All grown up

Well, I made coffee this morning, using Sarah Eby's little coffee engine. I looked up how to do it on Youtube, but they didn't say how much coffee to use.

It was... well, pretty awful. But I'm drinking it. It's supposed to raise your metabolism, or something. It's making me feel very sophisticated and European, kinda like an existential novel from the 1930s. I expect to start writing free verse any second now. Maybe I'll get a bongo.


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Housework tip of the day:

OK, anyone else in Italy have this problem? You've got marble tile floors, and you spill some water on them, maybe while watering the plants. The water, being Italian water, is dense with calcium. It leaves huge cloudy, chalky marks on your beautiful shiny floors.

I learned that the very worst thing you can do is use Viakal. DO NOT USE VIAKAL on your marble tile floors. Marble is made of calcium, so the Viakal will just dissolve it, and ruin the surface. Then you'll have to go to the ferramenta and figure out how to ask the guy what you do to re-buff your marble floors. He won't understand you and it will be all embarrassing as you try to mime spilling water and polishing floors. He will look at you with that uniquely Italian blank stare and you'll feel like an idiot.

Here's a way to avoid looking like a dumb straniera in front of your ferramenta guy:

Take a lemon, slice off the top, and rub the lemon stub over the mark. You will see the lemon dissolving the calcium; it will make a sort of paste. Then take a dry cloth and buff off the paste. Your floors will be incredibly shiny and clean and smooth.

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I think I'm going to try a new format for blogging. I'll put the day's thoughts and snippets all on one post, so there'll be a post a day. Maybe that will be less confusing for people. We'll try it for a few days and y'all can tell me what you think.

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Me after two double espressos this morning.

So, the caffeine thing... well, well, quite an experience! I can see now why people get really into coffee. It's not about the taste; I see that now. It still tastes kind of like burnt acorns to me, but what the hell. Who cares when it does that to you.

I found it rather... difficult...(ahem) to sit still, so went off to the gym ... and may have hurt myself. I attacked the treadmill with a look on my face that said, "Get in my way, and I'll kill and eat you." Did an hour and kept having to push up the speed and difficulty level. When I was done, the display thingy said I'd burned 456 calories and power-walked 5.78 km.

I assume there's going to be a crash of some sort, right?

All very interesting. I might do it again tomorrow. Must always do experiments several times to see if we reproduce the same results.

It's all for science.

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Never forget how fast, and how drastically, politics can change.



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