Tuesday trivia

No word from the competition organizers yesterday, that means either than we were among the losers or that we got another third prize.

Translating, listening to Arvo Pärt's "Arbos," cooking lunch. Grey day, outside and in.

I've been meaning for some time to write about my coffee habit and the new espresso maker in the office. It's a Saeco Incanto Deluxe (extremely lousy website so no link, I've written and told them off for bad style and worse customer-contact practices), a very cute and efficient machine of the do-it-all-for-you kind. And quite thoughtfully designed too, so as to encourage maintenance and cleaning: the water tank and the coffee-bean holder and the drip catcher and the internal garbage can into which the used grounds are dumped all need filling or emptying at roughly the same time. The user learns to do all four tasks in one operation, thus keeping the machine clean and happy. Recommended.

The espresso and cappuccino that it makes are surprisingly tasty (for an automatic), nearly as good as proper hand-pumped. I noticed that having it in the office reduced my coffee intake by about 80%, and this has carried over to my home office: I find the stuff from my drip-filter machine quite unappealing. Probably much healthier this way.

Now if I could only get G and U to stop screwing up its pump by filling it with bottled mineral water...