u/RucksackTech

Just today, in another thread here, I said the Moka Pot is practically fool-proof, and so it is. But practically fool-proof just means you have to be a really big fool to mess it up. Like me. Listen and learn (or just don't be a fool).

The grates on my range have too big a gap in the middle to hold my Moka Express so I use a metal disc that came with the range for this situation. When I go to make a pot in the Moka Express I do the following:

1. Turn the burner on to medium-low heat
2. Tell Google Home to set timer for six minutes
3. Put water and then grounds into the Moka Express and screw on the upper half
4. Put Moka Express on the burner plate

Steps 3 and 4 take about 30 seconds. Normally about 5 minutes later — shortly before the timer goes off — the coffee starts to flow out of the tube in the moka pot. Normally.

Today, the six minute timer went off and there was no coffee yet. If I weren't an idiot, I'd have stopped right there, but no, I doubled down. A couple minutes later I heard a small voice in the attic of my brain yelling, "Hey Bozo, did you actually put water in the pot?" Who's Bozo, I wondered.

Around the 9 minute point, I gave up and pulled the pot off the stove.

No water. Worse, the gasket was starting to melt. It's a mess. I have gotten most of it cleaned up and I might be able to keep the pot but I'll have to get a new gasket. Or maybe I'll just get a new pot.

This has never happened before and I've made lots of pots of moka. But now I know to pay attention to that timer. And to start paying attention to the weight of the pot when I put it on the stove.

I'm not telling my wife about this.

In the English-to-Italian listing in WordReference.com for "Find", there's this example of "find" meaning incontrare:

I found John at the station waiting for a taxi.
Ho incontrato John alla stazione che aspettava un taxi.

My question isn't about this definition but about the second half of the example. To translate the circumstantial phrase "waiting for a taxi", is this Italian (che aspettava un taxi) natural, normal, correct? Something about this strikes me as odd. For starters, as a native English speaker, if I were translating that Italian back into English, I'd come up with "I encountered John at the station that was waiting for a taxi", which is horrible English. I can see

Ho incontrato John alla stazione. Aspettava un taxi.

Indeed that's probably how I would have said this myself since I find these circumstantial phrases/clauses tricky. But I might have tried a more literal translation

... alla stazione aspettando un taxi.

Or perhaps

Ho incontrato John alla stazione mentre aspettava un taxi.

Although I see that that's got a slightly different sfumatura (great word, that).

Anyway it's that che in the original sentence that throws me.

Wife and I are considering a visit to the Lake Como area. We know the beauty of the area draws a lot of visitors but, whenever we can, we really prefer to avoid large crowds. How bad is Lake Como likely to be in the last week or so of November 2026? Is there an attractive alternative in that part of Italy that we might consider?

Been to Italy many times. Wife and I are planning a three-month stay in 2027, where we would rent an apartment. Small town, not sure where, probably in the south but that's under consideration. Anyway we'd like to bring our dogs this time. I'm nervous about flying the dogs over though. It's pretty awful to be a human stuck in a seat for 12 hours; how awful is it for a dog? Do the carriers provide a special long-trip crate that allows the dog to pee without getting itself wet or dirty? Do you have to buy your own crate and if so what do you do with it afterwards? Do you have a particular carrier to recommend?

p.s. We're flying from Texas to Italy (and eventually, back).