Aly & Bryan are always up to something…
Here’s how we’ve been making iced coffee in our Chemex. You’ll need:
Method:
Let drain. Fill mug(s) ~2/3rd with ice.
Swirl chemex to make sure ice is melted and coffee is mixed.
Pour over ice.
Stir.
Enjoy.
This is Aly’s mom’s seasoned pepper recipe.
We don’t always have all the spices on hand but here is how we’ve made it:
Helpful links we wanted to bookmark so we can find them again.
https://honestcoffeeguide.com/coffee-grind-size-chart/
Honest Coffee’s guide allows you to compare grind size settings between different grinders.
https://prima-coffee.com/learn/article/brewing-guides/comparing-chemex-recipes/33027
Prima Coffee’s collection of Chemex “recipes” are great for someone starting out.
https://prima-coffee.com/learn/video/brewing-guides/how-brew-clever-coffee-dripper/31771
Clever Dripper instructions.
These tools have been useful to us when traveling by Amtrak.
Train Trackers
These were our most used tracking maps while we were en route.
https://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusMaps/
https://railrat.net/routes/TexasEagle/
Historic Data
You can find historic on-time performance data stored here. This will help you figure out average delays on a particular route (even in a particular month/week).
https://juckins.net/asmad/index.php
Maps
Amtrak national route map (July 2025)
Amtrak “day/night” route map (2003). It’s old but much of the system remains on the same schedule.
https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tm1103-amtrak-day-night.pdf
Dining Options/Menus
https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/meals-dining/dining-car.html
Employee Praise
Last but not least, if an employee treated you well and you’d like to let them (and the company) know, you can fill out this form.
We met up with the PedalParty_LR group ride on Monday to check them out. They’ve been appearing in our feed for some months now and we finally got our act together so we could head downtown right after work.
Continue reading “Pedal Party LR”Works well with homemade Falernum that has clove notes.
From: Reddit (r/cocktails)
I noticed Wicked Edge introduced a hard case for their Wicked Edge Go knife sharpening system, but it was expensive for just a case. I checked online and the case size was pretty standard as far as hard cases go and Pelican Cases that size were … $150! A quick check of Harbor Freight and Northern Tool found an on-sale case from Northern Tool for 20% of the brand name case price. Score!
Continue reading “Knife Sharpening Case”Here’s our riff on an aged eggnog. We were inspired by the Death & Co. Vintage Eggnog. Please note that the ingredients below are per drink and you should batch these out in bulk to fit the glass bottles you have on hand.
Four of us headed west on a beautiful fall day (sunny, mid-to-upper-60s) to ride the gravel roads inside the Ouachita National Forest.
With the new bike, I needed a better way to transport it since I’ve just been strapping it in to the bed of the truck. I didn’t want a hitch rack, or a roof rack, nor did I want to put it up on top of my existing rack.
