Travis Pettijohn: Blog

On Sunday morning, I ran the Shamrock Shuffle, an 8k (5 mile) race through the streets of Chicago. It was the first "competitive" run I've done since track in high school, and I only ran freshman and sophomore years. My finishing time was 47:28, which I'm happy with, as I was targeting ten-minute miles. The girl who won, Tera Moody, I ran with in high school. Small world. I kind of wish I had stuck around for the awards so I could have said hi.

After the race, I went home and showered. It was so nice out, I decided I had to get out and about. Made a few phone calls, ended up meeting a friend at Rock Bottom for some beers and a burger. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I ran into some guys I knew from college on the rooftop beer garden.

After eating, we took a walk North on Michigan Avenue, then ended up hanging out at Oak Street Beach to read and people watch. Then I decided to walk home, another 3 miles along the lake.

Came home, got a phone call from another friend in my neighborhood and hung out on his friend's deck while the sun set with a few beers.

Came back home, finished up the Vista installation, got a text from a buddy who wanted to meet for a beer. I looked at the clock, thought it would be better to go to bed, so I went and had a pint instead. We went to Galway Arms and I had a few Guinnesses.

Man, what a great Sunday. I probably ran and walked a total of ten miles. And I got a nice afternoon beer buzz. Beautiful. I made up for going to bed so early on Friday and Saturday preparing for waking up early for the race on Sunday. Everything's coming up Millhouse :)

I just did my first grocery order with Peapod, and let me tell you folks, it was amazing. I picked a two hour delivery window, and when the guy showed up, I buzzed him in and he rolled a dolly loaded with my groceries right to my door. My fridge and pantry are now stocked for the first time in months. The first order took a bit of work roaming through the various online "aisles," but next time I can pull up a list of what I've purchased in the past and just set quantities. How awesome is that? Delivery charges are reasonable (and justifiable if it saves me from eating out one or two meals). The produce is very good quality. I'm hooked!

I went to Ikea today and got a few things for the condo. A bookshelf, four stackable chairs (to save space), and a set of big wine glasses (great for reds that need to breathe). The bookshelf is key: it will let me unpack a few more boxes and finally get the last of my stuff put away and unpacked. At last. Pictures will come after that.

About a week ago, I picked up a Bodum Santos Electric Vacuum Coffee Maker. It rocks! This replaces my french press and a manual pourover process (boil water in a kettle and then pour it over the beans—I used a plastic filtercone and a Swissgold filter).

The problem with most automatic drip brewers is that the water doesn't get hot enough to fully extract the goodness from the beans. (Most serious coffee critics agree that ideal is between about 195 and 205 degrees F. Those that do it right approach the $200 price tag.

One problem with a french press is the disassembly and cleanup. Plus it takes too much interactive time. Start the boil—but don't go far! Start the brew—but it'll be done soon! The same is true for manual pourover: you have to sit there and pour the water over the beans. (Pourover was very easy to clean, however.)

An auto-drip is easy. Fill it up, turn it on, and walk away. I needed to balance convenience and quality, and this vacuum pot is it!

The vacuum pot is the best coffee maker I've used. The brew time (how long water is in contact with the beans) is perfect. The clean up isn't bad (though not as easy as throwing away a paper filter). And it's fully automatic. Fill it up, turn it on, and walk away. (Actually, this one has a timer feature, so it'll finish brewing right as I wake up. I know, you sacrifice a little with an 8-hour-old grind. But I'm trying to strike a balance here.)

The vacuum pot is based on cool science, too. Visit the product page, if you didn't before, and click on the "view product demo" link to see a video. The summary is that when water heats in the bottom chamber, increased pressure forces the slightly-less-than-boiling hot water up into the top brew chamber through the spout. When the bottom heat turns off, the pressure decreases and the coffee drains back down to the bottom pitcher through the nylon filter at the base of the brew chamber/spout. The result is an exceptional and clean cup!

The Santos Electric required an easy mod in order to get a proper brew time. But so far, I'm very happy with the product!

I got trapped in a parking garage last Sunday. It was crazy. As you pull in, you get a ticket, the gate opens, then a garage door opens, and then you park. No big deal. I did my shopping (at the Trader Joe's on Clybourne) and when I went back to the garage (validated ticket in hand), there was a line of cars by the garage door. A cop came and spoke with me and told me that the door was jammed about three feet open. He lamented that it was the only exit and quipped, "Can you imagine if this were an emergency?" He then told me that managers were called and someone should be here any minute.

After about five minutes (I ate a newly-purchased piece of fruit), I decided to go see for myself. I knew that the garage door at my parents' house had an emergency pull cord to release the door from the chain. There was no such cord on this door. Though there was a sticker indicating that there should be a pull cord. Shady. And trying to just lift the door nearly gave me a hernia.

Another guy started poking around and commented to me that if we removed two bolts, we could disconnect the door from bracket which attached it to the chain. Seemed like a plausible idea. I told him so, and he returned with some pliers. He found some cinder blocks to stand on so that he could work. When he got the first one unscrewed, I lifted the door to take tension off the bolt so it could be removed. We repeated it for the second bolt and we were free.

All in all, it was only about a half hour event. And really, it was kind of fun being part of the door dismantling. No manager ever showed up. I hope they got fined; that emergency pull cord release is there for a reason!

Check out this recent (2005-09-14) press release from Gillette: Gillette unveils 5-bladed razor.

Then read this article from The Onion, written in February, 2004: Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades. "Written by" the CEO of Gillette.

The similarities are uncanny. From The Onion article: "Put another aloe strip on that fucker, too. That's right. Five blades, two strips...." The new razor has a blade on the back for "trimming sideburns." The Onion says, "I don't care how. Make the blades so thin they're invisible. Put some on the handle. I don't care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!"

Props to erice for sharing this with me.

Today was my fourth Christmas gathering, and the first one at which I exchanged gifts. The previous ones had been with step-family or cousins with whom I no longer exchange gifts. Actually, that's not entirely true. My cousin David (the one in the Peace Corps in Tanzania) is back for a few weeks. He brought back some souvenirs, including "tire sandals," which are flip-flops made from used car tires. Today was for the real gifts. Highlights of my giving included the cute pink outfit for my two-week-old niece, some nice clothes for my sister and mom, a Smartwool top for a brother-in-law, and a camcorder for the new parents (a combined gift from everyone). Highlights of what I received included a guitar from a sister, a great cookbook (The New Best Recipe, by the editors of Cook's Illustrated; it's bigger than most phone books), and a set of nice kitchen knives (Forschner by Victorinox, the Swiss Army Knife company) recommended by Cook's Illustrated (surprise!). It was a great day, full of great gift exchanges. I hope everyone out there is having a nice time with the people in their life that they care about.

I went to Best Buy over lunch and purchased the Return of the King extended edition. I'm nearly sexually excited about the new 50 minutes of footage.

We spend our lives working so that we are able to acquire stuff so that we can eventually die and leave all of our stuff for our families to clean up.

I got an email from Best Buy today saying that my camera will ship today. It's coming second day, which means Saturday should be the Big Day. That's nice, since I'll be home to sign for the package. Wait, does UPS deliver second day on Saturdays? The tracking number isn't "live" yet, so I can't check online. Patience....