We got an espresso machine today. Last summer while on a trip to check out Den Haag, I had admired a lovely orange espresso machine in the window of a store. ‘les offered to get one, figuring that it was a ticket to daily cappuccinos in bed. Although the thought of getting an espresso machine was tempting, I thought it was rather impractical. Where would we even put such a thing? I’m hardly awake when I make coffee, how am I going to operate heavy machinery like that without a cup of coffee first?
Anyway, after a lot of back and forth we decided to just skip the espresso machine. I’ve been making stove top cappuccinos with a little stove top espresso maker and a milk frother.
Then the other day we were having a conversation wherein I decided that I’d rather have an espresso maker than a stand mixer, even though I bake a whole lot. I mean, I’d use the espresso maker daily and the stand-mixer merely biweekly, right? And I already get solid baking results just using a food processor, a hand mixer, and my own manly strength (tm John) so the stand mixer is just cheating anyway. The espresso maker serves the same extravagant counter top decorative function while also steaming me milk, which I’m not going to be able to do via manly strength alone.
So now we have a bright orange espresso maker. It’s an Ascaso Dream. This thing is very pretty if startling loud when you’re not expecting. Our first shot of espresso was nice, with a surprisingly cinnamon flavor which I’d never tasted before when using the stove top coffee maker. I’m still getting the hang of the milk steaming. I’m not actually sure that it’s the best was to froth soy milk, since soy milk tends towards the watery as it is. Clearly I have to make a few more cups of coffee to figure it out.
Back before Christmas, ‘les bought a live pine tree and put it in our living room. Before leaving for the US for Christmas break, she put the tree out on the roof in the back of are apartment. We debated what to do with it when we moved and couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer. I thought that we should just take it to a park some night and replant it. Guerilla Arbor Day!
All was well until that small hurricane hit northern Europe. Tiles were blowing off roofs, trees were crashing into motorists, boats were leaving their docks. It was a rough day and our tree kept falling over. Our landlord saw the tree outside and thought that we’d left a dead tree there or something. He wanted it gone. ‘les tried to explain that it was alive, but it didn’t really matter. The landlord wanted it gone. He thought the tree’s needles were blocking the drain, causing the roof to leak. The day after the storm the tree was taken away. I have no idea what happened to it.
I’m sort of happy that I don’t have to deal with it anymore, but I’m really annoyed that the tree was blamed for the drain being blocked. I went out onto the roof that day to clear out the drain and I realized that the needles clogging the drain didn’t match our tree at all. It’s raining again today and the drain is blocked. Again. With the same pine needles that were blocking it before. Our poor little tree was framed! Framed, I say!
I just hope it actually got replanted.
Well, thank linear time that’s over.
It took about an hour to get everyone checked in, fingerprinted(!), and directions read. Then it was on to three rapid fire 35 minute sections, a ten minute break with I used to drink a little water and scarf down some pastries, and then three more test sections. I was at the test center form a little before 2 until about 7 or 7:30.
The LSAT was less stressful once I sat down to take it than I thought it would be. I completed the three sections I generally do well on in about the expected amount of time. I finished the games section with over 5 minutes to spare, which was a little worrying since during every single practice test I took I would run out of time before completing the last set of questions. So I either did really, really well or I bombed it spectacularly. It’ll be a few weeks before I get my results back.
If I ended up doing well, I’ll make sure to have espresso and a chausson au pomme before any important event from now on.
It snowed again today and this time it stuck. We woke up this morning and noticed a very light snow fall. As the day inched towards afternoon, the snow flakes got larger and larger. Eventually we had a couple of inches of snow.
Most of it was gone by around 3pm, except in the park that I take Xena to for her afternoon walks. I was pleased to be able to take a few photos of the snow and Xena was pleased to get to run around so much in the snow.
When I was ready to leave the park this afternoon, I noticed some police officers walking through the gates as I put Xena’s leash back on. One of the officers stopped me to inform me that I wasn’t allowed to have my dog off leash in the park and that I could be fined. There’s a big sign saying that you dogs must be on leash and that you need to pick up after them at the park entrance. Most people ignore the first part of the sign while making sure to obey the second. But now I’ve been warned so I guess I’ll have to find another park to start taking her to. I really preferred this one, though. It’s close by, big, and enclosed. I don’t have to worry about her running into traffic or being hit by a bike. Oh well.
I haven’t been updating very much recently. I’m going to try to change that soon, but right now I’m a bit stressed out. I’ve been looking into applying to law schools next fall and I’m taking the LSAT in Paris on Saturday. I had originally planned on taking it in September, but I was really unprepared so I pushed it back until now. My GPA is not so hot so I really need to do well on this test if I’m to have much of a hope of getting into school. I’ve been studying somewhat regularly for the last few months and I’ve racked up hours of practice test time in the last couple of weeks.
The test itself will be pretty grueling. There are four graded sections, each 35 minutes long. Then there’s a bonus-for-the-test-makers section of another 35 minutes and then a 35 minute writing section that is ungraded but sent out to all the schools that receive a copy of my LSAT scores. That’s 3.5 hours of solid test taking. There’s a short break in there somewhere too, thank god. I’m going to need a blood sugar boost, I think.
I keep telling myself that I’m going to do fine. I’ve been scoring pretty much the same way on all the practice tests I’ve taken and the scores I’ve gotten have been decent-to-good. The writing section is very short and specific, so I know that I’m not going to get stuck trying to come up with something to say. None of this information is stopping me form feeling really nervous about it, though.
I leave for Paris friday morning and come back on Sunday afternoon.
Wish me luck.
The first proper snow of the winter has finally hit Den Haag. I took Xena out for a walk today while the rain started to transition into snow. When we left the house there was a cold rain coming down in largish drops. By the time we got back home there were proper snowflakes falling everywhere.
I’m sitting around watching the snow fall and thanking the fates that we have an apartment with proper central heating. Our bathroom is unheated and it’s freezing in there. I’m glad the rest of our place isn’t like that.
Hopefully the snow will stick enough to go play in it in a few hours.
