i love my coffee

ahh.. 14 hours down, 5 to go.. of coffee making that is!
that's just under 20 hours of coffee in three days, man am I tired!

I've really been enjoying work. great people and a great job, how can I not! I feel like I've just made a massive leap and have shot right up from newby to full time coffee maker!  (I dont think I'm confident enough to call my self a "barista" yet.. give it a couple of weeks and we'll see!) since I've been on coffee quite a lot I've noticed I'm picking up on a lot more details such as slight over or under dosing and incorrect extraction times. I've then been drawing on the knowledge I've picked up from my previous training/experiences and research to try and solve the problem, sometimes its obvious like stale beans or overdosing which I can easily adjust but today.. all weekend actually, the coffee's been pretty messed up! its been taking a minimum of 8 seconds to start the extraction .. usually it should take 4 max, and then it lets out this overly dark -to the point of burnt- crema in a very thin and dense dripping stream. it was sooo hard to work with! i was taking out about half of the coffee grinds and barley touching it with the tamp. it was defiantly frustrating but then i felt a lot better about how i was coping while I was on my break watching Ellen trying to make coffee, she had defiantly had enough by the time i was back on!