Fruddled Gruntbugglies

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  • Random Spaz thoughts

    Note- This is really rough. I will be revising it over time.

    Spaz and her sister came to us in March 2009. Cathy picked them up the weekend of March 28. At the time, I was away in Greensboro, NC, for our annual NCAA Tournament Trip, so I first met Spaz the day I got home, which was Sunday, March 29. The first time I ever saw her, she was hiding under our bed, a place to which she would retreat throughout her life whenever she perceived danger in the house (mostly in the form of rambunctious kids or dogs).

    Spaz got her name from her original owner. It was a perfect fit for her personality when she was younger: rambunctious and mischievous.

    • Getting between the sofa cover and the sofa (mostly as a younger cat)
    • Catnip on top of the cat tree
    • Standing on top of the tall cat tree and swatting at fake mice below
    • Going into the tub and chasing her tail

    Spaz was was Cathy’s cat through and through. I called her Cathy’s Shadow. She never outgrew the instinct to suckle/nurse, and Cathy (specifically, Cathy’s arm) was her chosen place for that. She tolerated me and played with me, and on very rare occasions, she would crawl up and sit on top of me when I was lying in the bed. She never stayed for very long, though.

    • Food and drink
      • Begging for milk while I ate cereal
      • In more recent years, our household has stop drinking milk, much to Spaz’s chagrin. So, she turned to licking from my ice cream bowls, but she turned her nose up at any flavor that wasn’t vanilla. Either way, though, the sight, smell or sound of ice cream being served was sure to draw Spaz to your side, whatever she happened to be doing at the time.
      • (Mostly later years) Drinking out of the tub, and later out of the sink, with faucet trickling
      • Drinking out of the vaporizer and humidifier basins
      • Suddenly more bold about going outside
        • Looking for her sister?
      • Pawing at water bowl and tracking litter around the house
    • General
      • Chasing me into the bedroom
        • In her prime years, she was pretty fast, and would often get there ahead of me
        • Oftentimes I would let her in and then close the door to take a shower, get dressed, etc. When she got bored of being in the bedroom (usually pretty quickly), she would paw at the door to try to open it and escape. Our bedroom door does not latch properly, so some times she could get it open, but other times, it was too tight for her. In those cases, she would sit and whine until I had mercy on her and let her out.
      • Getting into dresser drawers while we put clothes away, etc.
      • Following us into the bathroom and pushing the door open
      • Sleeping with Cathy and snuggling up between her legs
      • Stirring up trouble with her sister
        • Nighttime “zoomies” with hissing
      • Chasing mice, crickets, and generally anything that moved
        • You could always tell when there was a mouse around, because Spaz would stand guard near where she thought it was lurking
        • Looking disappointed after the mouse she was batting around died
        • Andrew- “is that a real live dead mouse”? — Cathy initially thought it was a toy dinosaur. On top of the car-shaped scatter rug in front of Andrew’s bedroom door
      • Batting/pawing at the computer screen during videos of mice and other critters
      • Knocking objects off tables, mantles, etc. to try to get attention, particularly early in the morning when hungry
        • Lots of broken things early on
      • Jumping up on the back of the rocking chair (corner of living room) and freaking out
      • Playing hide-and-seek behind the bar
      • Randomly pouncing on things while under the covers on the bed
        • In spite of ostensibly having fun pouncing, she didn’t really like being under the covers
      • Obsessed with going into the Sun Porch- waiting at the door, darting in at the first opportunity, and then a few minutes later, pawing at the window wanting to be let back in
      • Strange obsession with my old Lems Boulder Boots
      • Vocalizing while playing with fake cat tail
      • Putting her under an inverted clothes basket and trying to get her to swat at my fingers

  • Cadence Reset

    I’ve been dealing with sciatica for going on two weeks. It’s on my right side, and it started two Fridays ago. I am not sure what caused it. That day, I climbed in the morning, but didn’t do much else physically for the rest of the day. The next morning, I woke up with sciatica. Maybe it was something I did in my sleep? Who knows. It is the worst when I first get up in the morning. Lying down on my back and/or sitting in a sofa or armchair seems to bother it, as does bending down to my right with my knees straight. Cycling does not bother it at all, but it has played havoc with my running mechanics. The first few times I ran with it, I felt like I was favoring the right side and slapping my foot down. My average cadence fell by about 5 steps/minute, and my average pace has slowed by about a minute per mile. In general, it has made running seem laborious, like I have to expend more effort to get the same amount of output. This past Tuesday, after slogging through 3 miles, I decided to consciously try to shorten my stride length and increase my cadence. When I had my old Apple Watch SE a few years back, I used to always average 180 steps per minute or above. With my current watch, though, I have never once hit 180spm. Instead, I seem to average anywhere between 173-175spm. It didn’t seem like my mechanics had changed, so I wondered if maybe Apple had changed the algorithm it uses to measure cadence. That is possible, but I also think my overall cadence has dropped over time, so I thought I’d try to reset it. The second half of Tuesday’s run felt better, and I finished the run with an average of 175spm, which is 4 or 5 steps per minute more than what I’ve averaged since the sciatica hit. I ended up with a hotspot on my right heel, but I think that was more a result of my biomechanics being off due to the sciatica. In any case, as of today (Thursday) the hotspot is gone.

    Today, I set out trying to maintain a high cadence for my entire 7 mile run. It went pretty well, but I started to tire about 2/3 of the way through, and it was difficult to keep the step rate up for that portion of the run. I ended up with an overall average cadence of 178spm, which is not too shabby by recent standards. My overall pace was still off by about a minute per mile, but the run felt better, and if I can get my biomechanics back in order, my pace should follow. I still have yet to top 180spm for any run over 5K with the new watch. I’m not convinced that Apple’s algorithm hasn’t changed, but I think that’s going to be my goal for my next several runs. Hopefully, the sciatica will eventually go away as well, which will certainly help.

  • Zeke’s Charm City Blend

    Zeke’s Charm City Blend

    • Beans: Charm City Blend, 16oz
      • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
      • Origin: Various
      • Roast level: Medium/dark (6/8)
      • Roast date: 4/20/2026
      • Purchase date: around 4/28/2026 from Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
        Freeze date (partial bag): 4/30/2026; thaw date (batch 1): 5/27/2026
        First cup: 5/13/2026 (unfrozen); 5/27/2026 (frozen batch 1); Last cup:
      • Process: n/a (blend)
      • Tasting notes: none listed on bag
    • AeroPress with JX grinder:

    This is what I like to call Zeke’s “kitchen sink” coffee. Here is what the web site says about it:

    As a tribute to our beautifully diverse city, Charm City is a mix of various beans, each roasted for optimum flavor, and blended with an Italian roasted base and a variety of lightly roasted beans to create a very flavorful and surprisingly consistent coffee.

    So, essentially, it’s a bunch of random beans roasted and thrown together, and likely to vary a lot from batch to batch. I bought this with the intent of brewing all (or almost all) of it at the office, so I froze all but about 4 cups’ worth in two medium-size mason jars. At 2 cups per week, I expect this will last me into August.

    I last had Charm City Blend about two years ago, and for reference, I ended up at a coarse grind (JX 30), 90C water, and a very strong ratio of 1:12.5. I don’t remember much about how that bag tasted, so I can’t really compare the two. I can more easily compare this bag to a similar roast, Zeke’s BirdSong, which I just recently used up. I think the BirdSong is slightly better, but the two are very, very close in taste when brewed in the AeroPress with identical settings. We’ll see how it ages, but I think I’ll be happy with this as my office coffee for most of the summer.

  • Latest coffees from Gracefully

    Latest coffees from Gracefully

    I picked up two bags of new-to-me single origin coffees from Gracefully Coffee Roasters last week. Both were purchased at the roaster’s curbside café in Windsor Mill, MD, on 5/14/2026.

    Bag 1

    • Beans: Costa Rica Tarrazu La Pastora
      • Origin: Costa Rica
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 5/8/2026
      • Elevation: 1100 to 1750 meters; Varietals: Catuai, Caturra
      • Milling process: Fully washed; Drying process: Mechanical dryer
      • Purchase date: 5/14/2026 from Gracefully curbside café
      • Quantity: 12oz
      • First cup: 5/17/2026; last cup: 6/3/2026
      • Tasting notes: Orange, dark chocolate, brown sugar
    • Pour-over with Ode grinder:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 3 → 4
      • Water at 95°C
      • Size 2 V60
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses. Finishes around 03:00
    • Switch with Ode grinder:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 4+2
      • Water at 95°C
      • Rinse filter, add grounds, and close drain; pour to 55g and agitate; top up to 300g and stir several times; steep until 02:30; swirl and open drain

    I got a cup of this to go when I bought the beans, So I have an idea how it should taste when properly brewed (which is one of the advantages of buying directly from the roaster). My first couple of efforts were OK, but lacking some of the subtle orange notes that the to-go cup had. It actually had a slightly nutty profile, but lacked complexity. Switching from grind 3 to grind 4 was a step in the right direction, but there was a slight bitter finish that I’d like to get rid of. I think I’ll just keep nudging the grind coarser, one click at a time, and see if it eventually gets me there.

    5/23: I tried this in the Switch this morning — grind 4, 95C water, and the same technique as with bag 2 (below), except I only steeped until 02:30. This cup had a much more in the way of fruity notes than my pour-over, and it also had more “personality” (for want of a better word). Part of me wants to brew the rest of the beans this way, and another part wants to see if I can fine-tune my pour-over technique to get better cups. The issue with the latter is that I’m not exactly sure what to try first, and I only have so many of the beans to experiment with.

    6/3: I ended up brewing all of my subsequent cups with the Switch. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Although there was a slight drop-off with the last couple of cups, all were good, with a reasonable balance of acidity and “roastiness”.

    Bag 2

    • Beans: Sumatra Meukat
      • Origin: Takengon, Central Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
      • Roast level: Dark
      • Roast date: 5/1/2026
      • Elevation: 1250-1600 masl; Varietals: Bourbon, Catimor
      • Milling process: Wet hulled; Drying process: Patio
      • Purchase date: 5/14/2026 from Gracefully curbside café
      • Quantity: 12oz
      • First cup: 5/17/2026; last cup: 6/5/2026
      • Tasting notes: Black licorice, dark chocolate and molasses
    • Switch with Ode grinder:
      • 20g to 21g coffee / 300g water (1:14 to 1:15)
      • Ode: 5
      • Water at 90°C
      • Rinse filter, add grounds, and close drain; pour to 55g and agitate; top up to 300g and stir several times; steep until 02:45; swirl and open drain

    I think I started this at grind 4, 90C, 22g/300g, and regular V60. I didn’t like how it turned out, so I decided to try immersion, and this Switch recipe has worked out well. It’s full-bodied (as any good dark roast should be) with no unpleasant bitterness or burnt taste. It also seemed plenty strong at 1:15, at least for now. The same settings work well with Gracefully’s decaf beans, so it’s fairly easy to brew a cup of each simultaneously.

    6/3: The Switch has continued to produce good cups. Lately, I’ve been making them slightly stronger at 21g/300g. I have enough for 3 more cups, and will likely finish this up at the end of this week.

  • Spring notes

    Spring notes

    We are now about halfway through May, and after a warm April, the temperatures have been below average for the past several weeks. It looks like we will be getting back into the 90s next week, so this may be spring’s last gasp. Earlier this spring, we had our old, ailing central A/C replaced with a high efficiency heat pump, and we’ve been trying out the heat during some of the colder mornings. I think the heat pump will save us a lot of money on heating oil during the winter, but how well it performs during really cold weather remains to be seen.

    I have been out paddling for the past 3 consecutive Monday mornings, and each time, I have worn my wet suit and spray skirt (the latter most recently because it was raining, and earlier because of gusty wind/choppy water). I don’t recall using the wet suit this late in May before, but the water temperature (per NOAA’s Baltimore inner harbor buoy) has been hovering in the low to mid 60s, and my cutoff for wearing the suit is upper 60s to around 70. That’s also the temperature at which I’ll consider using the SUP instead of the kayak. Based on the forecast, I suspect I’ll be out on the SUP within the next week or two.

    We will likely be opening our pool in the next couple of weeks. After sealing up around the underwater light niche conduits a month or so ago, the pool seems to be holding water, but that doesn’t tell me much, as it typically only loses water when it’s at or below freezing. So, the real test will be to see if it leaks this coming winter. I also plan to inspect the main drain this spring once the pool is open, to make sure the hydrostatic relief valve port fitting (another potential winter leak source) is still sealed up properly. I started the pump up a couple of weeks ago, which went off without a hitch. I still have a slight leak on the pressure side around the pipe threads. Last year, it eventually stopped leaking on its own, so I’m tempted to wait it out again this year rather than taking everything apart to re-seal (which is admittedly easier now since I put unions in). I’m always paranoid about creating larger issues while trying to fix small issues. 😀 I also have a small leak around the handle shaft of the filter multi-port valve, which already seems to be stopping (there’s water at the base of the handle, but nothing dripping on the ground). I’ve been considering replacing that valve, but that can likely wait until fall. In preparation for opening, I’ve added 360 pounds of salt so far, and will likely need another 80lb or so, plus 10-15lb of stabilizer, before we take the cover off.

    It has been a rather light spring for biking, and when I have gotten on a bike, it’s been one of my mountain bikes. While droughts are mostly bad, they do make for good trail conditions (as long as we get some occasional rain to keep things from getting too dusty). This is “bike to work week”, so today, I did my duty as a long time bike commuter and rode to the office, although I was mostly on single track trails. The older I get, the less appetite I have for riding in traffic, so I tend to gravitate towards mountain biking whenever conditions allow. This weekend, though, I’m hoping to get back into my summertime tradition of taking long road rides to find geocaches. Bikeable caches have been popping up left and right over the past several days, so I’ll have plenty to keep me busy.

  • Rise Up Finca Terrerito

    Rise Up Finca Terrerito

    • Beans: Finca Terrerito (Honduras)
      • Roaster: Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
      • Origin: Corquin, Copan Region, Honduras
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 4/7/2026
      • Altitude: 1000m
      • Purchase date: 4/13/2026 from Rise Up in Easton, MD
      • Freeze date: 4/16/2026; thaw date: 4/30/2026
      • Quantity: 12oz
      • First cup: 5/3/2026; last cup: 5/16/2026
    • Pour-over with Ode grinder:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 3 → 3+2 → 3
      • Water at 95°C → 90°C
      • Size 2 V60
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses. Finishes around 03:10 at grind 3+2, 3:30 at grind 3

    This is the second of two bags of Honduras microlot beans that I bought at Rise Up last month. Rise Up’s web site does not mention this roast, but the farm has a web site, and the beans appear to be medium roasted. Based on my notes from the other bag (which I finished last week), I started these at grind 3 and 95°C. While there are definitely similarities between the two roasts, this one clearly tastes different — maybe a little less of an acidic “bite” to it, for want of a better description. All in all, a couple of pleasant cups so far.

    5/12: This morning, I adjusted the grind from 3 to 3+2, as my last couple of cups tasted over-extracted. The brew finished at 03:00, and it was smoother and better balanced at the coarser grind. I have enough left for 7 more cups, so we’ll see if any further adjustments are needed.

    5/16: A couple of days ago, this started to develop kind of a burnt aftertaste. For my last couple of cups, I dropped the water temperature to 90°C and set the grind back to my original starting setting of 3. That got rid of the aftertaste, and the cups tasted fine, though not as good as my first few. I guess the beans were getting past their prime. Overall, I think I slightly preferred the Finca La Fortuna beans to these, because the former were more consistent from cup to cup overall; however, it’s not a completely fair comparison, as these spent some time in the freezer. In hindsight, maybe I should have worked through the bags simultaneously.

  • Amity Tanzania Peaberry

    Amity Tanzania Peaberry

    • Beans: Tanzania Peaberry
      • Roaster: Amity Coffee Roasters (Greenwood, DE)
      • Origin: Tanzania
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 4/7/2026
      • Process: Wet
      • Purchase date: 4/15/2026 from T. S. Smith Orchard Point Market in Bridgeville, DE
      • Quantity: 8oz
      • First cup: 4/28/2026; last cup: 5/11/2026
      • Tasting notes: Fruity/Winey
    • Pour-over with Ode grinder:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 2
      • Water at 95°C
      • Size 2 V60
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses. Finishes 03:10-03:15

    We stopped at T. S. Smith on the way home from our quick getaway to Berlin (Maryland, not Germany), so (of course) I had to pick up a bag of Amity beans while we were there. I’ve had a few single-origin roasts from Amity, but to date, have yet to try the same roast twice, so this Tanzania Peaberry was new to me. I recently finished a bag from another roaster, so I brewed these using the same parameters, and the two taste quite similar. The mouthfeel is smooth, acidity is low, and I didn’t notice a ton of fruitiness — although if experience is any indicator, that will start to come out as the beans age. Since this is only a half-pound bag, I’ll probably alternate brewing it with something else, just so I don’t go through it too quickly.

    5/11: I brewed the last few cups of this at a stronger ratio (21g/300g, or around 1:14.2) and liked it at this strength — a subsequent 1:15 cup seemed a little on the thin side, actually. Not much to add to earlier tasting notes. I always seem to have difficulty picking out fruit flavors in African coffees, and this one was no exception. Just out of curiosity, I ran a search, and the AI recommended: lower water temperature (90-93C), lower ratio (1:16-1:17), and “medium to fine, but not too fine” grind. That’s obviously very different from how I’ve been brewing it, and I might not even like it as much that way, but I might try it the next time I buy these (or similar) beans, just to see what happens.

  • Inaugural Paddle of 2026

    Inaugural Paddle of 2026

    For the second time in three years, I have managed to get out on the water in April. The weather has been wild, with some days topping 90, and others barely hitting 60, and April is always a busy month with family and house obligations, so it can be challenging to find time to paddle. Today, I went out before work, launching at Solley Cove Park and paddling about 5 miles round-trip on Marley Creek. Along the way, I checked on 10 geocaches that I hid in the area last year. The weather could not have been better, with sunny skies, air temperature in the upper 40s to low 50s, water temperature around 60, and very light winds. I wore a wet suit over swim trunks and a hat. I had brought a jacket, gloves, neoprene hoodie, and pogies, but ended up not needing any of them.

    This past Saturday, I ran the “Pints for Patapsco” 10K through the Patapsco Valley State Park Avalon Area. I last ran this in 2024, when it was an untimed 8-mile run dubbed the “Open Gate Gallop”. Last year, I missed it due to our European cruise. The run is now timed (though billed as non-competitive) and officially starts and ends in the park, with the leg to/from Guinness used for warmup and cool-down. And, of course, there’s beer at the end. 🍺 I did pretty well, placing 116th out of 400 runners. My only goal was to complete the 10K in under an hour, which I did, averaging about 9:05/mile, which is super fast for me. In fact, my watch says I set PRs for both 10K and 5K distances. Although I am not very competitive, and typically prefer running solo, I do find that I like running races every so often, as a way to occasionally push myself to go faster. In fact, I just signed up to run the Arbutus Firecracker 10K the morning of July 4, for the first time. That race has been on my radar for several years, but for various reasons, I never ended up registering for it. It will be interesting to see how it goes for me running in the July heat.

  • Rise Up Finca La Fortuna

    Rise Up Finca La Fortuna

    • Beans: Finca La Fortuna (Honduras)
      • Roaster: Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
      • Origin: Ocotepeque Region, Honduras
      • Roast level: Medium (3/5)
      • Roast date: 4/3/2026
      • Altitude: 1520m
      • Purchase date: 4/13/2026 from Rise Up in Easton, MD
      • Quantity: 12oz
      • First cup: 4/19/2026; last cup: 5/1/2026
      • Tasting notes: Milk chocolate, subtle nuttiness
    • Pour-over with Ode grinder:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 3
      • Water at 99°C
      • Size 2 V60
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses. Finishes around 03:00

    We were passing through Easton last week, so I stopped and picked up two different bags of single-origin Honduras beans from Rise Up. I opened this bag this past Sunday. Here’s what the web site says about it:

    This special microlot comes to us from the Regalado family of Finca La Fortuna and its three generations of female coffee producers. Fortuna translates to “fortune” and we are certainly fortunate to have this coffee! If you find yourself in the Ocotopeque Region of Honduras, you can spot Finca La Fortuna easily because of the giant fig tree that towers over the farm.

    I started this bag at grind 4 and 98°C, then went to grind 3/95°C, and most recently grind 3/99°C. The latter was the best cup so far, but given that the settings are not all that different, a lot of it may just have been that the beans needed time to acclimate/out-gas. Body is medium, taste is nutty (as advertised) with little to no acidity. I’ll keep brewing them like this and see how the rest of the cups turn out. It will be interesting to see how the other roast I bought compares taste-wise, but it may be a few weeks before I open it. For now, it’s in the freezer to keep it fresh.

    5/1: For future reference, I brewed almost all of my cups at grind 3/99°C, and most were good. The last 2 or 3 cups were developing a slight initial bitter taste, which smoothed out as the cups cooled. If I had had more beans left, I would have tried dropping the temperature a few degrees and/or nudging the grind slightly coarser.

  • Miscellany

    Just a bunch of random notes here, as I haven’t written anything in about a month (other than coffee notes).

    The dizziness issues I wrote about in February, mostly abated around the beginning of March. I didn’t have a single issue at all during a 6-day trip to Tampa in mid-March, but noticed a little bit of spacy-headedness the morning after returning home. I also had a day or two of Eustachian tube dysfunction in my right ear, that was likely due to the flight. The two could have been related. It could also point to an environmental/allergy cause for the overall dizziness issue. It will be interesting to track it going forward and see if it occurs at predictable times of the year.

    The weather has been pretty wild early this spring, with 80s one day, 60s the next, rinse, repeat. Seems like we had a similar weather pattern last year, so maybe this is the new normal. Running has been going well the past month or so, although it has been tough to stay on a regular schedule due to other commitments, etc. For the most part, though, I have managed to get out 3 days a week. Lately, I have taken to tracking my water consumption in Apple Health, and as a result, I think I’m getting into a better habit of staying hydrated. Right now I am shooting for 100-120oz of water per day, and I have noticed that my energy has been consistently better during most of my recent runs. Most of my 6-8 mile runs have averaged 10:00/mi to 10:45/mi, which is faster than the same time last year. It will be interesting to see how much I need to tweak my water intake once it starts getting more humid out.

    This morning, I went out back and made my first attempt at sealing around our shallow-end pool light conduit, which I suspect leaks during the winter. We uncovered the pool in late January and put it back on in mid-March, and today, I pulled it back just enough to provide access to the light. The water level had crept up a couple of inches since we put the cover on, which is consistent with what has happened for the past few years: it loses water during the cold months, then stops losing water as it starts to warm up. After some research, I bought a roll of Anderson Leakmaster butyl tape, cut a 12″ length, wrapped it around the light cord and the bond wire, and pressed it into and around the conduit opening. The tape has kind of a putty-like consistency, molds pretty easily, and seemed to seal things up pretty well. Hopefully, it’ll stay in place, but I may not know if it worked until this coming winter. Next up is the deep end light fixture, and I’m not sure if I want to do that now (while the water level is low) or after we open the pool. I also think it’s worth checking the drain this season, to make sure the hydrostatic relief plug is still sealed up properly.