Coffee

I finished the last of the coffee Klund roasted.  Good stuff.  He called it Sweet Maria's Espresso Monkey for reasons I can't intuit.  Little lighter than I usually drink, but also much more flavorful than what I usually drink.

FFG Redux

We told my wife all about how much fun we had at Fantasy Flight Games, so when she was off work on Friday we took her up there for coffee, lunch, and gaming.  I think we spent over 4.5 hours there and most of it was because she was having fun (not that we weren't).  It was a huge gaming week at our house.  In addition to two trips to FFG, we also played Castle Dice at Dunn Brothers on Wednesday night (and took a huge book on the history of NASCAR to work as a gift for Ron and left candy with the security guard), Masterpiece, and Boss Monster.  Ah...and Dominion.  Two sets.  The shelves are having an effect.

While we were at FFG we played Cthulhu Fluxx again, three person this time.  And we learned Wasabi, where you order your sushi with extra wasabi points for putting the ingredients in the right order.  There are special cards for moving pieces around, stacking them, and swapping them, so it starts to be a real challenge getting the rare ingredients to stay in place on the board.



Here's part way into Wasabi.  Some of the ingredients have a single tile.  We tried to determine how many games are on their shelves.  If you go with a reasonable 10 per shelf and 7 shelves per case, there are over 500 games there.  I think it's significantly more.  An amazing collection including some Kickstarter-ed games.  Half the fun is just reviewing them to see what you want to play next.


We also played Get Bit! which Eryn has wanted to play since she saw it on Table Top.  What do you call the first player to lose at Get Bit?  Bob.


Swim faster little guys!


And we got in a game of Alhambra, which Kyle, Ming, Adam and I have played several times.  Wasn't my choice, so I didn't have to feel guilty about having them play something I already knew (and my wife won! She's the red marker).  They were worried because the rules were in another language, but I remembered them well enough to play.  I couldn't manage to get a very long outer wall to save my life which really ended up costing me a lot of points.



My wife wanted two pictures of her win as it happens so seldom.

Eryn picked up a copy of Werewolf for her birthday party and Pooteewheet pre-ordered a copy of Dead of Winter when I mentioned they'd be doing a reprint soon.  I better get my other games in before that shows up as I suspect it will be the favorite for a while.

I'm going to skip mentioning Saturday because it was a mix of taxes and Fast and Furious 7.  Eryn has seen many of the other F&F movies (as in 5, 6, and 7, the ones after she was 6), so she really wanted to go.  Vin did a nice job making it a goodbye to Paul Walker without subtracting from the nonstop action, although the idea of a full size military drone flying around a US city with the government knowing about it seems a bit ludicrous.  Ha!  Punny! Despite not being spelled the same.

Dunn

Day three of vacation was the usual for Eryn and me, a trip to Dunn Brothers for morning coffee.  Although it was almost four hours long given all the work I had to catch up on so I could enjoy the rest of the week. I didn't take any pictures, but not surprisingly I have pictures of her sitting in the exact same spot she sat yesterday only a week early.  The only difference is yesterday I sat on the right side of Dunn working at a table instead of the left side of Dunn reading a Stephen King's Revival (great book, by the way). Eryn presumably played Minecraft both times.

So these will suffice to document our day at Dunn Brothers.  Really, most of our days at Dunn Brothers.  I finished the day doing bills and catching up on Table Top episodes I haven't seen (if you stare hard at the back wall this season, Eryn's name is somewhere on one of the bricks).


Zoom, zoom, zoom.


Zoom, zoom, zoom.  Black and white.

Double Entendre Mug

One of the developers who used to be in my org chain (I hate saying that - let's say one of the developers I used to work with) and really liked left me this mug when he took off to Amazon.  It's a good size and, with an office and satellite cube closer to my team, I left it in the cube so I have a coffee cup in each location.  It wasn't until last week, probably while zoning from being less caffeinated since December 1, that I realized the decoration along the bottom is a bit dubious.  I'm not saying it's decorated with erect phalli and testes, the other side looks a little more noses with mustaches, but it would be hard not to see it once someone pointed it out to you.

This hasn't stopped me from using it.  I'm perfectly comfortable being the manager with the Tardis mug and that weird phallus mug.  It's not the most controversial manager characteristic I'm aware of over the last 17 years.

Farewell Tenney at Claddagh

We went to see Erik play with his new/reboot band, Farewell Tenney, at Claddagh coffee shop tonight.  They were very good - a much more folksy sound then in the past.


Farewell Tenney's female band member even took out a violin for a few of the songs.


And I liked the more family friendly venue at a coffee shop.  This is my Hot Molly: espresso, cayenne, cinammon, and honey.  Better than a hot chocolate - not nearly as sweet.


Here it is with friends.  My wife's mocha latte and Eryn's hot chocolate.


Some videos of Farewell Tenney in action.  The slide guitar was an excellent.  Erik's in there.  He just happens to be hiding behind Dan.


Still hiding behind Dan.  Although his daughter came around the right side, from my perspective, to see him.  That's not her in the video.  She's younger.  Much younger.  Great turnout.  The place was absolutely packed.

We did mustaches, now coffee...

I enjoy this quote about coffee.  I've been trying to kick my Caribou habit in favor of a non-cost work-coffee alternative.  I am not thrilled with the idea.  As an alternative, I brewed up some coffee before I left home, but I find it disappointing not to have a good cup in hand during the first hour of the work day and what I brew at home I drink in the car.

I am a disappointment...

I was at the coffee shop in Inver Grove Heights yesterday, waiting for Eryn’s school to let out as I'm solo this week and she doesn't have after school care on Fridays.  Not to mention, I needed to pick her up and get her home so we could go to dinner before she went to see Tracy Grammer at the Landmark Center with my folks.  So I was sitting there working, as the whole reason for going to the coffee shop was to avoid the twenty minute late-day walk into work from the fifth parking lot, almost beyond the bunker, at 2:00 p.m. after my doc appointment, only to have to turn around and walk back out to go pick her up.  Seemed appropriate to use that saved forty minutes to do a bit of work if that was my rationale.  I could have used my handicapped permit to get within minutes of the door, but despite that it's good through December, I quit using it long ago in order to exercise the leg and because someone who's really handicapped, not merely uncomfortable, might need the spot.

Anyway, I was sitting there with my laptop and coffee when a very attractive Korean woman walks into the cafe.  I'd put her at about 28.  I looked at her and was surprised when she looked back at me intently, checking me out.  Then, rather then just look away, she gave me an obvious look of disapproval, as though I'd somehow let her down.  Really let her down. I actually felt sort of bad, like I'd disgusted her in a palpable way.  She hesitated for a moment, as though she were going to talk to me, and then she looked over my shoulder and visibly relaxed.  After she walks past me and sits down, I take a look, and realize she was checking out the guy at the next table who was much younger and, dare I say, much more attractive, than me.  If you're into muscled, hunky, mid- to upper-twenties types.

They chat for a while, and I realize that perhaps they're on a blind date.  So the disgust and relief are presumably over me as a potential date, and him as the obvious date.  I'd feel bad, but I’m rationalizing it by assuming it was my gold wedding ring which earned her disapproval.  Or that I was obviously doing work while waiting for her to show up for our date, rather than sitting around nervously.

Altsie

I read this post about Altsie on the MHTA newsletter today...a very cool idea:

In a nut, Altsie allows bars, restaurants and other local venues to become one-night-only independent movie theaters. 

On the programming side, that involves working with independent film distributors to select one great new release each month, and to secure the public performance rights. On the venue side, the company provides marketing and ticketing support (via Altsie.com) and also manages the shipping of each month’s Blu-Ray disc to each venue. Venues have to provide their own player, projector and screen — and Altsie requires that they also provide a dedicated space for the screening to avoid non-paying customers from simply wandering in.

However, Apocalypse, CA, seems like bot-faire...really like bot faire.  I expected Joel and the bots (or Mike, but I'm a Joel guy) to show up in the trailer...

Caffeine in the Hat

I haven't posted for a week because I've been on family vacation. We took Eryn down to Orlando, Florida, as she's been asking to go to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios for a year now and Halloween seemed like the perfect time. We had a great trip. I didn't bring back much in the way of touristy swag. Only one item if you don't include the autographed picture of an astronaut I had signed for a coworker who used to work for NASA. Here is my Cat in the Hat (tm) coffee cup for work so that I can switch between it and my Dr. Who Tardis mug. I'm dangerously close to being "the manager with all the stupid coffee cups."

Addicting Substances

I had a headache today. I think I finally traced a bit of it back to not having any caffeine. I've been downgrading my consumption for over a week, mixing a little bit of caffeinated into a bunch of decaf in the morning. It's both good for my health and my pocketbook, as I prefer Caribou to the corporate coffee, although I'm still getting Caribou on Monday and Friday when it's between $0.55 and $1.

And I bought the most expensive bottle of Scotch I've ever purchased today. A $70 bottle of Lagavulin, recommended by Chris from work on Facebook when I mentioned Dan, also from work, had put me on to Laphroig. I had a very small drink of it, and it is delicious. Maybe if I give up my Caribou coffee habit I can afford a bottle now and then. In order to make it last, I've given myself a rule that it's a reward for every five hours on the bicycling trainer. Couple your bad habits to fulfilling your good ones, right?

Four Acquisitions

I own some new things! Item one, Ming finally picked up our Randy's Pizza Challenge t-shirts that proclaim, "I can't believe I ALMOST ate the Whole Thing!" I can now show off that I'm a loser because a.) I took a huge pizza challenge and b.) because I couldn't complete it.


Ming brought me some coffee from Malaysia. Notice the word "mixture"? It scared me. I was worried it might be full of secondary civet food or something. But I looked up the words for the additives and they translated as margarine and sugar, and that seems safe enough. This morning I brewed up the first batch and it tasted pretty much like Folger's or Maxwell House, but a little bit better. Probably because of the margarine and sugar.


Also from Ming. Durian candy. I haven't been brave enough to try one yet. But here's a fun vignette.

Eryn: "Dad, do you have candy?"
Me: "Yes, honey. I do. Here!"
Eryn, pops it in mouth: "I don't know what this is. What is this? ... Oh. This is BAD."
Me: "At least it wasn't ranch dressing."


The bicycle chain snake my wife bought me at the Mall of America while She Says and hubby were in town for JACL and to visit us. Ssssss..... I think Eryn calls him "Wormy". Very cool use of old bicycle bits.

Coffee Moment

While I appreciate Mean Mr. Mustard's contribution to "I need something better than c-building, but cheaper than in-house 'bou" coffee mornings, a big bag of Starbuck's Italian Roast Extra Bold, featuring a bright red scooter, obviously representing some sort of subliminal, or liminal, lust for me, tomorrow we will be drinking Dunn Brothers Papua New Guinea, French Roast, Free Trade, for which I was comped half of a free drink when they couldn't get my card to process properly, and which Pooteewheet has helpfully labeled in green capital block letters, "LIBERAL COFFEE." Note that this [35 year old man arrested for Dunn Bros robbery - Farmington (Minnesota) Independent] is not me.