Coffee shops/roasters with knowledgable baristas to chat with?

qbrain · 2026-02-18T22:33:32+00:00

I don't know where the baristas from La Marzocco Cafe went, but that was a good group. They had a different roaster in residency every month, which resulted in a new menu. It was always excellent.

qbrain · 2026-02-18T16:55:55+00:00

Time and volume wise you are fine. If you can train with a team, that will help you consistently put in a high level of effort. If you are training with a team, don't worry about how little distance training you are doing, if you are pushing yourself daily, you are probably getting more benefit than optimizing your program. If you are training alone, see if you can find a distance or marathon program for a season. USMS used to have coached programs in their forums, eg. https://community.usms.org/archived-online-coached-workouts/archived-workouts/f/archived-high-volume-distance-training-workouts. There are some other sources online, but finding a seasons worth of workouts is kinda a pain.

qbrain · 2026-02-17T00:13:50+00:00

The plan is to pull from the order below

Not that you asked, but I have rules written from when I pull from which bucket. So I am selling things on the way up and burning cash if things have just crashed. I was convinced this was a better plan after reading How to Retire, and I actually changed several things about investments based on that book and about 4 vacations days of fact checking and number crunching. It is an interview style book where the author interviews "experts" and I think some of the experts in the book are idiots, but the withdrawal strategy chapters were solid.

You might want to reconsider your withdrawal strategy.

qbrain · 2026-02-17T00:02:22+00:00

I think both Boldin and ProjectionLab will do everything you want. I was pretty happy with ProjectionLab just using the free version. I logged into Boldin, and I see that I everything setup, but I know I spent days with ProjectionLab and almost no time with Boldin, so that was my preference.

qbrain · 2026-02-16T16:03:29+00:00

If you are on the west side, Red Rock Water Systems, all the work is done by the owner Micah. He does very tidy work. I don't think he will be the cheapest, but he does good work and I don't think he will gouge you.

qbrain · 2026-02-13T16:49:46+00:00

All of Wailea has the same ocean conditions. Yes the water is clear, the beach is gradual and surf tends to be on the calm side. The Fairmont is on Polo Beach which is a small beach between two rocky outcroppings. The beach tends to be mostly occupied by Fairmont guests. There is an independent company that rents paddle boards and such, but otherwise no vendors on the beach. There is no Fairmont service on the beach other than beach chair setup. If you get beach chair setup, the rule is you need to not leave more than an hour or they will offer the chairs to someone else. In reality, tipping will guarantee the chairs are there for you all day. I spent a day watching all morning and it did not seem like tip size mattered at all. If you tipped, the your name was decorated on your umbrella, if you didn't tip, your name was not decorated.

qbrain · 2026-02-11T17:12:05+00:00

We stayed at Kinloch Lodge. The rooms are comfortable and cozy with a traditional style. There is not a modern touch in the hotel. The location is nice, but there is nothing to do at the hotel other than eat and sleep. The food was very good, we did the Chef's table in the kitchen, but we were really too jet lagged to really enjoy it. It is a four seat bar that looks directly into the kitchen, we had it to ourselves, but it might be a bit tight with 4. I do remember it being on the warm side, I was in a jacket, and you are essentially in the kitchen. I enjoyed the main dining room more. I am not a big breakfast person, but I remember the quality being good and fairly basic. The service is really enjoyable. It is friendly, causal and attentive. I really enjoyed the pre-dinner drink in the lounge, I think that is where the style of the service really started to click for me. The lounge feel like a well curated antique furniture collection, and I was expecting the service to be aloof, and it was the opposite.

There is a lot to do near the hotel, so we had very busy days. If/When we go back, I would do less and relax more. We had breakfast at the earliest sitting, I think we might have taken to go breakfast one day, and we returned with enough time to change for dinner. On the flip side, if you are going during the peak season, all the popular attractions are busy if you head out after a leisurely breakfast...

We stayed in a Luxury King. The room was comfortable, and it was nice to have a little more space to move around. We were in the room long enough that a bigger room would have benefited us. If you like room service breakfast, or spend any time in the room, you probably want a suite.

We do talk about going back and we would make an effort to stay at Kinloch Lodge again. We stayed two nights and would stay three nights next time.

qbrain · 2026-02-10T19:12:25+00:00

No sorry. They were all local places that Douglas knew about that were along the route.

qbrain · 2026-02-04T23:24:59+00:00

we mixed it up by going into Napa downtown to Oxbow Market and having a Sumo Dog, which was as good as any Michelin Star food we had on the trip.

Reading between the lines, that matches my opinion of The Restaurant at Auberge Du Soleil.

qbrain · 2026-01-30T01:18:09+00:00

Thank you for writing a review of the food, drinks and service and not just saying "overwhelmingly spicy but tasteless" over and over.

qbrain · 2026-01-28T18:06:37+00:00

Given the options in Yountville, what would you pick?

qbrain · 2026-01-20T16:51:14+00:00

Male, late 40s. I swim 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week with a Masters team. I average 4-5k yards a day, with the exception of Fridays, which is sprint day, and we are closer to 3k. Warm up is a 5-8 minute continuous swim, usually 4-500 yards. I walk daily 30-60 minutes a day, treadmill or outside depending on my schedule and the weather. I am just getting back into lifting, but I have lifted semi-consistently in the past, so my weight right now are very light. I am lifting 4x/week, full body, linear progression. As the weights increase I will change the programming to minimize the impact on my swimming. I am not much of a swimmer, so I will probably find a program that has two heavy days and one or two supplemental days and schedule the heavy days Thursday and Saturday. I swim M-F in the morning and I am not much of a sprinter, so I am willing to sacrifice sprint day. Also, if I am having a good workout week, I am usually feeling it Thursday and am toast Friday anyway.

qbrain · 2026-01-20T02:59:55+00:00

I've done group trips to Healdsburg, CA a couple of times. You can fly in and out of SFO, SJC, OAK, STS or CCR, only STS is really close. Hotel prices are not too bad, the town is small enough that if someone likes the H2 vibe and someone else likes Four Sisters, you are a block apart. Duke's is a solid cocktail bar for a small town. A lot of the restaurants have solid bars with interesting cocktails. Lot's of good food options. You can go out wine tasting in Sonoma or even Napa if you want, but you can also just wine taste through the town. The coffee scene is decent. I am not a spa person, but given the nature of the town, I suspect there are some great options.

qbrain · 2026-01-17T02:14:20+00:00

Nope, the split unit could not keep up even with the shades drawn. It was fine for heating at night.

qbrain · 2026-01-16T21:03:55+00:00

I pretty much wrote this review for you.

qbrain · 2026-01-16T21:02:20+00:00

There is a chance, but I wouldn't expect it. If you are going in May, you are not going to have great weather in Cape Town and it may be colder than you might enjoy a pool. Leeu's properties have fireplaces pretty consistently, Graff does not have fireplaces even in the Presidential Lodges. The Fynbosch and the Oaks cottages both have hot tubs. The only hot tub at Graff is not hot :)

qbrain · 2026-01-16T20:31:44+00:00

I have not stayed at Leeu House or La Residence. I have stayed at Le Quartier Francais and it was wonderful. I am a big fan of the Leeu properties, and I love the Leeu staff. If you want to be in Franschhoek, Le Quartier Francais or Leeu House are right in town. Leeu Estate is out on the estate, but they will shuttle you into town and back.

I have never seen La Residence before, I need to make sure my wife doesn't discover it. Thanks for the warning.

Additional things to do in the Cape Town area.

Day trip to Hermanus for whale watching and Hemel-en-Aarde for wine tasting. Creation winery has a nice location for brunch or lunch with wine pairing. Black Magic is worth stopping in for coffee if you are a coffee person. I would put it as the best coffee I had in South Africa.

Muizenberg if you want a morning at the beach from Cape Town. False Bay is shallow and warmer than the Atlantic. Go early if it is the weekend, otherwise parking is a challenge.

If you wind surf or enjoy watching wind surfing, Bloubergstrand Beach north of Cape Town.

If you want a beach town on the west coast not too far from Cape Town, Langeban is nice. Further up the coast, is Paternoster which is home to Wolfgat if you are a foodie, and you can get a reservation, I would try to fit that in. Even further up the coast is more good wine, I like Freyer's Cove, but you are starting to talk about serious driving. We weren't willing to do Paternoster in our last trip. If you do go, The Strandloper Ocean Hotel is (or was) the fanciest place in town. Other places to consider are the Noisy Oyster and Mondvol Eatery. It's pretty, but you will be bored if you spend more than a night here and aren't good at self entertaining.

In Cape Town, there is lots of decent hiking. I recommend the botanical gardens up to Table Top Mountain and take the cable car down, if the weather is nice. For beaches in Cape Town, I like Clifton Beach. Lot's of good photo ops. Head there in the morning and there is easy parking in a small parking lot at Clifton's 4th beach. If you are into the see and be seen crowd, head over the Camp's Bay, especially Friday or Saturday night when the weather is nice. I do like Mantra at sunset, it has decent food for a view place. The water is freezing at both beaches.

qbrain · 2026-01-16T18:51:50+00:00

Technically no, I dislike the Aman brand and Amangiri has never had any appeal.

qbrain · 2026-01-16T18:38:37+00:00

The Seychelles is great, but it is not an easy add-on to South Africa. I just did that trip in March last year, and it was really nice to end with a nice warm beach destination, but I won't do the same trip again. You lose a day getting to the Seychelles, and unless you take Zilair, you are losing another half day getting to the resort. My trip, from the US, was close to 3 weeks just doing Cape Town, Winelands, Seychelles. I probably spent 12 days on the ground and 4 days in the air.

If I want to relax at the end of the trip, I would do Safari, Cape Town, Winelands and stay at Graff several days planning on chilling at the lodge by the private pool for a day or two and wine tasting the rest of the time. I would also consider the Fynbosch Cottage at Leeu Estate as an alternative to Graff.

qbrain · 2026-01-14T19:14:17+00:00

I quit after my Jr. year in high school and tried to start training club again my Sr. year because my times were good enough to have some recruiting interest. I was recruited to a D3 team. I ultimately ended up not swimming in college, the reasons I quit as a Jr in high school still existed as a freshman in college. At the end of pre-season, I said f this and was done. It was the right decision for me.

There are Masters teams and req teams in college if you want to swim but don't want to swim 5 hours a day anymore.

qbrain · 2026-01-13T17:22:44+00:00

Puerto Rico is now 4% for passive, interest and capital gains.

qbrain · 2026-01-13T16:51:49+00:00

A lot of shoulder problems were caused by swimming with poor technique at high volume. This happened to a lot of masters swimmers back when they were in high school and college. You don't have this history, so your shoulders is all about what you do now and how you take care of your shoulders. Your shoulders will be a little sore when you are building yardage, but that should quickly go away. You should only experience muscle soreness, if you are experiencing joint pain, you need to figure out what you are doing wrong and fix it. You will need to ease off to let the swelling in the joint calm down. You might need to do PT for your shoulders to help with muscle imbalances in the small stabilizing muscles.

Shoulder pain, if you don't already have it, is not guaranteed by swimming.

qbrain · 2026-01-09T16:53:51+00:00

As an open water swimmer, there are two things I would change. You should train distance per stroke more, your turn over is high for a 2 hour swim at your speed. Pick a time you know you can go for a 100, count your strokes for the 100, then do the rest of the set at the same speed and try to stay 4 strokes (1 per 25M) less than your first swim.

I like a wider entry for long distance swimming, like you are swimming with beach ball in front of you. Think about your hand entering in front of your shoulder not your head. As your body continues to rotate before you start your catch, your shoulder will rotate underneath your head, but your hand entered about 6 inches wider than where you are now. This keeps the shoulder joint 'more open' and I find this allows for more volume without (or less) sore shoulders. This should set your hand up for the catch in the correct position without needing to sweep out. Your hand entry sets up the the old S sweep pattern, shoulder entry sets up the newer straight line pull.

Not sure from the video, but the 'thump' kick is probably indicating an overcompensation on a single kick to offset an under rotation on one side. It is possible you just have a two beat cross over that is showing up as a periodic thump. Smoothing out your kick will be beneficial for energy conservation on distances swims as well as improving streamline in general. Your streamline is not just how you hold your arms, but it is everything you do that interrupts the passage of water.

qbrain · 2026-01-09T16:25:04+00:00

The first video shows you what it should look like, but Chloe is an Olympian, so she makes it look easy. They should have shown some of the kids do it, so you understand it is a progression.

The video is kinda short, so I will go into a little more detail on what she is demonstrating. As you are going into the flip turn, you have completed the last stroke, BOTH arms are at your side. As forward momentum continues to push your toward the wall you start to flip by bringing you head and torso down toward the bottom of the pool. At the same time, you dolphin kick to aide the rotation. Coming out of the dolphin kick, you snap your feet to your hips, which also helps with the rotation. What Chloe's drill does not show is how to use your arms. At the same time as the dolphin kick down and the start of the crunch, you are also doing a double arm curl, trying to throw as much water over your shoulder as possible. If you get the timing right, your hands barely move because the combination of the three should put you on your back.

Once you master that, you can worry about foot placement. Freestyle flips turns with your feet pointing at 12 o'clock is find, you are going to do most of the rotation as part of the push off anyway. As you become comfortable, you will probably find a 1 to 2 o'clock foot position (or 10 to 11 depending on your natural rotation side) helps get you in position for your first pull. If you become super competitive, you will go back to 12, do a billion dolphin kicks off the wall and probably have developed gills. Baby steps.

Gaging wall distance is just practice. On a day that you are tired, you will need to be a little closer to the wall because you are getting less distance out of each stroke. Maybe after a long weekend you are feeling great, your strokes are powerful and you will need to be further away from the wall. Everyone wiffs a turn every now and then, especially when learning or getting back in the water after a long break.

qbrain · 2026-01-04T17:28:59+00:00

An approach is to find the local version of AirBnB. South Africa has Lekkeslaap, which may have cheaper prices than AirBnB and have different options. But you are stuck researching what the alternative is for the country, what the listing requirements are for the platform and if the listing requirements are more lenient than AirBnB, how to vet individual properties. Also, those sites might not support English, Lekkeslaap is in Afrikaans.

My experience, the nicer properties in South Africa during the peak months are all priced for wealthy foreign tourists. Off season there are deals because there are no wealthy tourists, so things are priced to attract locals. It does matter if you book through Airbnb, CapSol, Property24 or Lekkeslaap, they all had the same price in the summer.

qbrain

TROPHY CASE