Monthly Archives: January 2008

Since I admitted in my last post that I have been married for 28 years I decided to expound on the joys of enduring marital bliss and how it is directly related to coffee consumption.

By the way, yes I know I have talked about coffee a lot the past few days..I have a tea review coming up..so be patient, ‘k?

Marc and I started having weekly coffee dates about 15 years ago.  We realized that with as big of a family as we were producing, if we were to maintain our identity as a couple, most especially, a couple in love, the we were going to have to prioritize our relationship to the #2 spot in our lives. I say #2 spot because our individual relationships with Jesus Christ will always be the #1 spot.

We really have never had much money.   One income, large family…and, unless you are a CEO somewhere, that does not spell money…and Marc has never been a CEO anywhere but at home.  Great benefits/no pay.  His job had lousy benefits/lousy pay ..anyway…

We decided that we would set aside one hour, one day a week, that was just our time.  We would go away from home, we would do something and talk. Not about problems, not about issues, not about money….we would talk about us, our hopes,  prayers,  dreams, fears, and most importantly, we would relearn the fine art of flirting and sexual tension.  Those two things seem to be the things that die in marriage the quickest. (more…)

There is this cool contest. And I really want to win. Bad.  How much whining do you need to hear?The name of the contest is Death By Chocolate.  Remember the Chocolate & Earl Grey Terrine from a few days ago? Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about.

We have had a tough year. Marc and I iwll be celebrating our 28TH anniversary March 29th and we got married in Monterey Ca.  It would be cool to get a chance to head to Napa..and think of the cool blog posts I could write!

Anyway, total begging does not often happen from me…but this is chocolate we are talking about…AND a chance to spend a weekend ALONE with my husband.  Did I mention we have 6 kids living at home plus our married daughter just moved in with her husband and 2 kids?? Did I mention about our son Chris going to Iraq?I did? Do you feel sorry enough for me to vote for me yet? Good.  Just click on the chocolate contest icon at the top.  ANd know that you have done a very nice thing.

I have been tagged again with 7 random things by Cyndi at Layers Upon Layers. Luckily I am a very random person, full of oddities to amuse you with, so here goes.

1. Out of my 8 children, 6 have been born at home..
2. I am painfully shy in real life, only because I am very intense it tends to be intimidating rather than endearing
3. My dad used to rock me to sleep while singing Mack the Knife to me. The song still puts me to sleep.
4. Marc and my original wedding date was supposed to be march 15, 1980 but we realized it was the Ides and so we changed it to the 29th
5. I don’t swear
6. I can still do the splits
7. I love the red m & ms the best. I have my children so well trained in giving me the red ones that my 25yr old daughter who is living with us still gives me all the red ones in the pack without realizing that she is doing it.

so there ya go.

my 7 victims are:

1. Julie at Play Library
   
2. Noreen at Hankering for Yarn

And I have pretty much tagged everyone else so I will leave it at that. So there.

Celestial Seasonings has been one of my favorite grocery available teas for years.  As an artist I really love their packaging, and as a *greenie* I love the organic/Fair Trade mentality.  This is a warm, fuzzy company if I ever saw one, and I know that somewhere there is someone at Celestial Seasonings wearing birkenstocks and an organic cotton shirt, and reading 19th century poetry. (more…)

For those of you that live on another planet and have never read my blogs and listened to me whine incessantly don’t know, Marc and I are the exhausted owners of a 1910 farmhouse. Yes. Well. It wasn’t actually a farmhouse until it was moved here..It was owned by a rich Dallas family. It was cut in 4 pieces in 1950 and moved 30 miles to where it sits now.

And before everyone is impressed let me tell you that this house was made into a commercial building in the 1970s (read this: had most of the cool stuff removed and sold) and then abandoned on and off. When we got it it had had five transient families living in it at the same time….at least this is what a neighbor told us….and after they were removed the raccoons and squirrels, rats, and mice moved in.

So, why am I writing this on a coffee blog? Because..I have figured out how much coffee it takes to power a restoration and I thought, for those of you that were considering a restoration, I would let you know what kind of cost you have to add to your estimate when you figure in the coffee you will be gulping down at 3 in the morning as you frantically try to patch the ceiling before the insurance inspector shows up at 8 a.m. (more…)

Every once in awhile I like to pull out a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul, have a good read and remind myself that even when I think life is being on the unfair side, ultimately I am a romantic, and an optimist and the good guys always wear the white hats…and they always win.

I have been trying to make it a point to find heart warming stories and post them here, because caffeine twitch or not, coffee drinkers are some of the truly nicest people in the world.  And I think you all want to walk around with that little lump in your throat, and goofy smile…just like me.

So, I decided to make it regular, or as regular as I can…and here is today’s Steamer for the Heart.

Coffee is not a real popular drink in India but companies are trying to make the shift.   The Costa Coffee outlet in New Delhi is one such company, struggling to entice the population of New Delhi to catch the caffeine wave.

Enter the shop and enjoy the quiet, and the calm and unruffled smiles of the young baristas.   Their smiles don’t fade, and the politeness doesn’t change.

The employees cannot hear or speak.  They rely on menus, lip reading, and notepads to  take orders and run the unusual cafe.

The company wanted to hire people who would be motivated and enthusiastic and they found that in these  employees.  The customers love the baristas to the point that many of them are trying to learn sign.  The baristas themselves said that working helps them to feel part of life, less separate, less different.

The story is very long but you can read it here

One of my children was born with only one ear. It is called Mycrotia.  It is amazing how difficult life is when you can hear from only one ear, you don’t appreciate the differences until you deal with a brilliant child that was too ashamed to tell a Royal Rangers (like Boy Scouts) leader that he could not sift through sounds from the back of the room, and so sat and wept quietly as he failed a test.  The leader did not realize he was hearing impaired , and once he did all was well.  Maybe I take a special liking to this story because of that, I don’t know, but I do know that as we see, and experience, people’s differences as being differences rather than be uncomfortable around them we communicate better and become happier.  In this case, customers are bonding with the employees in an unusual way.

So…loads of Kudos to this company..and I hope that it warmed your heart as much as mine.

Teabird, over at Tea Reads asks a simple question. What is your favorite book that noone has heard of? I had to really think about this one, so I went and made a cup of Adiago Foxtrot (when my daughter moved in with her family she brought ALL her tea..JOY!) and thought some more. My favorite books tend to be ones that other people have read too, (more…)

O.k., I almost want to admit that I don;t like football so much but I am kinda afraid to because of what happened on another blog I am involved with. No offense to any Farkers out there, I just don’t care for it.

However..I do like humor. And when I saw this video I absolutely wanted to share it with all of you. Just to, you know, get you in the football mood. Rah.  I could not get the coding to publish right so just click the link…
McDonald’s Premium Coffee Commercial

.I know that you guys probably don’t realize it, so enamored of my wit and coffee/tea meanderings are you, but there really are other blogs out there about coffee and/or tea. Some of them are pretty good. (more…)

Apparently Starbucks is meeting McDonald’s sandbox challenge with a not-so-unique idea.  Obviously the management has been reading Kettle and Cup because they  are going retro, appealing to the baby boomers among us and going for the throat. IHOP’s throat that is. Starbucks is test marketing the $1 bottomless cup, calling it back from the past where it  nestled with AMC Gremlins, and A & W Drive Ins.  Yeah.

So, this amazing ad campaign is going to just simply be a return to the good old days.  I wonder if they will start selling pie rather than the stale cake-like substances that grace the display cases?  And, here’s a thought: roller-skates.

Well, if you live in the Seattle area, I think that is where they are test marketing, let me know how it works.  But if the barista is a tattooed guy named Mel, go for the green tea instead.