Last night was a doozie. Good food, (feta/onion embedded hamburgers, roasted asparagus with lemon-garlic butter, oven fries and BOOZE!!!) and awesome friends, board games were played and plans for more of the same next week envisioned. Gabbie and Brian are coming with Lenore and I to Olympia for the Latte Art Throwdown, Gabbie is entering, Brian and Lenore are the cheering section. It took me a few hours this morning to recover from our party, but all has returned to normal (except the dishes). Since I have decided to drive to Olympia, I have been working hard at my pouring skills, and have found that I tend to err on the side of over stretching for fear that I won't get enough texture in the pitcher and end up with really thin milk. Our three group Rio is in good repair, and the steam valves have a good range of pressure, but now that I realize one of my fatal flaws, I have been experimenting with a shorter stretch time and a lower amount of pressure coming through the wand for blending/rolling. This seems to work to my advantage for smaller cups (demi, 8oz) but I think I chicken out and over stretch when prepping for 12 or 16oz pours. Practice Practice Practice.
Gabbie and I were talking about coming in to the shop after hours and rocking out with some good tunes and blowing through about a pound or two of espresso and a few gallons of milk between now and the 28th, just the two of us, I'm all in.