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Austinvines

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Austinvines

  1. I had not viewed that video, Dutch. Thanks. I like that guy’s YT channel and he thinks the BDB or the Profitec are the best of not perfect choices. Since the Profitec is $500, I think I’ll put that toward the grinder. (Goes to check out that YT’s “Best grinder under $500 pounds” vid.)
  2. I believe I am going to upgrade my into level Breville Duo-Temp to the Dual Boiler. While I am not a modder at this point, being able to eventually "upgrade" the machine to do profiled shots sounds cool for a machine at its price point. I like it because it will turn on by a timer and be up to temp when I get up, and it has a hot water function for my wife's teas that she likes which will get rid of the kettle that is on the counter. It is around $1,500 so does anyone have a machine in that range that they like a lot? With a new machine should come a new grinder to replace the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. I typically will only grind the dose I am making that shot instead of keeping beans in the hopper so a single dose machine is fine. The most important aspect is that it needs to be quiet. I have to grind in the garage right now because the Smart Grinder Pro is so damn loud that it will wake everyone up if done in the kitchen.
  3. Demoing a large Ripley v4 this weekend (again). I’m right on the edge of M/L and think I’m going to go medium. Home trails are mostly flat with some twist and I like the play I can get in the medium. The demo is sick, though. Full XTR with carbon wheels and i9 hubs. My 120 hardtail had sram x7 and high were fine, but when I wore them and my cassette out, I went to 1x11 XT and new hubs. The x7’s were slotted similar to the GX and I have not had any issues with the Shimano. Availability is what is going to drive my component selection since Shimano is so far back ordered. If I end up with an NX/GX build, I’ll ride it until it has to be replaced and consider the Shimano swap at that time.
  4. Hook, Is Lisabella’s worth it for dinner? Two couples are headed down the weekend of the Arkansas game and the guys want to fish. Your bay guy is booked, any recs for snapper?
  5. Thanks! My dad got me a Hamilton leather strap for HS graduation and I love it but it’s about the size of a Fitbit. Actually smaller.
  6. Gotdamnit. I’m looking for a $500 or less watch for the boy who likes watches but knows nothing and only has a cheap Bulova. New or easily obtainable used since his bday is early August.
  7. My twins turn 20 in a few weeks and one of them wears a Bulova we got him for Xmas a few years back. Is there a new or easily obtainable used watch in the Thanks!
  8. I try and mix it up but am usually spinning tempo. With the wet, I had to ride my hardtail on the street for several rides and would make a concerted effort to remember and shift up until I could really feel it in my quads. I may be off the bike for a few days to many weeks. Ran into a buddy on the trail at the start of my ride today who had just gotten a new Santa Cruz Bronson. It’s a beefy bike with a mullet 27.5 on the rear and a 29 up front. He was gassed and headed home so he let me take it for a short spin. I thought it was ok but not what I am looking for in a full squish bike. It has gigantic bars. So big that on a rocky but usually easy downhill rock garden, I clipped a tree that wasn’t ever a thought on my rides on this trail I’ve been on 100+ times. As I am heading OTB I have the distinct thought “here comes another broken bone.” I was able to press myself in a weird reverse push-up and keep my head from hitting the rocks. Hands are scraped and my left forearm is currently oozing through the bandaids my wife put on, but the real kick in the ass is my right though. As I tumbled over, the bike came with me and I was caught between some jagged rocks and the frame. I’ve got a deep thigh bruise that I’ve wrapped and am icing about every hour. I can walk but am stove up real good. My buddy was surprisingly unbothered by my wrecking his bike before he could. Thankfully the carbon didn’t get scratched up and I since the WTB seat failed under warranty, he will get that replaced for free. Hopefully this bruise won’t linger and I’ll be moving ok in a week or so. Being 51 has kinda sucked. I gained 7 pounds on vacation and haven’t dropped them from just returning to my usual diet and now I’m injured with something that could take months to fully heal.
  9. Pogacar is wicked. Yellow, White, and Polkadot jerseys. Wow.
  10. My wife’s cousin is a camera operator and usually shoots B roll and the backstories for US athletes in the Olympic village and on location for the past several Olympics. NBC sent him a spit test kit and he ended up positive in the two tests he took. He freaked out and went to his doctor’s office that has a test for 11 different things. Turns out he was positive for the common cold but negative for Covid. Took a third spit test the next day and was negative and thought he was in the clear. Unfortunately, he let someone at NBC sports know of the first false positives right as it was happening and now can’t go because you have to answer “have you tested positive for Covid in the past 14 days” and even though they were false positives, NBC doesn’t want the potential incident it could cause. Sucks for him but with not being allowed out of the dorms except to go to events, it was probably going to be more of a pain anyway.
  11. Not a dive but a cool experience for those that love the ocean. The whale shark tour from IM was a little terrifying since the “pod” was located between two isolated thunderstorms with cloud to sea lightning. I’d see the flash and immediately hear the thunder, with our captain yelling “go, go, go!” It was raining hard enough for it to enter my snorkel and so dark I couldn’t really make out the giants ten feet down. The lightning also made me think it would’ve been a better idea to have my wife and me in different groups in case we both were electrocuted. Spent about 5 minutes with them, then waited for the other tourons to shuffle through. Next time we were up, my wife declined and I went with a young British lass who was 21 and solo traveling. (No pics as the phones were in the dry bag). These are from her GoPro.
  12. I was fat in HS, skinny for a few years in college (185) until craft/home brews in college porked me up, and went nuts in law school (250). Got married at 207 (5’10”) and eventually got up to 225. Tried everything but keto finally got me down to 200 and then IF got me down to 185. My “thermostat” finally hit at 185 and I am now a medium shirt. That’s freaking awesome. Being able to button up a medium shirt and not having it gap is great. I may have cancer but being thin-ish is quite nice. My wife, of course, would like me at 175 and I cannot believe she stuck with me at 200+ (as shown on my FB memories) so I’m gonna try.
  13. Happy for Cav. Yay olds! Hard to believe he wasn’t the man for his team a week before the Tour started. I love watching all these stage winners cross the line as dead bodies and the emotions that come through. It’s similar to watching gold medal winners figure out that they were the best that day after years of effort. Watching Cav make the line before the time limit two stages ago after all the fury is over is something most races don’t have. My bourbon group has a Tour de Fat where we ride from the mopac bridge to various Austin bbq joints and I’ll be sprinting to Micklethwaite in honor of Mark soon.
  14. Is the RB Ring that much of a home field advantage or do these races (and the good results in earlier ones) signify the end of Merc dominance? My wife won’t really watch since she thinks Hamilton is the Alabama of F1 racing and loves it when he loses but wants him to be a back marker as opposed to just not winning. Sad for Williams not finishing in the points but I do like Alonzo.
  15. Back this afternoon from five nights at Zoetry. That place is super chill, super nice, and very spendy. Did a whale shark snorkel one morning and there was a decent chance my wife and I could’ve died since they had us jumping in the ocean between two thunderstorms with cloud to sea lightning. Our skipper was a pro and our guide was great. We had a Mexican family from CDMX on our tour who were house sitting at the wife’s brother’s house near Playa Norte. They had two kids with them under the age of eight who were champs and the husband and I talked about the F1 race that was going on during the tour. We had great restaurants at the hotel so didn’t get out too much. Lobster tacos at the Soggy Peso were great (and the margs). Breakfast relleno at Mango Cafe was excellent as were the grouper tacos at Green Verde for lunch. The super Marg at Bella Vista was the bomb and the Tortuga Sanctuary was better than I thought it would be. Loved the trip and we will probably go back for our 25th next year. I can’t say for certain but we tried Basto’s for lunch and there was plywood covering the door. [emoji15]
  16. A buddy is coming back from a trip to the West Coast and scored these. I’m looking forward to his return.
  17. Chez Nous will not reopen. We had a family dinner last night and it came up. We were hopeful but also concerned that they hadn’t reopened as of now. My wife got an email from them this morning saying they won’t reopen. They opened in 82 and my folks started taking us there in 84. It was the perfect date/anniversary spot and my wife and I were there for at least 18 of 24 of ours. So sad.
  18. Twin Numero Uno CAP’d into UT via CAP through UTSA. Really odd year with only one lab in person. 3.8 gpa and junior hours but going to take his full three years at UT. Lots of study abroad, I hope.
  19. I’m looking for an suv/wagon that has/will accept a 2” hitch rack. Only other requirements is ventilated seats and a decent adaptive cruise control with lane keeping assist being a super plus. Go!
  20. Central Texas snake id on FB is great. Cottonmouths are the ones that are kinda difficult since they go through a lot of different patterns. The rest (rattle, copperhead, and coral) are fairly obvious. Leave them all alone or spray water on them to get them gone but you don’t need to resort to the shovel first thing.
  21. I spaced renewing my passport and had to go the expedited route. State Dept says 4-6 weeks and we fly out on the last day of the 6th week. Our travelling companions were even later and are going to have to call their congressman once the their passports are delivered to the facility in Philly. Even if we get the passports, I see that Cancun could get moved to Red on their Covid protocol which would also suck. We are staying at an all inclusive Assuming we get to go, what's the peso vs. credit card situation like? We hope to rent a cart at least once and then eat/drink out all that day and maybe another. I can get pesos here but was trying to figure a budget and didn't want to overshoot.
  22. I know I could pull it out and use dek-o-seal but I feel confident I’d Jack it up.
  23. I need my expansion joint redone in Austin. Anyone have a rec? My builder from 10 years ago has been slow to respond.
  24. The love we share with our pets are deep. Godspeed to your two.
  25. Borates may be good in some circumstances but getting to know your pool’s chemistry and being adapt at controlling it is paramount before you start throwing in yet another item to test. The forums at tfp are the best resource for any pool owner (and a really good test kit).
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