Bialetti Moka Espresso

GENEVIEVE'S NEW FAVORITE APPLIANCE: The Bialetti Moka Espresso.
Who knew making coffee could be so easy? Our little espresso maker (with the authentic l'omino, little man, on the side) was a gift from my first landlady back in Boston, Raffaela Fabbo. Mrs. Fabbo had given it to my mother as an Easter present, but somehow it just followed me whenever I moved. Anyway, for the longest time it was just an interesting shelf item that I would put out to dress up my kitchen. Well, my parents sent us some ground espresso from their recent trip to Costa Rica. The bag smelled so good that I thought I'd give the brewing thing a try. Eureka! Coffee! Black gold! (Or is that oil?) Yum, yum. Roger's mom is trying to get Roger to stop drinking Diet Coke in the morning (aspartame: bad!), so maybe I can switch him to this. Not that coffee addiction is much better than Diet Coke addiction. Ah, caffeine the old fashioned way.

URBAN SPRAWL ALERT
Evidence of this is a creeping up all around us. Here are some of Gen and Rog's Upper Valley retail predictions for the next three years:

There will be a Home Depot in Lebanon (okay, this is a cheat, because they broke ground for the HD this past month).

There will be a Bed, Bath & Beyond (the two seem to go hand-in-hand, at least Gen hopes so).

White River Junction will be the next Bucktown/Wicker Park (hey, they're already saying it's the East Village of the UV).

The new Dartmouth Bookstore will be a smash! (Perhaps people who developed the Brookline Booksmith can be convinced to expand their interests to the north - alas, it looks like B&N will be the new proprietors, see link below.)

For those of you interested, here's a link to a story on the impending closing/re-opening of the Dartmouth Bookstore: A Bookstore Survives.

STANFORD, RAH! RAH!
Did anyone read the recent issue of the Alumni Magazine? The cover story is all about the Stanford Shopping Center. I don't know how I feel about coming from a university that is so proud of its mall. It's supposed to be super-super fancy now, a la South Coast Plaza. Remember back in 1996 when we would stroll through the arcades to get a brioche at La Baguette or pick up toys at the Museum Store (now no longer there)? Who knew Pottery Barn would be so big? Chime in, people!