I’ve never desired to put a lot of tracking code on my websites, but I had left Google Analytics. I’ve decided to remove that too. In fact, I’ve removed all third party resources. You can check for yourself by using Ghostery and going to my sites.

While I found the information on what you all read and look at interesting, there are three primary reasons I’ve done this.

Analytics as Addiction

I believe there is a clear trend to use analytics as an addicting feature. How many views, likes or comments something receives is a psychologically affirming tool that services use to addict us to them. Is there any social media platform that doesn’t use these feedback loops to encourage you to spend even more time using them?

If your goal is to addict a user then, by all means, use every means possible to create feedback loops. If your goal is to drive attention and engagement on content, then show writers analytics so they can optimize that. I don’t have these goals for my sites, so I don’t need it. I’m needlessly toying with an addictive substance that I don’t need.

Residential Zone

I’m a firm believer that we need a concept of zoning on the web. When I’m in someone’s house, I have a different expectation of privacy than when I’m in a shopping mall. When I’m in a park, I have different expectations of safety and freedom than when I’m in an industrial facility. We should be able to cue our expectations around privacy and freedoms off of our surroundings. On the web this is confusing. Facebook is a shopping mall, but it pretends not to be.

Visiting my websites should be closer to visiting me, personally. If you are having dinner at my house and comment on my espresso machine, I don’t send a note to a tracking service to let them know you might be interested in buying a coffee machine. I don’t think that should happen on my website either.

Don’t be a Hypocrite

I run 1Blocker and Ghostery in my browsers to protect my privacy. In those tools, I block hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of 3rd party services and scripts. I think you should do the same. It is hypocritical for me to embed a tracking service on my sites, that I block on other people websites, and encourage people to block themselves.

A while back I tried a way of sharing links to things that I found interesting every week. I did it by making a link blog post and then sharing links to that blog post. I got more positive feedback on those posts than I expected. People really liked them and found value in what I was highlighting.

But I didn’t like the link posts cluttering up my blog. They felt different and I eventually decided to stop doing the posts mostly because I was frustrated with how my website was coming along.

Email Newsletters

I enjoy a number of weekly newsletters. I subscribe to MacStories for the members only Club MacStories newsletter. Patrick Rhone’s One More Thing is a very well written personal newsletter and a treat whenever it comes. Sitting down with an espresso and my iPad to casually read through weekly newsletters is a treat on the weekend.

Email newsletters are ‘old school’. There is something about the medium that feels more personal and more conversational than others. I wanted to try this out, and realized that those old link posts were the right foundation to build upon.

Next I wanted to see how hard this would be. I quickly looked into TinyLetter and realized it would be pretty easy. I like that TinyLetter exists as a way for personal email newsletters. It’s very easy to use.

Weekly Thing

With the basis of my links I decided to put together a newsletter. I went with the somewhat goofy name of the Weekly Thing playing off my last name. Total aside, but I used to own the domain thing.org in the mid 90’s. I was at the U of MN at the time and I got an email from The Thing, a museum in Germany, asking if they could have the domain. I transferred it to them, seemed the right thing to do. My future as a domain squatter was determined at that time.

I’ve been quietly publishing the Weekly Thing for a few weeks now to an invited group of friends. I’ve been testing out my automation and the structure. I’m very pleased with how it’s working and this week put the subscribe page live and started sharing it. My first goal is to get to 100 subscribers and continue to flesh out the content. I hope you all enjoy it!

Go to the Weekly Thing to subscribe!

For 18 weeks I wrote a weekly update on the progress of our remodel project. At the end the work was really small items, just working through a punch list and we were starting to live in the space. Now that everything is in place and we have been fully using the space for a few weeks I wanted to post a final photo walk through. The whole family is delighted with the addition and the new spaces have dramatically changed how we use our space. It’s been great.

As a comparison before looking at all these pictures, you may want to look at the pictures from the start of the project first. Or visit week 4 when it all looked like a disaster zone.

The back door of the house from the garage hasn’t changed much from the final photos at the end of the project. All the exterior work was done well before winter was (supposed to) arrive.

The new location for the grills is great. Before they were under the windows in the left hand side of the photo and were a little in the way as you approached the house. Also, having the lights there helps when you do some evening grilling in the winter.

Take note of the window on the left next to the smaller window. In the future that will likely get taken out and a door put in. The wood on top of the mudroom roof is cedar decking and it is ready for use as a walk-out deck. The railing is 36” and there is a set of outdoor speakers up there. I think a couple of chairs would work well out there and the access would be from the hallway upstairs so it could be used by the whole family.

One of the nicest changes is the spacious built-in as you enter the mudroom.

We have plenty of room for everyone’s coats, shoes and all the other items we want ready access to. I even have a compartment just for my camera so it can be safe but still easily accessed. At the end of the mudroom we put a desk and shelving and that is where I spent more focused computer time, and where I’m writing this blog post from.

I wasn’t sure about this space at first, but I’ve grown to really like it. The floor is heated in the mudroom which is nice, and I love having all the windows on the right.

The entry to the office is open, except for when Tyler closes the pocket doors.

Tammy found a small couch that works perfect in this room and is also a fold-out bed for a visitor, in a pinch.

We also have a very small corner desk in this room which is where Tammy tends to spend computer time, although she also uses the desk in the mudroom as well.

The couch was the last item to arrive but it’s already proven to be a hit. Mazie likes to read books there and it’s got a nice feel to just relax in a spot that is away from the main traffic areas of the house. The view through the doorway out to the deck is really nice and insures we are “connected” to the outdoor spaces.

In the summer I look forward to having all the windows open and being able to hear the kids as they run around and play as well as keeping a close eye on the Big Green Egg.

The stairs down to the family room work out really well and even though it is a high traffic area we rarely get jammed up there.

The cutouts into the kitchen really help it to feel bigger than it really is. It’s also nice that you can see from the kitchen all the way into the family room.

The family room was the main focus of the basement work and we love how it came out. This is as you come down the stairs.

The carpet is super soft and everything came together really nice. The couch is massive.

We figure as the kids get older you could easily have a ton of kids hanging out watching a movie, having a sleep over. We went for maximal comfort and I can say with significant experience now that this is a great spot to watch a movie. The built-in for the TV came out great as well.

The drawers on the bottom hold fun stuff for the kids and the cabinets on the left are plenty big for any gear. The three speakers above are very discrete, as are the rear channels on the window.

See the subwoofer? There is actually a pretty awesome sub hidden in the wall underneath the window there. It fires directly into the couch which insures maximum impact for loud explosions. :-)

This is where we spend most of our time in this room and we are very pleased with it all. The other side of the family room has a small table with chairs that works well for a laptop or a relatively small project.

Hidden behind that door is the electric room which houses the digital nerves for the house. One of the project objectives I wanted to achieve was to have an older house but have modern infrastructure. I now have wiring infrastructure that will serve the entire house for the foreseeable future.

That entire cabinet swings out for easy maintenance. Check out the detail on the wiring.

All coaxial and network jacks home run into that one panel. It is a delight to maintain.

Here is the view going back toward the stairs. You can see here the distinct level of the new basement floor. This side was lowered 7” in the remodel and we are really happy that we did it. Half of the family room has a lower ceiling to accommodate ventilation and lowering the floor made a huge difference. The landing to the utility and fitness rooms is the shortest height in the room at about 6’ 3”.

Turning left on the landing you head into the fitness room.

On this side we left the basement windows as they were with the glass block and the floor was not lowered. The exercise room ceiling was on the side of the basement that had no ventilation ducts so the room is still plenty tall, just short of 7’. We put a little extra lighting in this room because I like it to be bright when working out. The floor is cork and looks really nice.

Tammy did a great job (as always) getting the art right. We had a minor snafu with paint and ended up reverting back to a very neutral look which was my preference.

The view from the treadmill. The TV is mounted on the wall and there are in-wall speakers in here as well. An AppleTV provides the content and the amplifier is in the cabinet for the family room on the other side of the wall. It is all automatic, so you just turn on the TV and start playing something. That is important at 6:00 am when you are very much wishing you were in bed.

Our new fitness room has actually inspired me to get back on this spin bike and sweat a bit. It’s been really fun and there is a good vibe to the whole layout.

The basement extended out over our entryway upstairs so that little alcove was turned into very useful storage space.

It even has a fancy switch to turn the light on and off when you open the door.

I didn’t take any photos of the utility room because, well, it’s a utility room. Imagine a cramped room with a furnace, water heater, freezer, utility sink and more stuff than it should have in it. You get the idea.

Some things I didn’t cover above:

1. Since we were sealing off the basement we took the opportunity to put a doorbell in. The original, wired, doorbell had been removed some years ago and I really dislike the wireless ones. We now have a proper chime and lit doorbell buttons on the front and back doors.

2. We replaced the railings and surround on our front door and it looks really great. The old surround was rotting out, it was a bad choice of wood. It now matches the railing in the back.

We all really love the new space. I’m a little surprised how much the kids love going down there and tumbling around on the carpet. Since the rest of the house is hardwood it’s a nice option for them to goof around and tumble.

We also have nothing but good things to say about Quartersawn, the contractor we used. Jeff put together a great plan and design, exploring a lot of options with us. He worked with Tammy directly on the cabinetry and came up with things that we all loved. Mike was on the job nearly every day and stayed on top of everything with amazing detail. Weekly meetings kept things running smoothly and any changes in plans we knew about right away. I’ve heard horror stories of remodels but have none to share myself.

Looking back on the project we’ve wondered what we would change, if anything. There are a couple of things.

1. This would have been a great time for me to do some better lighting above my espresso area in the kitchen. The electrician could have easily put another can in and it would have been really helpful. Once I realized I wanted it, it was way too late.

2. Also in lighting, we don’t think we did enough lighting in the stairwell to the family room. We have really nice stair lighting that is discreet and looks very classy. But some nice lighting in the ceiling above would have made that space more interesting.

This got pretty long but I thought it would be fun to give a virtual tour of our new space. Tammy also wrote about the new space on Smaller Than a Redwood with her take on the new space.

All these photos were taken with my Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L ultra wide so there is a little skewing in the corners, even after Lightroom applying lens corrections. I wanted to capture as much of the space as I could.

The remodel is continuing along really well. This week all the framing was completed. There were some ceiling parts left from last week. We did the electrical walk through on Monday of this week and the electrician got right to it. The pre-wiring for more security system stuff was done. The ducts for the furnace also got put in. Another temporary wall was put up in the kitchen so that the door could be taken out and the wall cut out above the espresso bar. The window in the upstairs bathroom was removed. The deck was also put back together which helps the yard feel more normal.

The week ahead is mostly about wires and pipes. Electrical inspection will happen this week and hopefully the low voltage work will get completed as well. I’m dragging new Ethernet and coax to a bunch of spots. The outside will also be restored further with our fencing put back in place and possibly the beginning of the siding work.

We had a new cabinet installed recently and the countertop and plumbing were finished today. I now have a nice spot for my espresso machine an it’s even plumbed in so no more filling up the reservoir in the unit. Just need some pulls for the doors now.

Last night we had dinner at our friends the Rock’s. After dinner Mike fired up his Gaggia espresso machine and made some fabulous ristretto.

Inspired I decided to bring my grind down a few clicks and the Andreja produced some awesome shots. So rich and delicious.

I was at Ambrosia Espresso for a coffee yesterday. I got my typical macchiato. They got it right on the demitasse, but what is with the giant plate?

Tammy surprised me with a Chemex Coffeemaker for Valentine’s Day. I brewed a batch of coffee with it for the first time today and it was great. So smooth, nearly no acidity. This is a great option for occasions where I want a cup of coffee instead of an espresso.

Mazie and I are reading and relaxing at Cafe Mozart this morning. Really great espresso.

I’ve been doing plenty of complaining lately about coffee shops that are so inept that they cannot serve a passable shot of espresso. Note, I’m not complaining about the use of an automated espresso machine. I use an automated machine at home. I’m not that high maintenance. No, I’m vocal about putting 1 to 2 ounces of espresso in a 16 ounce paper cup. Or not even knowing what it is to just order an espresso. I recently suggested legislation to remedy this and Peter Vader commented about Kopplin’s Coffee and suggested I should try it.

With this sturdy recommendation I asked my neighbor and coffee connoisseur Mike if he wanted to join me and drive over there, about 30 minutes one way, to give this place a try. Obviously I’m not going to make a habit of driving 30 minutes to get a coffee, but if it really was special I thought it would be fun to try.

Kopplin’s is totally unassuming. It seemed like a simple, notably small, coffee shop with a few laptops open and a couple of people chatting at tables. The guy behind the counter was the owner, Andrew Kopplin, although I didn’t know that until I looked at the newspaper clipping on the wall with his picture in it. The first thing I noticed at Kopplin’s were the two Clover machines on the counter.

I knew a little about the Clover from a thread that had spread around the Internet a while back. Mainly, I knew they were $11,000 coffee machines. Not espresso machines, but single batch brewed coffee. Check out this video of the Clover in action to see what this is all about. There was a very big hubbub when Starbucks bought them in a desperate grasp for authenticity and coffee that tastes less horrible. To be clear, I’m no fan of brew, but I had to give this a try. We ordered a 16 ounce pot of the Guatemalan and gave it a try.

It was really good coffee. Extremely smooth. But, it was still brew. I enjoyed it, but the taste wasn’t what I like. For those that love brew, the Clover is probably a gift from the heavens. For me, the $11,000 is lost.

Onto the real reason for the trip, to give their espresso a go. In short, it’s about the best espresso that I’ve gotten in a coffee shop in town. It is incredibly deep with a very thick crema. The service is perfect, in an appropriately sized ceramic cup that has been preheated for a while on the top of the espresso machine. Kapplin’s seems to do a very fine grind, and the resulting espresso just drips into the glass.

We chatted with Kopplin himself for a little bit and he’s a really cool guy. Very nice, obviously knows his stuff. I give him huge respect for being in his mid-20’s and opening up his own place and making that all happen. And on top of making great coffee he is sourcing local ingredients, and even using milk from grass fed cows in his drinks! I don’t think you can go wrong with a trip to Kopplin’s.

Kopplin’s was named Best Barista by City Pages, listed as Ultimate Brew in Twin Cities Business and has great reviews on Yelp.

And last but not least, I really dig the logo.

I suggest that congress work on enacting the following legislation:

Whereas many residents of the United States seek the pleasure of a coffee-based beverage, including many variations thereof, and that these beverages should be preserved for future enjoyment;

Whereas it is understood that espresso is a drink, and is not simply an ingredient to be added with milk or chocolate;

Whereas the history of coffee, and the native basis of coffee shall be understood;

• Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the United States Government should pursue policies that

  • (1) mandate that all coffee shops shall have available the appropriate serving containers for a pure espresso beverage;

  • (2) espresso shall be served in a thick-walled, pre-heated porcelain cup not to exceed 2 ounces in capacity; and

  • (3) all coffee shops shall have monthly certification tests for all employees requiring the creation of a shot of espresso with robust crema that will last at least 60 seconds undisturbed.

Just had one of those coffee shop experiences that drive me crazy.

barista: Hello! What would you like today?

me: Double Espresso please.

batista: Ah, what exactly do you mean by a double espresso.

I mean really? What is hard about this?

And then, just to highlight how uncoffee they are, the smallest ceramic mug is a 12 oz. coffee cup. Oh the humanity of it all. :-)

I really like my coffee. The apartment we are staying at here in London doesn’t have a coffee pot. There is a french press, and I’m not opposed to pressed coffee. It’s some good stuff. But, we are out and about everyday and I’ve just decided to get my daily espresso somewhere instead.

This is the double at Harrod’s – great stuff.

I had a great coffee moment today that I just have to share. It’s worthy of sharing because there is information here that is new to me, and it highlights why small, local coffee shops are great.

I have two “coffee moments” each day. The first one is at home with my DeLonghi Espresso machine that I’m still loving. Two shots easily obtained with the press of a button. Just great. The second one is in the afternoon with a quick walk to One on One and get some afternoon espresso.

It’s summer now, or at least summer enough, and I’ve now switched to iced drinks in the afternoon. My typical drink is iced espresso. It used to be a triple shot over ice, but I’ve brought it down to a double shot over ice to reduce the shakes later in the evening (too much caffeine!).

I like my iced espresso, but it’s not very much liquid and just disappears too fast for me. So, I presented my problem to our favorite barista.

me: So, I want an iced drink – but there just isn’t much liquid in iced espresso. What do I do?
barista: Well, you could add water to the espresso.
me: That sounds horrible.
barista: Or how about iced coffee?
me: Brew sucks.
barista: Hmm… how about a cold press?
me: Huh? What in the world is a cold press?
barista: It’s great. We take a pound of beans and cold brew it with 80 ounces of water for 12 hours…

The conversation about cold press continued for quite a while. I got one, and it was perfect! The cold press is never heated, and slow brewed for 12 hours and then pressed through a cloth filter. It’s incredibly smooth and wonderful. I’ve got a new favorite drink!

Your not going to find something like this at most coffee shops. And your also not going to find such a helpful person with their headset on punching your order through their assembly line. What a great discovery. Try a cold press the next time you can. If you like serious coffee on the colder side, you’ll love it.

Tonight, for only the second time in the 10 years or so that I’ve traveled for business, I got stranded. I was to depart New York tonight on a 6:00pm flight out of LaGuardia. I heard that storms were coming, and I was worried because my experience is that LaGuardia is a horrible airport when dealing with bad weather. Newark seems to do the best for the NY region with tough weather.

My 6:00pm flight was delayed to 6:40pm before I even left for the aiport. On the way to the airport I got three additional delays on my Blackberry pushing it back 20 minutes each. By the time I arrived at the airport I was looking at an 7:50pm departure and other flights were being canceled. They then “delayed” my flight until 7:00am the next morning, which I found humorous since 13 hours, overnight, hardly seems like a delay. The cherry on top was when they then canceled my 7:00am “delayed” flight and rebooked everyone on regularly scheduled flights the next day.

This was bad enough, but on top of it there are no hotel rooms in the entire city of New York. None. Seriously, I’m not kidding. No rooms. The closest I came was a $900 room at the Four Seasons that ended up getting booked while I was on the phone with the guy debating if $900 was at all sensible for a room to sleep one night in, getting up at 4:00am for an early flight out. I decided no, and the room got taken anyway.

I planned to have a fun time with it, and head into town with no hotel room. Ya know, make lemonade and all. I know there is a Starbucks in Times Square open all night, and I figured I’d just connect there and stay up all night drinking espresso. I was seriously worried about the 2:00am to 5:00am period though. I knew I would get pretty tired.

Then I got a voicemail from friends in New York. He’s on Twitter, and saw my flailing desperation. I had considered calling them but I was still clinging to the romance of braving New York all night. I quickly opted to take the couch in their apartment and that’s where I write this. I’m getting ready to wind down and sleep a couple hours before heading out.

It’s amazing how much ruckus a blustery storm can bring.

See also Stranded in New York Tweets.

The title of this post is a reference to what one of my friends calls my regular coffee order. Iced Triple Espresso. It doesn’t get me hot in the summer, in fact it’s refreshing. It has enough caffeine in it to shock a horse. In fact, since the espresso is cold you can take a drink and hold it in your mouth, swishing it around. This will give you a caffeine buzz extra fast as it absorbs through the tongue (for best results, hold underneath your tongue as well). Not that espresso is all about caffeine. It does taste good after all. And I recently decided that I wanted to be able to have the espresso experience at home. So I ordered a DeLonghi Magnifica fully-automatic espresso machine.

Fully-automatic is essentially like having a coffee shop in your home. This thing requires nothing of you other than hitting a couple of buttons. Occassionally you need to dump the grinds out, add some more beans and top off the water reservoir. But typical usage just involves turning it on, and a couple minutes later hitting the single shot button.

So far I’m really happy with it. Everything works exactly as advertised. I relied heavily on the user reviews on Amazon and this machine got nothing but good comments. We’ll see how it stands the test of time.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying effortless cups of espresso with perfect crema every time.

On Friday we embarked on the Thingelstad Family Great East Coast Adventure 2006! What is this amazing event you ask? We are going to be away from home for 5 weeks. The first three will be in New Jersey while I work out of our office here, taking advantage of being in the same office as so many others. The last two weeks will be on vacation in North Carolina. Yeah!

Days 1 and 2 of the adventure were travel days. We left Minneapolis on Friday morning around 9:30a and drove, and drove, and drove. We took breaks for Mazie to get out and run around. We camped in a Starbucks in Rockford, Illinois waiting for a monsoon like rain to pass and providing an opportunity for Mazie to let out some energy, and me to get some back (triple espresso!!!). We also had a great Japanese dinner in Rockford. However, we didn’t take into account that as soon as Mazie saw the food on the grill getting cooked that she would want to eat. Squaking was moderately high. We spent the night just outside of Toledo, OH in a splendid Holiday Inn Express.

We arrived to our great little apartment here in Lawrenceville, NJ last night after another long day of driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania. At one point while driving through Ohio in the morning Tammy looked over at me and said the best line of the whole drive
_
_

I’m going to sleep. Try not to do anything stupid.

I appreciated her vote of confidence and continued to motor along while her and Mazie got some rest.

We spent Sunday here in NJ getting the apartment setup and preparing for the week. Stay tuned for more updates from the Great Adventure.