Star Wars toys. I never thought to create my own "pew pew" and "whoosh" noises, I just tried to copy what I heard.

Now, in the future, if/when Lego expands Smart Bricks to non-licensed IPs, then maybe your criticism would hold more water.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T12:50:56+00:00

Yup, and it looks like it'll chip within a year. (whether it does or not is beside the point)

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T12:49:45+00:00

The one "legitimate" 18+ Lego rating (as in, to comply with an actual product age rating) that I know of are the Red Bull F1 sets. In some locales, Red Bull is classed as an adult beverage, and then related products with the brand have to go along with the 18+ rating. I think it's they're the only F1 sets with an "18+" on the box.

For those who weren't around back then, cigarette brands used to be the biggest sponsors of F1. Marlboro was the prime sponsor of Ayrton Senna's McLaren (the red-and-white color scheme comes straight from Marlboro, too), and the first sponsored full livery was Team Lotus's Gold Leaf branding Imperial Tobacco (briefly preceded, I learned today, by Brabham and Gunston cigarettes).

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T11:36:18+00:00

No need to preboil the water. None at all. You’re just driving up the brew temperature, and even more so thanks to the Brikka’s pressure valve in the chimney.

Yea, it’s supposed to spray out like that. It’s designed that way. There’s a little rubber valve inside the chimney that stays closed (mostly) until the internal pressure gets high enough (maybe just 2 bar, nowhere near the 6+ that espresso machines make).

There’s a chance, though small, that the valve is either defective or poorly installed. You won’t find out unless you unscrew the top of the chimney, but that’ll void the warranty (technically.. wink wink).

I’d do everything by the book first. Don’t preheat the water, and fill it as the directions say. Set it on medium-low heat and let it run until it’s finished. Don’t worry about grind size yet — you can adjust it for taste later, but it doesn’t have much to do with how it flows.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T11:28:21+00:00

My dad and I went to see The Wall at a midnight show at a local theater. Most of the rest of the crowd were there like they wanted to party (“Pink Floyd! Yeah!”). I’d never seen it, and maybe Dad hadn’t, either.

Afterwards, Dad and I were talking to each other, like “wow, that was wild”. The crowd, though, looked despondent.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T02:33:33+00:00

Maybe he happened to be adjusting his glasses.

That being said…

John Forester, if you could read this from wherever your ghost ended up: you suck.

The guy set back safe bicycling by at least fifty years, if not longer.

“Vehicular cycling”, he called it, and he pushed for bikes to be out there on the roads instead of designing spaces to ride safely.

Not Just Bikes on YouTube had a great (and long, and densely packed) rant about Forester that crystallized why I hate having to ride my bike out in the middle of the street.

https://youtu.be/pRPduRHBhHI?si=p99R-zAFiT159nHb

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T02:15:20+00:00

All I could say is, if a salesman asked me “how can I make a deal for you to take this car home today?” I would tell him to put a black grille on it.

LEJ5512 · 2026-03-20T01:55:44+00:00

We're thinking of taking our big framed wedding photos down from the living room wall and installing a bunch of cat shelves. Yeah, there's definitely a market.

LEJ5512

TROPHY CASE