I've got a hella lot of travel over the next few weeks. I'll be in Vancouver for some of the time, but I'll also be in planes (jets and turboprops), trains (T-Max line) and automobiles (the venerable Geo Tracker, and a TBA car I rented for Ottawa) for quite a bit of time.

First up is the NASCORE show in Portland. I'm attending for a couple of reasons - to report on the happenings for the CG website; to touch base with a bunch of folks I know through email; to hook up with Dan Hughes and his wife Dawna on Saturday for dinner; to check out the regional barista championships; and of course, to check out "all da stuff!". I am a coffeegeek, after all.

Jeanette's coming with me so I got a swank hotel right off Pioneer Square. Should be fun. We hop in the car in, oh, about 12 hours for the drive (leaving very early in the morning).

Next up is a trip to Boston. I'm leaving next Thursday. This is for the fall meetings of the SCAA, and I'm going along to help in any way I can with a new membership category - the eMember proposals. I'm looking forward to that, but not the flight.

Next to that, on Sunday, I fly from Boston to Ottawa to spend almost a week with my Mom, who isn't doing so well. I'll have to work while I'm there (we have a VIP client we're trying to finish a job for, over at WebMotif), but I hope to get in a lot of Q time with my Mom. I'll also hook up with Hamid from Morala Trading, and hopefully Brian Swan from Macaw. And of course, I'm looking forward to seeing an old friend again, Heather Earle.

Finally, around October 4, I should be back in Vancouver proper. Whew. Then there's CoffeeFest in Seattle in November... sigh.

New Stuff and Observations
Right now, I have enough products for Detailed Review candidates to populate CoffeeGeek through March of next year. It's kind of overwhelming, but once the reviews got popular with vendors and importers, they all wanted in on the first come, first served situation. I'm trying desperately to do two a month, but it's tough. I've set pretty high requirements for the DRs, and cranking them out is not an easy feat. Still, they remain the most popular portion of the CG site, so try I must.

But I want to make clear - this isn't a job, it's an adventure! I just wish I had more hours in the day to enjoy more of my adventures :)

Here's some of the new machines sitting around the basement at the moment - you can click each image for a larger version. If anyone has any questions about these machines, I'd be happy to answer what I can, but remember, they'll all have First Looks and Detailed Reviews soon.

Isomac Millennium Might as well start with the big boy. This machine is so cool, I may give up my Livia and buy this from the vendor after I finish the review.	Isomac Venus Another of six (yes, six) Isomacs I currently have in house. This one is a good leg up competitor on the Rancilio Silvia	Gaggia Carezza Quite a nice machine for around $220 or so, it has a commercial sized PF and some nice features.
Capresso CoffeeTEC I like gizmos. I like them more when they work well, and this thing seems to work VERY well in my initial run throughs.	Francis!2 X3 This is the machine that may make me eat some of my words. Early performance is good.	Spidem Delizia Another budget machine, features similar to Starbucks' Barista machine.