New Blog

Hello everybody, I have a new blog for my storytelling. Storytellerpat. It's pretty neat.

New Mascot

I think this mascot picked Kopplin's coffee. This is about the weirdest thing thats happened at the shop that I can think of so far. We had a visit from a hummingbird. A ruby throated hummingbird. We caught him after about 2 hours of him flying around the shop, we safely released him.

Tame the Loch Ness Monster

I'm really only refering to Kopplin's coffee's espresso machine the Synesso Cyncra, who some of us lovingly call nessy. I could probably also refer to me when I say that - I've been reading some cool stuff from a singleness website... Anyway, I now work upwards of 36 hours there, thank you Kopplin, thank you Amie! It's going to be a really fun time working so much on the machine and with all our customers. I also have the time now to start back at Storytelling. I'm still working on a home roaster, that should be done within the next two months or so. Aside from those two things, which is a lot, I'm also starting a workout program. One of my customers from Kopplin's has been a personal trainer in Switzerland and offered to help me set up a program. So now I'll be working out four days a week and trying to love it... It's mostly for mental health that I'm doing it, I do feel a little sluggish, but mainly for mental health. Ok, well, if you want to hear some stories just let me know.

The Fair is over.

The fair is over and I am thankful for that! It was an interesting time, I had fun with the people I worked with and with some of the folks who attended, but whoa, it was a crazy time! Some say it's the cause of all the problems in the state but ... I like it? For the most part I do, there are so many things that could happen and so much excitement! In fact, if you stare for a while and listen to all thats going on around you, the smells and movement, it may be the closest I've gotten to chaos. Especially with "Weird Al" Yankovic singing (and yes it's actually him in the flesh) in the background. Towards the end of the fair I began taking my lunch breaks in different animal buildings. I had some really interesting conversations with a farmer who owns 89 head of cattle, about half are dairy and the other are beef cattle. I continued my tour of the cow building to see a girl feeding one of her cows, it was sweet. The day before I walked around the dairy goat building and took a little video of the scene. So, I learned a lot at the fair, about people and animals and that my feet don't like me after thousands of hours standing on concrete.

State Fair pics

I met Erin and Dane late on the first night - it was so cool!















This was on the bus ride home - she was so sleepy, fell asleep on my arm for the whole bus ride. Cute...





Butter Queen, and a Butter Princess. Only in Minnesota.








Here are some folks I work with - they look a little surprised I'm taking a picture, hehe.






Here's Tina showing some little fangs. meow.








Whoa, and this gal ran over to use our computer to check the rules on judging
out of state pigs, she thought I was funny.

WOW, now in the real ...

I went searching on youtube as well as loading the storm video below and I found this video of me months ago that I forgot was there. Kristen took the footage and aptly called it a dwarf dancing. I mean, look at my character on WOW. Yeeeeaaass, WOW has entered the real. Plus with that facial hair ... I'm bringing sexy back.
The first pic is my gnome actually and then the bigger guy is my dwarf. I think I look like the two.

Question??

I was thinking of starting my storytelling again, making a stronger effort to penetrate the storytelling "scene" here in the twin cities. Does any one think it's really worth it? Honestly, I can take it. Tell me if you'd see me perform, or send your kids to see me? Ok, thanks.

I heard voices in the wind

I experienced a high last night like no other. I did not do drugs, no. I did not have sex, jump out of a plane or rocket into space. I did something better, it was so invigorating that I think everyone should do it! I have not done this in seven years, since I was maintenance man at a camp.
As you know we had a huge and violent storm roll through the twin cities last night. I ran up and down the street in that storm, naked. I love storms, I love rain, and I was naked in one last night.

I drove down a thief

Ok, today was a long day. I woke up early after going to bed late installing an espresso machine at the coffee shop. Not a real cool thing to do late at night. I drove up to Ramsey MN to roast coffee and left there at about 3. I got home at 3:45 to take a shower and this is where my rage began.
My bike is in the entry way of my home, in my house. I ran up stairs, took a shower, got dressed and came down stairs to go to work again, all in 15 minutes. In coming down stairs my bike was gone, the door wide open and a shitty bike in it's place.

No way ...

15 minutes and my bike is gone! "This is not happening, I have to go to work and my bike is gone! I'm gonna find you you bastard." I ran down to my truck in a fever and swung around, pacing back and forth through the streets around my home. I saw two people talking about there dogs and I asked if they've seen anyone riding a red bike.
"Oh, are you looking for someone?" in a super concerned voice.
"I'm looking for the bike!" I said. And then they went on about how thats been a problem in the neighborhood and how someone should really do something about that, and ... then -
"there's a red bike!" the man says. I floor it in park and wrench it down into drive, kicking up pavement. This devious thief, leisurely riding on my bike, doesn't notice that this racing truck is actually the owner of the bike he's riding on. I drive past him accidentally because he's riding toward me so I slam on the brakes and with all 2.2 liters of power throw it in reverse throwing dirt, pavement and metal shavings from my engine into the air.
He's startled and scared, but acts like he doesn't notice. Oh, but I make him notice when I jump out of the truck and say:
"Hey dude, that's my fucking bike!"
"Ah, I gave you my bike ..."
"Get off my bike dude!"
The people with the dogs begin to bombard him with hateful commentary on the state of thievery in the neighborhood as I yank the bike from under him and throw it in my truck. I start to dial 911 as he runs back to his bike. I hang up the phone. The people with dogs relay their commentary they had with the man to me. But I'm not listening. I have temporarily left the matrix to get some weapons. I come back and using all my focus and might I fly up into the sky, weapons in hand. I can feel their thirst for blood, the blood of my enemy. The world is a fire, unquenchable and these people begin to fade away and all I see is my enemy and his fear. He should be afraid, because fate has it that he will die by my hand.
But then I remember, I have to go to work. And I leave to brew coffee and espresso.

I realize at work that my bike had been stolen and I had no idea where the thief went, I tracked him down, and got it back. Thank you Lord, for helping me get my bike back. Really.

Whoa, it's august already!

Hey there. I haven't written in a while but I'm still alive, the whole bridge falling thing caught everyone off guard. I was directed to a coffee blog by my new friend Crabby Pants, she knows the guy who writes it, it's pretty coffee crazy. Hair of the Goat
I also found a site through this one that has a totally cool blue tooth head set!!!

Thank you Kristy

"I think a pillow should be the peace symbol, not the dove. The pillow has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have a beak to peck you with."

Whoa, Cafe Imports whoa!!

Hello. I went to visit my friend Jamin today at Cafe Imports ... thats where he works! He's quality control over there. It's quite a place! Think of all the coffee you could think of and then think of some more. There's a lot of coffee here, um probably in the millions of dollars worth. He gave me a tour and then we cupped seven different Guatemala's and one Nicaraguan. Then we cupped two others to find specific faults. There was word flying around about a certain coffee that had a distinct petrol taste. Starbucks had rejected a lot because it was bad, and another roaster said he felt nervous lighting a match near it it smelled so much like kerosene. Well, we didn't really have that much of a reaction, one cup tasted like vaseline but only slightly - still, not a good flavor and wouldn't be sold.
All in all it was a really interesting afternoon. I found out a little bit of how Cafe Imports started, it was by mistake partly. About fifteen years ago a guy from Minnesota had a couple friends in Brazil who had a coffee crop, they decided to buy a little and see if they could sell it here in MN. While the shipment of coffee floated and bobbed from Brazil to the US of A, Brazil had a horrible frost that killed nearly all coffee crops in the country. Thats when VietNam became the largest exporter of coffee in the world and those little beans on a boat to Minnesota tripled in value! Whoa, they said, maybe coffee's the way to go? And thats the loose story of how Cafe Imports came to be. And the moral of the story is: always be prepaired for the unexpected... or go with the unexpected or frost ... kills. Or something like that.

Song in my head

jug jigga jug jigga jug jigga jug jigga jug Captain Planet, He's our Hero. Gonna turn polution down to zero ... jug jigga jug jigga jug jigga jug jigga jug

And I'm a dork ...

Bedd Gelert

For it is said that in the days when all our countryside was covered in woodland and wild animals roamed freely, Princes and the gentry used valleys such as this for their hunting expeditions. One such Prince was Llywelyn the Great. One fine morning he set out with his huntsmen and hounds to chase deer, leaving behind his infant son and heir at the hunting lodge. Amongst the Prince's pack was a hound named Gelert. A strong beast, dedicated to his Master. But on this day for no reason, the hound disappeared. Llywelyn, assuming that Gelert may have returned to the hunting lodge, turned around his horse and headed back. On entering the building, he was confronted by his faithful hound whose mouth and paws were bloodstained. The prince was immediately horror stricken and rushed to find his child. The cradle lay upturned and there was no sign of the infant. In his anger, Llywelyn drew his sword and plunged it into the hound. A faint cry brought him back to near the cradle and finding the child safe, he also found the limp body of a savage wolf. Great sadness then fell on the prince, for had it not been for his faithful hound Gelert, the baby would surely have been slain. So in honour that his hound's name should live on, Llywelyn had Gelert buried.
"The tomb, or what is said to be the tomb, of Gelert stands in a beautiful meadow just below the precipitous side of Cerrig Llan: it consists of a slab lying on its side, and two upright stones. It is shaded by a weeping willow, and is surrounded by a hexagonal paling. Who is there acquainted with the legend, whether he believes that the dog lies beneath these stones or not, can visit them without exclaiming with a sigh "Poor Gelert!".

My beans are burnin'

Oh the excitement of a possible roaster fire. OOoooh, I get giddy like a kid at christmas. Little bitty bits of chaff igniting in one glorious fire ball moment. Too bad it didn't happen. You thought you'd get to see pics of a warehouse of fire and me dancing in the ashes like a crazy drunk mosquito or something. Ok, thats kinda weird. But seriously, i was watching my last batch of coffee and I began to see some fun colors in the roaster window. ooo, big flames, thats neat, hope don't get any bigger...
We were really busy today, I roasted 317 lbs of green coffee today. Thats more than me and Jenny combined, thats like ... 634 burgers or something or around 300 loafs of bread. Um, yeah. Anyway this is my day, and I'm listening to Hank Williams.

I'm hip like that

So I worked with a new friend today at Kopplin's, Jamin. Like Benjamin only drop the ben. Only now we call him "hot pants". Anyway, we were talking about being hip in the twenty first century and how all the cool cats are on myspace and how he had just opened up a myspace page. Oh but hot pants, I have one too. The cool cats now are blogging their lives away. So soon I think we'll be seeing Mr. Hot pants blogging the day lights out of me but until then...

You like this??

Today at work I've been trying my customer's drinks. Ok, not drinking from them and then giving it to them, but making the same drink again. It's interesting. I have a customer named Chris who gets a latte with cold milk. It's actually not that bad - if you have a good espresso. For a while he was calling it "the pain in the ass latte" or "the silly latte" and we all knew what he meant. I don't think any of us had ever tried it because we know how good a real latte is. The neat thing about steaming milk is that as it steams it becomes a little sweeter, naturally, until you scald it(hopefully you don't). So I wouldn't expect Chris's latte to be very sweet since it's cold. Well, it wasn't, but it did allow the espresso to shine a little more than usual. The milk wasn't bad though, how could it be? It's Cedar Summit - grass fed cows, non-homogenized, milked with love. Oh, the milk is so good anyway.
I also tried a ... bear with me now, a skim vanilla iced latte. Yeah... ok, keep in mind that I use organic vanilla and milk. I extracted Terroir's Ethiopia Yirg into a preheated cocktail shaker, added the vanilla, stirred and then added the skim and shook with ice, then poured over ice. I left a little for myself to check out. Wow, that was the best skim vanilla iced latte I've ever had. It might just be the ingredients, cause I don't think I'd like it other wise. Or maybe I'm just prejudice against those kinds of people that usually get it, or maybe it's the way Starbucks makes it. I don't know.
Lattes are an American drink anyway, I don't think Italy would own up to one any day. They don't make anything larger than a Cappuccino, I don't blame 'em.

So all you "fancy" "floosey" drinkers out there getting flavored sshhhhhtuff, stop it. Order up a double espresso and be done with it.

I hate my brain

So, I'm at number three, Migraines that is. I'm squinting at the screen with ear plugs in. This sucks. Why not just smack me up side the head with a bat, it'll be over quicker. Uh. ... Maybe beer helps? JK.

Violet

I got another plant, thanks Lori. It's called a sensitive plant, native to Brazil and has pink or purple little flowers. But thats not the coolest part. When you touch the leaves ... they close ... by themselves. OOoooooooooo.
It was brought into the coffee shop where Lori introduced it to a customer as a special plant, he replied: "can we smoke it?" No, but he was fascinated when she blew lightly on the leaves and they retracted. And again, OOOOoooooooooooo. It was fun. And now Teddy has a window partner.

10 Bags

We got a shipment of coffee today, 10 bags, from Ethiopia and Sumatra. I think it's the coolest thing to know these were actually shipped from Sumatra and from Ethiopia! I know that may sound silly because ofcourse thats where they came from. But think about it, someone took the time to hand pick ripe berries from a tree and put them in a bag. Then they let them dry and stripped the berrie's fruit from the seed - which is the green coffee. They dried a little more and then were bagged into large burlap sacks weighing 130 lbs each, loaded onto trucks and taken to a dock. Then these beans took a long voyage across the sea, about two and a half months till they reach the shores of the US. The Sumatra took about a two months to get to Oakland California (Ethiopia took about two and a half months) and then traveled straight to Paradise Roasters in Ramsey MN, where a small, Lord of the Ring dwarfish looking man jumped from the cab of his truck and said:" you paradise?" "yup." And we started to unload a half a ton of green coffee beans from the truck. I then move a half a ton of coffee by myself from one side of the warehouse to the other, while nursing a 400 degree coffee eating monster inbetween.
So sit back and drink the wonderful fruit notes of Blue Batak and the mystery that always surprises me of Lake Tawar and imagine the adventure jounery the coffee took to your cup.

Mood Music

I roast coffee about half the week, and today was a special day. One of our wholesale customers came by and decided to play music while I roasted coffee. That was so nice. I really appreciate that kind of love, only I didn't expect it to be in the form of a Didgeridoo. So that was interesting ...

And then he turned into Elmo and began to comment on the state of "Fair Trade" coffee. That was funny, because he's really not Elmo ... and he's holding a didgeridoo.

I ... will ... blog ... !!!

I make coffee. I try to go fishing when I get the chance. I have a plant named “teddy”. I mist him daily. He is next to my pillow so I can smell his soil. I also roast green coffee beans so they can be ground and steeped in water to make a delightful beverage. When I want to relax, I make myself a vanilla milk, commonly called a “steamer”, and I roll back into a dream of late day sun and strong dry wind weaving in and out of prairie grasses, cooling my skin.