Hello. I know it’s been a bit. July was…

Well, just ugh. There’s been a lot going on for me and The Wife (not all of which I can talk about here).

I took a trip to a hotel for a few days to have some me-time. Took the train to a town called Bad Ragaz here in Switzerland, which was very beautiful. The hotel was great, food was good, and all that. I did really need the time out, for sanity’s sake. Unfortunately, though, I got COVID, even though I was careful, wore my mask, and avoided large groups of people. We think I probably got it on the train going there, since I was sick when I came back. *sigh* I’m glad that both me and The Wife are vaxxed and boosted, since we both got a relatively mild version of the damn thing, but even the mild one hit me like a ton of bricks. Still have the “tireds” three weeks later and I’m finally done with the sinus ick. I’m taking it easy, though. I am definitely NOT going to rush my recovery.

Then, to our horror, the week after I got back from my trip, our espresso machine broke. As in, non-functional and non-repairable. The Wife ordered a new, but not so technically advanced, espresso machine and grinder. I also paid for a service that would bring the machine, set it up, and take away the old one. Of course, Swiss customer service being what it is, it’s taken two weeks for them to deliver the thing. But, as of tomorrow we will have espresso again.

While The Wife has been nerding over the espresso machine, I’ve been nerding out on non-standard coffee brewing methods. I’ve now got a Turkish cezve and I’ve successfully made a pot of coffee in it! It was pretty good, too, and very different than I expected! I also have some proper coffee spices and am going to try that soon. I was surprised how well this worked with our decaf espresso roast.

My other coffee obsession has been Vietnamese-style coffee. I ordered the metal phin (filter) and a bag of ground Vietnamese coffee and have been using it every morning so far since it got delivered. It’s nice to make a single cup of strong (caffeinated) coffee. I don’t use sweetened condensed milk, though, because of the sugar, but Swiss coffee cream or my barista oat milk work really well, especially for iced coffee. (If you’re wondering, I use monk fruit for sweetener.)

For my other obsession, the most recent pen-related thing I’ve bought at the end of June was this amazing desk lamp from Blue Star Crafts, and I adore it! Old timey looking bulb (it’s LED), with a drawer for pens! There’s also two USB ports on the back and the lamp is dimmable. I love it!

Aside from coffee nerding, pen gear, and getting sick, I am still writing. The next series of books is coming along, and it’ll be an epic sequel to the first four books.

The first set of Survey books are nearly done with editing. There’s only one left to finish with the proofreader and then The Wife and I will do the formating, cover design, and publishing wherever we can publish it. It’ll be in ebook form and paperback-by-demand first. I’m also planning to do an audiobook. We’ll be releasing that in podcast form initially (for free), then cutting it together to sell as a regular audiobook that will be in the usual outlets.

I’m excited and nervous for these books to be out, but the excitement of people finally getting to read these books is winning out over the nervousness. I can’t wait to hear what folks think of them!

In between writing chapters, I’ve been playing Elder Scrolls online. I’m on both the PC EU and NA servers, so if you play, feel free to ping me there, especially if you want to run some dungeons or delves (username is @worthyadvisor)!

And finally, the end of July was our 4th anniversary of moving to Switzerland. It’s amazing that it’s been four years already! It’s one of those things where the time has gone by really fast, but it feels like we’ve been here forever. I mean, Switzerland isn’t perfect, but you know, it’s not so bad.

Stay safe, folks and make sure you’re boosted. Trust me on this one!