nonstick weblog

Here is another picture of our new dog. We decided on Truman. We would have gone with Admiral Snugglesworth, but my kid couldn’t pronounce it.

I finally have time to do a review on my new espresso machine. 2 thumbs up!

I got my machine about 3 weeks ago and have been putting it through its paces. I average about 2 lattes a day now. I am trying to cut my afternoon one as I do not want to be dependent on caffiene to be functional.

I do not have an espresso cup, so I am using one of the many shot glasses we have but have not used since we were urban and childless.

The Solis Crema SL90 is so easy to use, my husband jokes that I can be the neighborhood barista. I pop in a pod, heat up the machine, heat up the steamer, froth my milk (which I am pretty good at now), make my espresso, dump both into a big cup and BAM I have a latte that blows 4 buck Bucks out of the water.

Now as for the coffee pods. My favorite is Lucaffe and Illy. Now, I don’t know if I was predisposed to Illy because I already knew them, but regardless, I enjoy them. I had intended to take copius notes, but I don’t know enough to discern why I like what I do, or don’t. So I gave up. I just toss the wrappers of the ones I don’t like. Besides, when you dump a bunch of milk in with the espresso, they all taste the same.

I just had to fire my cleaning lady. Or she fired me, I can’t tell. She charges me $80 per visit every two weeks. Last week, she wanted to bump it to $100. What! A 25% increase? Well, I thought about it and it doesn’t work for me.

I talked to her husband today to understand the situation and figure if there was a way to work it out. He kept telling me about the cost of materials and gas and stuff. But a 25% increase is too high. So I said that we should just agree to separate.

He kept telling me to do what was best for me. That he needed to do what was best for him and his family. He kept apologizing that things had to be this way.

All I wanted was to confirm that it was over. That the last time she came to clean was the last time.

Egad! It was like breaking up with someone.

I just got an Alumni membership to Berkeley. Class of ’98. Within days, I received a request from Berkeley Engineering for a donation. Up until then, the last known address was my parents’. Seems their systems are all in sync.

Ever wonder how folks color code cells in a spreadsheet. For instance, you have a list of fruit. You want to color the cells that say “APPLE” with red, “ORANGE” with orange, etc. Well she just taught me how in StarOffice:

1) Select Format > Styles and Formatting
2) Right Click on Styles and Formatting box
3) Select “New”
4) Name your style (ie Apple), select your format (ie Red background), Click “Save”
5) Select the cells you want to apply this formatting to
6) Select Format > Conditional Formatting
7) Select/Enter criteria (ie Cell Value = “APPLE” and “Apple” style)
Presto!

I am in the Bay Area this week and have discovered, or re-discovered two things:

1) I look forward to temporarily living a life without husband or child, but when I am living it, I miss them both.
2) I love the energy in Silicon Valley and miss the days when I used to live here, then I get stuck in traffic heading from MPK to SCA and I change my mind.

I just finished this new book, “Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die”. It’s the goal of all communicators to get the audience to absorb and subscribe to what they are selling.

I am not a communicator by profession, but I find that I spend a lot of my time trying to convince people to do something: use my program, accept an action. This book gave evidence that it’s not how great the idea is, it’s how you comunicate. There are oodles of great ideas out there that never took off until the someone figured out the right message.

They came up with this great acronym S.U.C.C.E.S. to help us remember the keys to great communication.
S – Simple – Get to the core of the idea. The one thing that is most important.
U – Unexpected – You capture people’s attention through surprise. You keep it by making the surprise relevant to the idea.
C – Concrete – It’s easier to remember concrete ideas than abstract ones.
C – Credible – Make your idea believable by referencing outside experts or providing enough details to support your idea.
E – Emotional – Focus on what matters to people. And it’s more than just food and lodging.
S – Stories – Use stories. That’s why Aesop’s Fables works and your mom telling you so, doesn’t.

I highly recommend this book. Although I outline the key elements here, the examples and stories in the book really give the concepts life. It’s like they employed their own concepts or something.

We bought a Boston Terrier puppy a couple of weeks ago. This is what he looked like on his bday.

This is what he looks like at 3 weeks.

We get to bring him home the weekend after July 4th.

Some name ideas we have is Frank and Truman. Not very imaginative, so I need your help. Any suggestions are appreciated.