I bought myself a coffee grinder.

For me, it's a pretty fancy, new coffee grinder - an advance on modern science.

For all my coffee drinking years I have been buying the beans already ground at the grocery store or getting them ground for me at the specialty coffee shops and coffee roasters. This means I only have freshly ground beans the first day or so.

I don't know if I am such a coffee snob that I taste a huge difference. But, I like not having to get the beans ground. More than that, I really like not having to look for beans which are already ground, being limited to pre-ground beans and passing up the whole beans when I find them.

Grinds the coffee fine or coarse to suit you.

I used the coffee grinder for the first time today. I had a fresh bag of coffee beans from an Ontario coffee roaster. I had been waiting to open that bag until I ran out of the last of my old coffee, pre-ground. So this morning was a special day in coffee making for me. The coffee is great, the grinder worked exactly the way it said it would and I'm now looking forward to my next cup of coffee!

This Melitta Burr Grinder gives the option to have the grinds coarse or fine. Very much nicer than my Mother's plain coffee grinder which doesn't have any setting for fine or coarse grinds. My French press pot wants a coarsely ground coffee, so the setting is on 9, almost to the end of the dial.

No more extra coffee grinds between uses.

My new grinder will grind just the amount of beans I need too. I think this is so impressive! The whole point of having a coffee grinder is to use the beans when they are freshly ground. So, having too many ground and then sitting around defeats the point of grinding them really. But, not many of us would throw out the ground coffee just because we had extra. I won't have that dilemma.

I do have to check that I have enough beans in the grinder each time. I don't mind leaving some in the top for my next cup but I'm beginning to figure out how many whole beans I need for each amount of coffee I want to grind beans for. So far I am just making coffee for myself and the setting for 2 cups works best.

Coffee is a special treat, a replacement for the sweets I'm trying to get away from these days.

If you have never tried a coffee grinder I recommend this one by Melitta. It wasn't too expensive and it really does make the whole process of making the coffee seem special, like a real treat each time. Very nice right now as I am working on becoming healthier and sometimes I do miss those old sweet treats. Making a coffee has far less calories and yet can seem just as special, something I do just for myself too. My kitchen counter coffee set up.

Since buying the grinder about 3 or 4 months ago I have found it does get a build up of oil from the beans. So far I take care of it - just use a toothbrush to brush out the opening and remove the coffee there.

Far Above the Earth...

One hundred delinquent teenagers have been shipped down to a contaminated wasteland. Once up on a time the wasteland was our home planet, the Earth. But we left when it got too messy, too hard to live there. The human race has lived in spaceships above the Earth for about 100 years. Several generations have lived and died on a collection of spaceships over time. At one point the spaceships gathered together to share resources. The renamed themselves and their collection of spaceships, the Ark.

At this point the story makes me think of Starlost, a science fiction series from the 1970s where people lived on a spaceship called the Ark. That Ark was built up of a lot of biospheres, different pockets of humanity who had been on the ship so long they no longer knew about each other and some did not even know they were floating around in space. That Ark was also fleeing a dead/ destroyed planet Earth. There was only one season of Starlost, The 100 has been giving a second season due to start in October. So, the storyline will continue for The 100.

The 100 is a new science fiction series from The CW TV.

The Mysterious, Sometimes Creepy, Inhabited Uninhabited Planet...

The adults stay on the Ark and send down teenagers to test the water, literally. Not that life is a picnic on the Ark but no one knows what the situation is like on the planet. They think it is uninhabited... but it's not. There are Grounders and Mountain Men and animals with strangely divided heads (though still edible apparently).

A few don't make it to the ground. A few are killed off by the toxic mist. A few more are killed by the Grounders. But the teenagers are surviving, building their own camp and creating their own civilization. Clarke is becoming the leader with Bellamy (the self elected leader) by her side. Clarke and Bellamy could evolved into a relationship and they would make the most interesting couple - but, Bellamy appears to have been fully and completely killed off at the end of the first season. I think there is hope for him, however.

Bellamy is the only guy from the Ark who has a sister and Bellamy's sister is in love with a Grounder. A mystery man with a painted face, wearing animal skins, skilled in herbalism and illustration.

Clarke likes Finn who used to like Raven, until he thought he would never see her again and slept with Clarke.

Yes, this is a story about teenagers, created for the US market. Usually, the need to pair everyone into couples annoys me. But, the Bellamy and Clarke thing is interesting enough to be watchable. I can't say the same about Clarke, Finn and Raven (the triangle).

A lot of this show is teenage stuff, young adult fiction. But, the backstory is leaking through and getting into focus. I keep watching to find out what did happen on the planet when mostly everyone seems to have left it. People were left behind and others seem to have come back at some point.

The 100 is more than young adult fiction. The writers are pulling up a real story, with twists and turns to keep viewers guessing. I will be watching for season two in October. Here, it is shown on NetFlix so I can watch season one from the start a few times, commercial free!

The 100 Book by Kass Morgan - mentioned in the show's credits.

The 100 book (by Kass Morgan) doesn't have great reviews on Amazon. Seems it is almost a pre-quel for the series now on television. You don't need to read the book to understand the series but it might give you more of the back story for Clarke and Bellamy.

I read this book in high school, a long time ago. The story has stuck with me. It's science fiction but it could be horror. Not because it's gruesome, creepy or morbid. Just because the idea of seeing yourself so clearly and so much better than you had been before - only to then be returned to what you had been... that seems horrifying to me.

The book came first. There are at least two movies created from the story in the original book. I've seen the older movie and I've read the book. The book had more impact and meaning to the telling of the story. It was less like seeing the story through someone else's vision rather than your own.

Algernon is the mouse in a lab experiment. Charlie is the man picked to take part in the same experimental brain surgery. It all seems to work so well at first.

Algernon is exceptional, the experiment seems to work with greatly positive results! So they pick Charlie because he has never been exceptional, intellectually, and this is what the experiment is all about. Can they improve the intelligence and thus the whole life of someone who started out the level of below average? Can they turn Charlie into a genius?

At first Charlie is still being beaten by Algernon, the mouse. Charlie doesn't like that, of course. He has always known he was not as smart as some people but he looks up to people and thinks well of everyone. He believes the people he works with are his friends. One of the saddest parts of the book is Charlie's realization that they were making fun of him, even treating him badly but he never understood enough to know.

Charlie improves, understands more, sees more and begins to want more for himself too. It's not long at all before he is beyond any intelligence level in Algernon, the mouse. Charlie even surpasses the scientists who created and performed the experiment. Charlie falls in love, makes plans for the future... but one day Algernon dies.

Algernon had started losing his super intelligence, gradually. Charlie, knowing he had the same surgery, expects his results will backslide and now, knowing and understanding so much more he knows he is going back to who he was before. the difference being that now he sees a very different picture of who he was before and how he was treated by other people.

If knowledge is power, is ignorance bliss?

How would it feel to have come far, learned so much, changed your life and yourself and then have it all taken back until you are reduced to so much less than you had been even for a short time? I can't imagine living each day as someone who understands the jokes people made about him when he was less intelligent and knowing you would soon be back to that life again.

Of course, there is a movie too. Read the book first.

While I was married I began to enjoy the services of my husband as a backscratcher and back scrubber. It really is nice to find yourself with someone who you can ask to scratch an itch you can't reach yourself. Also, it was great to have someone who could reach your entire back when you wanted to really take the time to exfoliate in the shower.

These are small things but both became important to me once we divorced and I was on my own again.

I wonder how many divorced people (women or men) come across this too. I was really happy to have the whole bed to myself but I did miss having someone who could scratch my back, get that itchy spot or give my whole back a good scrub in the shower. Of everything that comes and goes between two people the back scratching was the one that I thought of first. I guess, in the early days of the divorce, it was only something small and simple which I could focus on.

It's funny that there is even an old saying about "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". I wonder if that was really about trades, business and deal making or did it really come from people alone after the end of a personal relationship, a break up or divorce.

Anyway, when you get divorced, sometime after you start to feel something other than numb, you need to learn how to scratch your back. Some people may have children or pets they can train. Some may have family and friends they don't mind asking. But, I didn't want to ask anyone. I wanted to handle it myself rather than feel I needed anyone or would have people thinking I needed them or could not manage on my own. It was a time I was rebuilding myself and getting back onto my feet again. Asking or needing help was something I avoided.

Luckily, there are backscratchers you can buy without committing to anything or having to offer anything in return (other than the purchase price for the retail

A backscratcher and a shower brush were two of the things I bought for myself soon after the divorce. Mainly because I didn't get far trying to reach the area under my shoulder blades and rubbing my back over the corner of the door frame wasn't getting it. I also tried using a pen and even a pair of scissors (closed) but they were risky because I didn't want to draw in ink on myself or end up being scratched too much by the blades of the scissors.

I've seen a few styles of backscratchers but I prefer the wooden type rather than those made of metal. The wood has a softer edge and doesn't get cold. I don't want my back clawed at by a metal backscratcher after all.

In the case of the shower brush I like a stronger brush, not soft and smushy. I keep it hanging from the shower soap dish and always run the hot water over it just before I get out of the shower. Now and then I run it through the dishwasher to make sure it gets a good cleaning between showers.

I keep my backscratcher right at my computer desk. Ready to serve.

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in the late 70's with my Dad as the Dungeon Master and myself, brother and sisters as the players. Now and then a friend would be over and join in the game. But, it was a lot more complicated to join in than a game of cards or Monopoly or any other board game. So, usually having people join in wasn't so great. By the time we explained the game and set up new characters for them, it would be about time for them to go home to their own family.

By the early 80's my Dad was no longer playing and I was the Dungeon Master. I loved drawing and creating maps. I'd never admit it to my brother and sisters but I did rearrange the original map as they wandered along through it. How can you not give in to the temptation to move things around when the players seem to blunder along and miss the best stuff you had put there for them to find? Not all of it was bad. Most of it they could have survived.

I never knew Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was supposed to be for boys. It never occurred to me that being a female Dungeon Master was unusual. It was a lot of fun. I was glad when I could take over from my Dad. He was far too strict about following all the rules. We never seemed to get the game off the ground while he was in charge. I was less rule abiding. We skipped several steps from the player guide but we all got into the game. Not just the game play but really enjoying the adventure and using our imagination.

These Days...

In writing about women playing Dungeons and Dragons I've found that we don't really stand out so much as we once would have. Women are mixing in like any other game player. There aren't many resources geared to women playing D&D because that kind of exclusivity just isn't important any more. Except, it is still nice to be a girl and feel different from the other grunting, sword carrying, usually taller and less curvier players.

I wonder if women playing D&D dress up for it in costumes. It would be fun but could bring out more of the differences between players rather than keeping the spirit of the game and just having a lot of fun as part of a group of adventurers risking life and limb at the whim of the Dungeon Master.

Essential Dungeons and Dragons Game Play and Resources

• Wizards of the Coast

• Dragon*Con

• What D&D Character Am I?

• Live-action women's Dungeons and Dragons show - Boing Boing

Dungeons and Dragons for the Women Gamers

• Dungeons and Dragons | Pinterest
• Girls and D&D | Dungeon Bastard
• The 10 Hottest Ladies of Dungeons & Dragons - Topless Robot
• Dungeon Divas: Dice, Women, & Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures
• People them with Monsters: Familial D&D Adventures with the Girls
• Guttersnipe: Girls Do Play D&D | Fantasy Magazine
• Girls in Geekdom: Dispelling the Myth | Ask the Dungeon Master
• Introducing D&D to Girly Girls | GeekDad | Wired.com

Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set

I miss the old red box. A cosmetic thing but still... it was such a great shade of red. But, it is great to have an update to the starter set. I wouldn't pass it up