I went ahead and picked up a refurb/return Silvia from 1st-Line Equipment. I've always been a big fan of refurbishedd items - all of the quality, most of the warranty and a lot of savings (usually what ever could go wrong, has gone wrong and it's been fixed)! It'll pair nicely with the refurbished Rocky I bought last week. All together I'll have saved over $200 by going the refurb route... potentially more if there's a price increase.

I was very happy with my buying experience with 1st-Line so far. Jim (the owner) responded to all my pres-sale questions rather quickly, their prices are GREAT and their rewards & customer loyalty programs are pretty nice too. I've actually earned enough reward points to buy some nice accessories from them in the future. They also have a sort-of teired price system, for example - the Rancilio water softner is less expensive if you bought your machine from them then if you bouight it elsewhere - a great way to reward customer loyalty. They also stock some hard-to-get accessories and require you to have purchased your machine from them in order to qualify to buy them. I'm sure they'll make exceptions on a case-by-case basis if you sound desperate/pitiful enough!

I'll probably go ahead and get a PID with the money I saved buying refurb, and use my Whole Latte Love gift certificate to buy some accessories when I get back stateside.

On a related note, I was talking with some of my coworkers today regarding the struggling dollar. One of the guys was planning on buying some Glock pistols early in the new year, now - he's considering getting them before the new year since they may go up first qaurter 2008 (he already knows exactly what he wants, so the "shopping" part's done).

It'll be interesting to see how many things go up after the first of the year. I'm particularly curious about the auto industry. Could be a "positive feedback loop" kind of thing... Price of imported cars (and everything else) go up due to struggling dollar, consumers buy more American made cars (and other stuff) becuase it's all they can afford, increased consumption of domestic products increases US economy, value of dollar goes up and we're back to where we started from until some other factor starts devaluaing the dollar again. Well, at least that's what my faith in the US economy has me hoping for (and apparently Warren Buffet's since Berkshire Hathaway just put some serious capital into the US industrial sector this week). Good thing my portfolio (which includes BRK.B) is diversified just in case!

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I've been debating on which espresso machine to get for several weeks and thought I had decided on a super automatic model. However, the more I've read the more I started to lean towards a semi automatic model.

 I'm a very hands-on kind of person and like to be in control of a process. At first, I was leaning towards the super auto because I thought it would increase the likelihood of me using it on a daily basis, however, the longevity of the super automatic machines and lack of control over the actual process of pulling shots started to scare me away. As I read more about the various prosumer offerings for semi auto machines, particularly their durability, I started to change my mind.

I've since become obsessed with obtaining a Rancilio Silvia machine. It's one of the most loved machines in my price range and is built like a tank. It sounds to be a bit tempermental, but I think - in the end - I will get more enjoyment out of using it as I perfect my shot pulling technique. With the Silvia, my experience should extend beyond just enjoying a good espresso (which some say a super suto cannot produce anyway) to enjoying the enitre process from coffee selection, grinding, tamping, through pulling the shot and - for milk drinks - creating micro foam. I might even be able to make some non-coffee-based drinks for my lovely wife (a nice hot cocoa "steamer,"for example).

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I've been fine-tuning my "Espresso Wish List" for several weeks now, and think I've finally got it narrowed down to what I want and even have it prioritized. I'm focusing everything around a Rancilio Silvia Espresso Maker and hoping to rely on my existing Braun KM30 grinder for the time being, despite advice to the contrary. I've read several posts over at CoffeeGeek where people have gotten decent results using the KM30 by removing the plastic stopper which restricts the minimum grind level. I also have some ideas on how to convert the grinder into a doserless version with minimal modification... If I ever get around to the conversion, I'll have to post a tutorial on how it was done. Any way, here's the list for the moment:

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