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J-Mart

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by J-Mart

  1. Reading other comments above about the auto milk frothers being unreliable, FWIW, mine on the PicoBaristo has performed very well in the time I've had it. No problems with it so far.
  2. My brother and his wife have a Saeco, and they really enjoy it, so I shopped around for a similar machine for myself. I finally bought the Saeco PicoBaristo this summer directly from Philips. It's a fun machine to have in the house. And since I work from home now thanks to the pandemic, it's nice to be able to have great coffee or the occasional milk drink without having to go out. One thing the PicoBaristo doesn't have is a regular coffee button. I emailed the folks at Seattle Coffee Gear before I bought the machine, and asked how I make a regular cup of coffee even though there's no regular coffee button. They responded you use the Caffe Crema function, which turns out a long espresso shot with a little extra water and a natural foam (crema) on top. It makes for a strong but not overwhelming or overly bitter cup of coffee. I really enjoy it. I had a little trouble inserting the hot water spout when I first got the machine. The spout wouldn't seat properly in its port. I contacted Philips, and they had their customer service folks respond right away with a call. While on the phone, they had me send video of me trying to seat the spout in its port so they could see exactly what the problem was. I had a new spout a couple days later. Good service! But you should get that when you spend as much as you have to to get a machine like this. One thing to be mindful of is the replacement of the AquaClean filter. You must replace the filter before the life of the filter runs to 0% life. I made that mistake and had to descale the machine before it allowed me to replace the filter. So, I bought a bottle of descaling solution ($20 maybe, on Amazon), ran the descaling function, and was then able to replace the filter. Check the price of the AquaClean filters, and just know that will be an ongoing expense. I bought a pack of 4 filters, and they run about $20/each (buy more to save a few bucks, of course). I think my first filter lasted about 3 months. Other maintenance includes dumping spent grounds and accumulated water from under the machine every few days. Not a big deal at all. Also, the brew group needs to be cleaned weekly, but that's just a rinse under the tap plus an air dry. Another thing to know is that you can't use oily coffee beans. Apparently the oils can really gunk up the grinder. Good medium roast beans are what you want. I noticed the Seattle Coffee Gear folks label some of their beans as non-oily and appropriate for superautomatics. I think they even had a sale this fall on their non-oily beans. I would certainly buy the PicoBaristo again. I would also consider the Philips 3200 with LatteGo. It appears to be close to the same machine, but a few hundred less. I believe it has a regular coffee button, but it doesn't have a Flat White function, which I thought would be cool to have (I've barely used that function, ha!). Definitely consider a machine with the automatic milk frother (like LatteGo on the Philips branded machines) instead of the steam wand that you manually dip into the container of cold milk to get your hot milk and froth. That function on the PicoBaristo is really convenient and seems much less messy than having to screw with the wand. If you want to spend an extra $1000 or so, the Saeco Xelsis and GranBaristo Avanti look pretty, pretty nice.
  3. Was thinking the same. I think they've shown Herman a time or two. Maybe the same from KSU's sideline.
  4. Teenage Super Spreader- Band Name of the Year, IMHO.
  5. According to the Just One More Watch video recently posted on YouTube, these are on sale at Ali Express right now for their 11/11 sale.
  6. Another throw to Brewer where he's not going to beat his guy.
  7. I don't understand the shushing move when you're losing. Or any other time for that matter. But especially then. I don't understand the flexing garbage either. Maybe that's why I'm not a kick returner or DB on a crappy division I squad.
  8. Ramonce Taylor. Maybe I'm partial because I'm from Belton, but the couple times I saw him play in high school, I remember thinking I had never seen a high school kid move with the fluidity that he did. He was fun to watch. Glad he ended up at Texas, but I think he could have done a lot more here, maybe in the NFL, if he had his head on straight back then.
  9. J-Mart

    OU at ISU

    As long as they don't interrupt 90-Day Fiance, I'm OK with it.
  10. I've had similar thoughts as the OP re: making cocktails during the pandemic. My experiments with different cocktails, ingredients, methods, and gadgets have become a regular Friday event. To that end, I just ordered the Wintersmiths clear ice ball and ice cube contraption; should arrive in a few days. I watched a ton of clear ice videos before ordering it. I'll report back on its performance after giving it a go. https://www.wintersmiths.com/
  11. I didn't watch the game (can't bring myself to watch anything with Baylor). Instead, I looked for new bourbon cocktails to try. Discovered the Man-O'-War. Really delicious. Recommend with a Luxardo cherry.
  12. Are plastic straws not recyclable? I would guess they are, just like plastic lids and cups.
  13. I’m a trust and estates attorney. Yes, more information is needed, as already stated above. My $0.02 is that the trustee needs to tread very carefully here. There may be a duty owed to meth child even though meth child is just a remainder bene. Meth child could make things difficult for the trustee here if meth child’s expectancy of a distribution when primary bene dies is jeopardized. That said, a couple of things to explore: 1. Does the trust give the current bene (the one on hospice) a power of appointment? If so, is bene competent to exercise it? 2. Is the trust wording such that the trust can be “decanted” to a trust with more favorable terms? See Texas Property Code 112.071 et seq.
  14. Yes!!! Looking forward to that one. Also have tickets for Erasure at Moody. For anyone interested, I saw an announcement yesterday for three Jason Isbell shows last weekend of August at Bass. Tickets on sale this Friday, April 20.
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