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.