Despite the happy face I put on to my friends and family, like the archetypical sad clown, I have been masking my true feelings. The truth is that I have been suffering in silence for the past few months since my Reneka Techno espresso machine decided to die in an impressive display of noise and steam.

A glimmer of hope appeared last week, when a box of replacement parts arrived from France, and I began to rebuild the machine, hoping it would one day return to the greatness I knew it was capable. That day is today. I had my first home-made cappuccino in months today, and the Techno is back in operation. Armed with some freshly roasted beans, I look forward to a new golden age in the months ahead.

Rob Ditzion’s late night birthday party yesterday was a mix of different people brought together with two common goals: to celebrate Rob’s birthday and to destroy the competition in an intense game of Cranium.

Be sure to check out the pictures of the event.

I’m continuing to work on getting my Reneka Techno espresso machine back online. This French contraption first came into my world in December, 2002. Since then, it’s been a reliable producer of top-quality espresso drinks, at least when I feed it with my freshly-roasted beans.

My trusted friend has suffered his share of health complications over his short life. The boiler temperature probe has failed twice, once recently. In the past month, the pump started failing as well. No matter, a quick email to Just Espresso lead to the arrival of a new pump and probe. Now the only thing standing in my way of espresso nirvana are two small adapter pieces that I need to move from the old pump (pictured left) to the new pump (on the right). Despite my best efforts, they are impossible to remove. An email is in to Just Espresso. Hopefully, they can come up with a solution soon??????