Backtrack to a Birthday

Back in August we had a birthday. We had a simple and very fun backyard party here in our very own backyard. As you can see, the birthday boy wore his superhero costume. Above, he has just opened what turned out to be the specialest present of all, a little paper mache box shaped like a cat, containing three guitar picks. Guitar picks are very special things to Ezra. He carries them around and benevolently dispenses them. He loves having this sweet box that looks like "his cat" to keep his picks in.
We had a puppet show, totally kid-run.
It was a costume party. I believe Gibbie was a pirate, Gabe a lion, Helen a queen, Natalie and Janine fairies, and Kaleb wore a dazzling white suit. Friends, neighbors, family, and cousin Fiona were also in attendance. Above we see the duck pond. Kids fished for plastic ducks with a net to win a cookie.

One of the real treats of Ezra's birthday was having our friend Kaleb with us. He knows Ezra well and gave him a special present which Ezra is opening in the last picture here. You can also see the hand-decorated birthday signage and wrapping paper.

Cupping at Bull Run

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do some cupping at the new Bull Run / Rustica shop in Minneapolis. Some of my coffee friends have been heavily involved in the launching of this venture and it's exciting that good coffee has made it across the river to Minneapolis.

I'm trying to do as much cupping as possible these days because I will soon be a roaster! Amore Coffee is working on our new location in West St. Paul that has a roaster. I have a lot of learning to do about the craft of roasting, but I also want to get as much experience as I can tasting coffee so that I can keep evaluating the beans I select and the roasting I do. Yesterday we cupped coffees from Bull Run, Black Sheep, Stumptown, and one from Dunn Brothers. The selection from Dunn Brothers was so bad that we removed it from the cupping table. I, however, was excited to get to taste it because I want to know what different roasting defects taste like. My fellow cuppers thought I was crazy for lingering over the "bad" one!

I've been Yelped

I don't make a point of looking at online review sites very much, mostly because I don't trust them. (There are so many ways that a review can be biased: anything from ignorance to conflict of interest to personal vendetta, etc.) That being said, it's always nice to get a compliment.

My boss Cathy showed me this review today on yelp.com that included the comment, "Paul, their groovy super-barista was working, and he does a great job. Coffee was really great today. I appreciate they have constantly tried to improve and it's obvious that they have put thought and consciousness into their product."

Thanks, Guya I., whoever you are.

YouTube Star

I'm sure there are many of you who understand the mysteries of YouTube much better than I do. For some reason, this video I took a long time ago of Gibbie and Ezra climbing up a slide has gotten over 36,000 views. I have a little suspicion that some unfortunate misconstruing of the title may have generated some of the hits... but who knows. I guess it's kind of cute anyway.

The Full Cup Strikes Back

It's been a long time, I know, but The Full Cup is back and ready to take over. Our family took over an abandoned (foreclosed) house across the street from our former residence and have been working hard since May to make it livable. Now that the house has a fully functional kitchen, working plumbing (one out of two bathrooms isn't too bad), and a new furnace, we're ready to tell the tale.

To go with the title of this post, here's Gibbie getting as close to watching Star Wars has he's ever been. Gibbie and Ezra are quite enthralled with Star Wars, but have only second-hand information and this vintage soundtrack LP to go by. Gibbie loves to sit like this with the jacket propped open looking at pictures of the movie and imagining Star Wars as he listens to the score. We'll often hear him walking around the house humming "dun dun da-dun, dun da-dun, dun da-dun" and talking about Dart Vader (misspelling intentional).

I think this speaks to the power of media in our lives, the power of a story, and the power of imagination. I wonder what it will be like when they're older and watch the real Star Wars movies. Will it be an opening of a whole imaginative world to them, or a pale shadow of the book version in their heads?