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The Chronicles of Nani On Video

I am overcoming my inability to type with my ability to talk (and talk and talk and talk) I'll be posting a video every week on my YouTube channel. I'll be posting those videos here too along with an occasional regular blog in the mix. (As long as my hands are up to doing the extra typing.)

You'll be able to watch the videos here, but I encourage you to stop by my channel at YouTube once I'm up and running to follow me and get my numbers started!


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Contact Nani at
chroniclesofnani@gmail.com

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

STEAM!

A prefect cup of steamy-hot coffee!

There are so many cool things about steam! Okay, okay, I’m going to show off a few photos from the steam train festival, but I also wanted to talk coffee.

I am totally in love with one wedding gift we got. We got a Keurig coffee maker. It was on the registry, but I wasn’t sure anyone would get it for us. It was ne of those things that’s nice, but you wouldn’t buy it yourself, not in good conscience, a gourmet coffee maker. But we did get it, with the assorted set of extra K-cups for it and I am in love with it! It’s just the right amount of coffee grounds, the perfect water temperature for brewing and it makes an EXCEPTIONAL cup of coffee! I love a quality cup of coffee and I am in heaven every time I drink a cup from this coffee maker!

I tried the Earl Grey tea K-cup and that perfect water temperature for coffee brews the best cup of tea too. I love Earl Grey, but I always end up either brewing it too weak or too strong. For that reason, I really don’t drink it much. So, I started investigating to see if I could find herbal tea K-cups specifically, my favorite, peppermint.

Well, I found herbal peppermint K-cups at one place, but it was a brand I hadn’t tried before. Then I found the link that’s in the bulletin board now for My Kaps. Now, they sent me a couple of Kaps to try as a thank you for the link in the bulletin board, but that’s the end of my obligation for the 2 Kaps, just the link above. Telling you all about my experience using them is all uncompensated testimonial.

I tried My Kaps, using recycled, that is cleaned and dried, K-cups with the contents of a peppermint tea bag and one with some fine ground Brazilian coffee that David received as a work gift from some kids he interviewed who’d traveled there. Both experiments were easy and just as tasty as the K-cups! Now, the Keurig coffee maker doesn’t brew an espresso brew, but it does do a great job making a kinder, gentler espresso roast cu of coffee for home. The peppermint tea, however, was outstanding! Loose tea is less expensive than tea bags too, so Im thinking about saving a few more cups and buying a few more Kaps!


AND NOW...WEEKEND STEAM!


David and I enjoyed a few days of chasing steam trains this past weekend. David is not a huge steam fans, but he likes to photograph the classic locos now and then. It also makes his wife very happy! I love steam trains!

There were three stars of the festival last weekend. On Friday after lunch, we chased the Southern Pacific Daylight, no 4449, which was visiting from “home” in Portland, Oregon, from Alma, Michigan back to Owosso on it’s day-long excursion. What a gorgeous train! What a long train too. The excursion was very popular with festival goers.

I got a few pretty decent shots, even though my therapy wracked legs and back aren’t steady at all right now, I’m mastering the art of compensating for my balance!

Here are a couple shots of the 4449:


The photo lines were just huge for the steam locos!


On Saturday and Sunday, the Nickel Plate 765. The Pere Marquette, which was the first steam engine we ever chased near Grandma’s house in 2005, had some repair work that needed done, but they didn’t have the part on hand. The good news about that for us, is that the Pere Marquette will be up and running in plenty of time for the fall color excursion in October. David and I will be RIDING that one!


The 765 was built in Lima, Ohio in the 1940s and is a sweet smoking classic-look steam engine. Here are a couple of shots from Saturday and Sunday:

The 765 plus steam fans!

Train Orders chartered a helicopter to video parts if the excursions
The chopper made for some pretty cool photo ops too!


I had a fantastic steamy weekend as the first event to kick of Nanifest this year and a few pretty good photos too! I’m saving my steam photos for an all-steam section for one of my railfan shows. That one is going to be fun to put together!

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