^^ winter is brutal.

I was just outside and it's way nicer then it was at 8 this morning. The wind is still chilly, but it's not too windy anymore.

No kidding, it was cold at 7:30 when I left. My helmet was frozen to my hat today when I got to work.

My hands were getting cool when I got to work today, fingertips were getting abit tingly, but my feet were fine. I have to keep spare socks at work as I sweat through the liners and neoprene socks.

I need liners for the boots, I believe I have compressed the factory lining to the point of leaching cold in, my toes noticed the chill today. ICE FACES!!!!

does anyone know if the stash/futura colnago frames are still at carerra and if they are actually selling them or not?

He might have one there but they all sold as far as I know.

I survived the 23h blackout. The water in the pipe froze. The fish and turtle were unimpressed, but I got to play with matches and I never ran out of ice for my drinks.

Yeah, that was a pretty brutal 23 hours; our 'hood is always the last to get power back, we must be on some weird old grid or something. I have a gas stove so I was able to eat well and make coffee but damn, I love having heat now.

I too have a gas stove... but unfortunately I don't have a gas coffee grinder!

hahaha:lol: funny

Nabob all the way baby!!!!

mortar and pestle next time?

Heehh, yep, that is what I had in the back of my cupboard, Emergency Nabob. It wasn't too bad, actually.

hand grinder?

http://www.orphanespresso.com/images...mbly%20004.jpg

Hey, I might want to get some coffee that doesn't taste like ass. Manic and Ideal sell freshly roasted beans, I guess? Where might one procure a grinder? Also, any recommendations for type of roast?

Hey instead how about a bike-powered home generator for the next black out?

sooo, anybody has a broken home trainer (with functioning bike support)? I might actually want to try it.

Kergin, if you're just starting on coffee, most supermarkets have beans and grinder. It's not freshfreshfresh but it's a good start. Grinders tend to be pricey IIRC.

And then the shock of just how much energy you use in daily life is quite apparent.

Yeah... and how ridiculously cheap it is...

If I could maintain a good effort (200W) for 24 hours a day, for a whole month... I could provide about 11% of the electricity we use in a month.

Of course, I assume our bill would go down a bit if all I was doing was riding the bike.

well get to it then laddie!

You can find grinders lots of places, it'll be more a question of how much you want to spend.. The Zassenhaus hand grinders (at least there were a few Zassenhaus' in the picture fixedude posted can be hard to find and pricey. I got mine off ebay for ~ $50 which was a bit of a scoop. This article talks a bit about grinders. http://www.coffeecrew.com/content/view/388/27/

If you're dodgy about spending $ now, get a blade grinder just to try it out and then relegate it to grinding herbs if you decide fresh ground is the way you want to go.

Try different roasts at your local shop to see what you like best. I like Ideals Prince of Darkness. Their Round the World is a pretty good medium body blend. I don't care for their espresso blend much at all.

I have a zassenhaus pepper mill and it kicks ass. A coffee grinder would be nice too. I'm not totally sold on the electric one I have.

2nd the prince of darkness blend from i deal. i think my favourite of their blends is the red sea. it's comes out nice in a stove top mocha pot.

^^ That's what I was waiting to hear! I love using my Bialetti with Turkish coffee, but that stuff is hard to come by outside of specialty shops (think Arz on Lawrence). I'll make a point to go by Ideal this Friday. Getting more than a little put off by the Nescafe/Folgers/PC sawdust in a tin.

Ideal will grind it for you as well, and the P of D is excellent. Ideal is on Queen as well in the east end. Yummy.