I went to Starbucks twice today.
The first time I had a grande Galápagos San Cristóbal Clover brewed coffee and a warmed up apple Fritter. The second time I had a decaf grande mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino. Both times it was delicious.
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May 6th, 2012
I went to Starbucks twice today. The first time I had a grande Galápagos San Cristóbal Clover brewed coffee and a warmed up apple Fritter. The second time I had a decaf grande mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino. Both times it was delicious. March 30th, 2012
I don’t normally do this, but I just had to. There is so much I could say about this but it’s impossible to choose just what I should. March 26th, 2012
The perfect way to class-up hot dogs or hamburgers: home baked buns. I will try this. March 19th, 2012
Katy Perry, God bless her, raps “Ninjas” in Paris. It’s not so good. She should get some lessons from her friend RiRi. March 13th, 2012
Some people have really cool jobs: 258 km/h on ice: Porsche GT3 RS vs a Yamaha R1. March 11th, 2012
I am a little bit surprised to be writing about laundry, but it is a basic necessity of modern day life. It is something we take for granted, but something nearly all of us have experienced some frustration over. Now is my time. I am currently staying somewhere for work. I have elected to stay in a location that is more apartment-like than hotel-like, opting trading a location that is amenity rich for some extra space and a kitchen. And while I don’t need a fitness centre, a pool, three restaurants, room service, and a spa in the building there are one or two things I would like. an ironing board: Okay, so there is an ironing board in the building and even two irons to choose from. This equipment is in the communal laundry area and, so far, access to an iron or the board hasn’t been a problem. What is a problem is that the ironing board is covered with a cover that is not nearly the correct size, meaning that it loosely moves around atop the frame, and that the cover has warn so thin it hardly retains and reflects heat to the underside of the garment, nor does it provide a smooth and consistent surface for the garment over the metal frame. It is a slight inconvenience to have to go downstairs to do ones ironing, or to bring the board up to ones room to do it in privacy but it stings even more when using the board is irritating to use. change for the washer: There is a washer and dryer. They operate on 50 euro cent coins per 30 minutes. That’s right, per 30 minutes. They way this works is there is a box connected to the power line that you feed your money in to; 50 euro cents gives you 30 minutes of power. But it only takes 50 cent coins and there is no change machine. There is also no reception in the building so making change is not possible here. You have to go elsewhere for change. And when you don’t speak the local language, you hardly want to go into a shop and try to communicate with someone just to ask for change. Here’s a nice kicker, too: when your laundry load finishes you have to turn the machine off for the washer door to unlock. So if you pay for 90 minutes of time and the wash takes 82 minutes and you don’t get down there in the 8 minute window then you don’t get your clothes without paying another 50 cent. Honestly, I am very close to buying my own ironing board and going to the bank to get a roll of 50 cent coins (that’s €20). I should for all of the trouble its causing me. January 29th, 2012
I was invited to dinner at Adam and Kyla’s tonight. I brought dessert. I made Peanut Butter Cup Cookies and Pretzel Turtles. Both turned out really great. I didn’t make any changes at all as baking is a bit unfamiliar to me, but I did make enough to have lots leftover. My coworkers will be pleased tomorrow. Oh yeah, I went to Australia and Seattle over the holiday break. December 13th, 2011
Katy and I were masters in the kitchen tonight. It started with Beef and Roasted Red Pepper Sandwiches. I just happened to have some home-roasted red peppers, naturally. These turned out deliciously and were consumed with the jus served from Royal Worcester Evesham Gold small bowls. I have leftover sandwiches for tomorrow–mmm. We then cleared the kitchen for the Magic Cookie Bars II recipe. This was the first time I had used sweetened condensed milk, and was surprised by the viscosity. Truthfully, Katy did most of the work. This recipe was so easy it was actually somewhat surprising. With the bars in the oven we moved on to the chocolate truffles. We used the Cooking for Engineers recipe. It was so easy I cannot believe truffles are so expensive. Ours didn’t turn out perfectly circular, but they look and taste delicious. I will say that we learned a little bit about the process this first time, and I am certain that they would be even better the next. While we waited for things to cool we watched the first episode of An Idiot Abroad series 2. This is a hilarious show; it is worth a second watch through. December 7th, 2011
The espresso wars have begun. I decided to try out the Tim Hortons latte and the McDonalds latte to compare them to Starbucks. Now, it’s true that I am a loyal Starbucks customer so it is possible there is some bias here, but I did approach each vendor with an open mind. I’ll start with Tim Hortons. I had their latte one morning. It was sweetened even though I didn’t request it to be. It was also way too sweet. The coffee, unfortunately, had that Tim Hortons smell to it. I didn’t care for it, primarily because it was too sweet. I decided to give Tim Hortons another shot a couple of days later. This time I was asked if I wanted it sweetened (no). I observed them “make” the beverage. It was done with a Nescafe Milano machine. I didn’t ask anything about the machine. The latte was better, but the coffee still smelled like Tim Hortons and I didn’t care for it. McDonald’s: I went after lunch. I asked for a decaf latte. They couldn’t do it. So I got a full caf latte. It was not bad, but also not good. I have come to learn that they can make this with either skim or 2% milk. I did not get the impression that the staff knew much about coffee, but I can’t say that I’d call that a revelation. In general I don’t think I would go back to either Tim Hortons or McDonalds for an espresso based drink. It may be acceptable if I were on a road trip and was in the mood for a latte. I certainly wouldn’t go to sit and meet someone for a coffee there. |
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Copyright © 2012 Ryan J. Allen - All Rights Reserved |
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