BlogThree by ThoughtFix

I posted this in my private journal but decided to mirror it here so others can enjoy it and add comments or variants.

The concept has been rolling around in my head for some time and I've joked about "Strip Scrabble" to many people in the past, but now I am making the rules.

Strip Scrabble rules:

1. Normal Scrabble rules apply.
2. In addition to this, each player must play a word that counts for as many or more points than the previous word played. If any player cannot meet or exceed the previous word's points, that player must remove an article of clothing.
3. Any single article of clothing may be purchased back for 100 points. The player must then wear that clothing. (Men: if you purchase your lady's bra so she can't get it back, you have to put it on yourself.)
   
4. Players can purchase clothing for 50 points, but this "discount clothing" is chosen by the opponents. Yes, ladies. You can force your male opponents to wear YOUR panties.
5. Multiple rounds can be played once the tiles run out. If this happens, the first player to use all of his/her tiles ends the board and gets to start the new board. That word does not count toward the opponent's previous points, so in essence the first person running out gets a "free" word.
   
6. Point totals and clothing carries from one round to the next.
7. At the end of play, all clothing must be returned to their original owners. No keeping trophies.

This is best done in groups of four or more and for several consecutive games - during which someone ends up wholly naked and someone else ends up wearing the wrong clothes.

Posted by thoughtfix at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

So you've been eyeballing that nice shiny espresso machine at Williams Sonoma, right? Me too. I want one to replace the Hamilton Beach above. While the machine I have is worthy, it's not up to par with the level of control I want.

I decided to ask myself how long it takes an espresso machine to pay for itself over going to the local castle of green aprons for a mocha. The middle-sized (16 oz.) iced mocha contains two shots of espresso, chocolate, milk, and ice. This is precisely what I make at home. The educated "more or less" guess is that it is 3 oz (1.5 per shot) espresso, 2 oz chocolate syrup, 8 oz milk, and ice to fill the rest.

I decided to see how many shots of espresso I could pull from a single pound bag. I used every last ground of espresso in my stash and in my burr grinder and started fresh, marking off a double-shot each time I made it. There is always waste in making coffee so I couldn't reliably say that every ground of that pound would go into the machine. As luck would have it, I pulled exactly 20 double-shots out of a pound of espresso. Total cost for 20 mochas so far = $10 for a locally roasted bag of espresso.


Now that we measured out the "unreliable" source, we can do strict math on the rest. Twenty 8 oz. servings of milk = 160 fluid ounces, so 1.25 gallons of milk. Say milk is expensive at $3/gallon and we have an additional $3.75 on the cost. A 20 oz. bottle of brand-name chocolate syrup is about $3, so we'll need two of those for $6.

Total estimated cost of materials for twenty 16-oz iced mochas = $19.75

Say the local coffee shop sells the same drink at the typical price of $3.50. Total cost of twenty would be $70, assuming you never tip.

The savings of $50 per pound of espresso is impressive enough, but how long would it take for a nice machine to PAY for itself?

Say you had a mocha per day during the business week. It's rather Zen to pull fresh shots first thing in the morning anyway - clears the mind for the rest of the day. That's 5 double-shots per week. Five mochas costs roughly $17.50 at the Corporate Coffee Place. Five home-made mochas cost about $4.94 at home. At this rate, you'll save $12.56 per week. If you want a Hamilton Beach 15 bar pump 1000 watt machine like mine, you'll spend about $80. If you want the object of my desire, the Breville Die Cast Espresso Maker, it'll set you back $400. If you have no desire to learn the art of espresso and decide to get the Mother of All Machines, you're looking at $3,660. That thing will make your espresso, greet you by first name, and teach your children how to play piano.

Total time for the inexpensive machine: 7 weeks.
Total time for my desired machine: 32 weeks.
Total time for the machine that can beat you at chess: 5.6 years.

Based on double-shot iced mochas, that works out. Of course I have the frothing pitcher, thermometer, tamper, cute little espresso cups, and Krupps Burr Grinder going on too, but that's what happens when you become an addict. Incidentally, by birthday is June 27, so there's still time to get me that Breville...

Posted by thoughtfix at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments