[This post (along with a few more to follow, intermittently) will form part two of my previous post regarding cafes in Seattle.]

Lever espresso machines are unique because they lack a pump to push the hot water through the puck of coffee at 9 bars of pressure, rather they use a lever attached to a piston to push the water through the bed of coffee… hence the name, a ‘lever espresso machine’.  It is thus far more manual than a basic pump driven machine (which itself is significantly more manual than… oh… say… what Starbucks uses…, but that is for a different post).

Here are three photos from Cafe Vita in Fremont and their Bosco 5 Group Lever.  The shot was epic, I specifically remember it even now, sitting here 5 months later.

Here are a few more pics of Tim and Danielle…

Here are the first of a few engagement photos (and one where Danielle was showing off her model pose) I did for some friends from here at school… I will be shooting their wedding in July too, it will be a blast!  More pics to come soon, check back.

Confession:  I took that photo with the built in camera on my Mac in class and am posting this FROM class.  Yes, I do have to translate and theologically interpret from the Hebrew scriptures for this class.  Yes, it is hard.  Yes, it is fun.  Yes, theological interpretation is awesome and has not been done enough by biblical scholars in the recent past.  (i.e. there is a difference between a pure biblical scholar and a true theologian)

I am taking Hebrew Exegesis this summer for three intensive weeks.  It is great and terrible all at the same time.   Our professor is a brilliant Egyptologist and Archeologist and has shared so much regarding the ancient context of Jeremiah (the book we are working through parts of for class).  Here is a selected section of my notes from a brilliant excurses he went on the other day.

First: Read Jeremiah 2-ish.  Here is a link for you who are lazy… click here

Background:  Prophesy (Jeremiah is a prophetic book) is always the applying of the Law to a current situation by a prophet of God.  It is rarely concerned with the end times but with the current times.  In Jeremiah, he is applying the law, from Deuteronomy, to apostate Judah.  His warning can be summed up like this: you are going to be crushed from the North, just like Israel was, unless you shape up.  (they didn’t)

Through Jeremiah 2:13, the crafting of a cistern is implicitly and conceptually likened to the carving of an idol (i.e. reapplying the part of the Law repeated in Deuteronomy, do not craft idols).  Jeremiah says the man made cistern breaks and can not hold water.  The metaphor implies that worshiping an idol does not do what it promises just like a broken cistern can not hold water.  Man is unable to make anything that is worthy of worship that can do what it promises.

Moreover, the water that would be in a cistern is not flowing/moving water, it is stagnant water.  To people of Jeremiah’s time, water that caused life was not stagnant water but moving water, water from a river or a stream where it would not be stagnant and diseased.  Thus, not only does the man made cistern not fulfill on what it promises to do, it does the opposite, it kills.  This context takes a mildly confusing and irrelevant sounding passage and gives it the contour and depth that allows it to powerfully speak on a level that we can understand and apply to our context.

In verse 13 drinking water is a metaphor for religion.   By verse 18 it is shifted to political commentary.  Shihor (what many translate as Nile) in v18 is actually the Lake of Horus, the lake one would first see when traveling from Israel to Egypt. It is actually a lagoon of brackish water where the Nile empties before entering into the Mediterranean.  The other body of water mentioned in this passage is ‘The River’, the Euphrates.  It is the first body of water on Judah’s the boarder with Assyria.  The idea presented in v18 of ‘being on the water’ represents a political treaty, Judah had meaningful political treaties with both Egypt and Assyira/Babylon, something they were not supposed to have done. Historically, Judah waffled between allegiances with Egypt and Assyria/Babylon (Babylon conquered Assyria in 612).  They failed to rely on the Lord God but instead capitulated to following their political neighbors.  In verse 19 then, God is called the Lord of Hosts/Armies which continues to have a political overtone… it gives true context to any possible political/military allegiance that Israel thought they could have safety in (with either Egypt or Assyria/Babylon). 

This historical context, while interesting and immensely nifty, is valuable because it is a school master, gently guiding the interpreter to the theological message which Jeremiah is communicating.  It is the theology of the text, not the historical context that can and should direct our understanding and command our lives.   

Here are a few quick photos of the sunset over Green Bay as seen out of the back of the Inn we are staying at in Egg Harbor.  Door county is quite fantastic… we have been to two fantastic wineries, seen some fantastic coast, climbed a 75 foot tower on top of a huge bluff overlooking the bay, drove a lot, lusted after a lot of really cool boats, eaten some good food and had loads of enjoyable conversation.

So Janelle and I built and planted a garden box on Saturday.  It was quite fun and hopefully we can get some tasty produce out of it.  Our backyard is paved, which is why we had to build a box, otherwise I think we would have just tried to get permission to plant one normally, you know… in the ground.  Ugh.  Anywho, it was a fun project and the herbs already smell great.

Here are a few more photos of my ever progressing espresso machine project.  The handles are matching Cocobolo, made by a fantastic guy from www.home-barista.com.  I have moved all of the orange covered wiring to the interior of the machine given that the front cover will be off for a while.  Also, the start/stop pump buttons for the left group have been installed into a project box (see just right of the digital readout).  The espresso is so incredibly fantastic, drop me a line if you wanna try it!

Background:  My espresso machine is a heat exchanger (HX) machine, thus the boiler temperature is actually at about 250 degrees.  The water path cools down the water to espresso brewing temperature (197ish-202ish) while heating up the group head as it circulates from the boiler to the group head and back to the boiler.

Foreground:  In order to make each shot of espresso as repeatable as possible it is important to know what temperature the water is at when it hits the puck of coffee in the portafilter.  The nature of HX machines makes this moderately hard to predict.  Thus I added a thermocouple and digital readout to the group-head to measure the water temperature just before it passes through a short passage and gets dispersed over the coffee.  Here are a few photos…

The Result:  To quote my friend Joe after noticing the difference of a shot at 201 and at 199… “that [modification] was totally worth it!”  I am amazed at how stable the temperature is during a pull, but also how much the temperature drops as I pull a really long cooling flush.  This is going to really increase the quality of my shots, and they were already really good!

An overview of my left group-head setup.  One can see my two switches for starting and stopping brewing sitting between the two cups.

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A close up of the thermocouple, using a swagelok straight tube fitting.

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An Auber PID used as thermocouple readout

Two great people with a fun love story invited me to share in their big day by photographing their wedding.  Knowing Autumn and having heard a lot about Andrew, I instantly accepted the invitation.  It all went down yesterday, it was a blast… first wedding I have ever shot with seating in ‘the round’, first with the new 80-200 f/2.8, and it all went great!  I knew many of the people involved so it was pretty much just a walking party.  Here are a few photos from their day.

More travel photos to come, but for a quick break here is a glimpse at one of our Saturday morning coffee and conversation times.  They are fantastically healthy; great coffee, great conversation… can’t get much better.