things i think about while powerwashing 129

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Since graduating from college, I've slowly been amassing the skills needed to start a bakery/coffee shop. I enjoy baking bread and have been working hard on my latte art. It's not perfect, but it's getting somewhere.

I'm burying the lede. I tried hosting brunch! Well I have been trying, and succeeding to various amounts. The first one was in January at esteemed subscriber Harish Bhaskar's apartment, where he was assembling the breakfast sandwiches using esteemed subscriber Stephen Davis' bagels.

And I was the barista! That pretty much ruined any thought of being a barista in the future. It's tough work especially with a small espresso machine — usually the ones in shops have separate boilers for the steam and the espresso water. Working with one tiny one and switching between them? Hell.

My latte art is definitely not up to par either. When I started the year I thought I was going to try making one latte per day — and I legitimately started getting better! I have gone from ... modern art to something resembling a wispy flower.

Maybe I should host brunch soon. Maybe with croissants this time?

museum of the week

In an extremely topical move, I was convinced by esteemed subscriber Winnie Li to visit the Statue of Liberty on July 5th. While we slowly waddled through the summer haze and through the maze of lines, I made small talk with a park ranger.

Yes, they said, this indeed was their busiest day of the year. Good to know!

The island itself was fairly quaint. We got to go through the museum and see that the Statue of Liberty was also designed and scaled up using the same pointing technique that Mount Rushmore used! It was pretty cool seeing a familiar concept again but also seeing Guzton Borglum being mentioned again as well!

Apparently the torch of the statue has been redesigned several times, with his version being the third out of six or so and now housed in said museum maybe a hundred feet away from where it used to be suspended in the air above the ... Hudson? Idk.

Not much really! Learned too much about it in elementary school lol. This is really the year I'm visiting national monuments. Does this mean ... I have to go to DC now???

anonymous subscriber news

Let's hear it esteemed subscribers! What did y'all do this glorious holiday weekend?

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• anonymous subscriber was overwhelmed with the amount of visitors in june
• anonymous subscriber reminisces: I had no idea Warped Tour was back, wow -- all my high school friends were absolutely feral over it
• anonymous subscriber ponders: I need to get back into reading
• anonymous subscriber triumphs: After the perilous journey to the west coast, my sourdough starter has finally recovered and is strong again 💪

animal of the week

Sadly, no quote to go with this cute orange cat esteemed subscriber Alex Weliever is catsitting for. I've gotten several videos of the cat peering out behind staircases and the such.

Send me your animal photos at ryan@torrtle.co!