Coffee

Last weekend we met Pete, Bec and Paul and walked up to the local farmers market. It's in the parking lot of a local bank, and while it's certainly not huge, it's really a nice place and you can get some good quality stuff at very reasonable prices. We went back this week and picked up some really nice tomatoes, zucchini, bacon, sausage, homemade tamales, guacamole, and coffee from Black Dog. If you know me, you know I love my coffee. The really cool thing about Black Dog, is it's roasted right here locally and if you order online and live nearby they'll deliver to you. They also have a really awesome recipe for iced coffee. For those of you that are interested I'm gonna list my fave coffee shops. Feel free to weigh in with any comments or recommendations you have. I've listed them by local ones that I can get to on a regular basis, and the better ones that I have been to on vacations, etc.

Locals
1. Daily Grind (Charles Town)
Really great coffee, atmosphere and service. I honestly can't recall having a bad cup of coffee from there. They also have free wireless, so if I get cabin fever I'll head down there and work for the afternoon. If they have it I recommend the Iced C drip (over ice of course) and they also make a great au lait.
2. Port City Java (Hagerstown) Very nice atmosphere and really good coffees. They make a really good cinnamon hazelnut latte and if you're looking for a good lunch try the butternut squash soup with one of their wraps or panini. They also make all their espresso drinks with 3 shots, for that extra kick!! And It's down the road from Mom's foot doctor, and since they offer wireless I can take her and still get a full days work in.
3. Panera (anywhere). The House Latte is one of the best drinks anywhere. They also have free wireless, which is a plus.
4. Lost Dog (Shepherdstown). Very much a throwback coffee shop. Owners are very independent and don't mind expressing their opinions. A bit of warning, be wary when taking kids, some of the posted signs are definitely for adults only. I recommend the vanilla wet dog (seltzer, espresso, cream, vanilla and an orange slice). An excellent drink.
5. Starbucks. I know, "the evil empire," "they burn their coffee," "they're putting the independents out of business." Whatever. I like the fact that I go to any Starbucks and get the same thing consistently. I recommend the upside down Cafe Con Leche. I don't like having to pay for internet access though.

Non-Locals
1. Victrola Coffee (Seattle, WA)This was right up the street from the apartment Muffin and I rented for our honeymoon. So it brings back memories of a morning stroll to get coffee and maple bars with the most beautiful woman in the world.
2. A Moment To Remember (Luray, VA) We went to Luray for our anniversary in April and this is a really quaint coffee shop with a great dinner and breakfast menu. Muffin recommends the iced white chocolate mocha and I recommend just a straight au lait.
3. Seattle's Best
This is actually getting closer, I know they're in Borders now, but the closest ones are still 30 mins from me. I really like their 6th Avenue Bistro Blend, it's probably my fave coffee to brew at home.
4. Top Pot Doughnuts (Seattle) This is actually a doughnut shop so don't go looking for a huge variety of espresso drinks, etc. I recommend a maple bar and large coffee. The breakfast of champions!!!

Enjoy!

Mr. Grease and Wrenches

There's a reason God gave me the ability to work with computers and steered me away from the automotive field. Hehehe, well this morning I went out to start my car and nothing, no lights, nada. Even with my limited automobile knowledge I was able to narrow it down to two things, the battery or the alternator. So after 2 calls to the autoclub to have them jumpstart it, (The first one worked fine, but some dummy (me) turned the car off before going to AutoZone to have the battery tested.) I headed off to AutoZone to see if this was a little problem (the battery) or a big one (the alternator). So I get to AutoZone and Sarah helps me. Sarah is very knowledgeable and knows her way around cars. The problem is she about as big as a twig and I'm 6'2" and have been told I resemble a biker. So picture if you will this tiny woman (with gold painted fingernails) under the hood of my car, testing the battery and telling 6'2" biker looking me what's wrong. I justed nodded and pretended I knew what she was talking about. Well it was just a dead battery. Apparently they do that after, ohhh say, 5 years :D. So I bought a new one and set to changing it in the parking lot. And oh yes, I did it, all by myself. I even have a finger that is missing some skin because I couldn't get the stupid bracket that holds the the battery in place to turn without pushing really, really, REALLY hard. So when you combine this with my alternator changing experience from last summer, I think I'm ready to open my own shop. We'll just do batteries and alternators, and I'm sure I'll make millions :D

Only Me

Ok, I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most co-ordinated person in the world. I am constantly bumping my head on cabinet doors, etc. But my bump early this week took the cake. I had gone to the bathroom and was bending over to pull my pants up and didn't realize how close to the toilet I was and scraped/bumped the ole noggin good. The below picture should satisfy your curiosity.

It is high, It Is far....

Here's one for all the A-Rod haters out there. A walk-off grand slam to beat the O's today. Neenerneener :P

No Way!!!

There is no way it's been that long since I posted!!!! Ok, well maybe, yeah it has :-/ Well it's been a whirlwind month and crazy but in a really good way.

Shasta and I got to judge a homeschool debate and speech competition and were absolutely blown away by the level of talent and intelligence those kids displayed and it was way fun as well.

We also got to go to youth leaders conference with the other youth leaders from our church, which is a big deal because everyone's schedules worked out so that we could all go together and it was a blessing to go and spend time with some good friends and to also get some training that we really needed.

And we got to go to the NASCAR race at Martinsville with our friends Tommy and Laura and we had a blast. The only drawbacks were the fact that Mark didn't run this one (are you ever gonna really retire???? hehehe) and Jimmie Johnson won. Uggghhh, I told Shasta we gotta seriously think about going to races together, cause we've gone to 2 of them and The Unibrow has won them both.

The coolest thing was renting the next FanView device which just may be the neatest thing since sliced bread.



This little gizmo lets you watch Nextel Vision coverage of the race, or you can watch from your choice of several different in car cameras. You can also listen to any drivers radio communication with his pit crew. Listen to the radio coverage of the race. Replay the last minute or so of a drivers radio communications. A note on this, be careful when doing this after a driver spins out. They are not real happy when this happens and the potty mouth can come out. It also gives you real time info on race position, points standings, etc. And at a track like Martinsville where the noise is a constant the headphones are a must, just to save your ears.

Hits And Misses

Ok, first things first. The final 8 guys on American Idol were less than spectacular. Chris Sligh was the best of the bunch and Sanjaya and Phil were dang near horrible. If there's any justice they'll both go home. Watching the women right now and here's a run down. Jordin opened with a great Pat Benatar. Sabrina, Stephanie, and Haley were alright but not spectacular. Antonella was better than her past performances but that's not saying much. Lekisha sang "I Have Nothing" and just tore it up. Gina Glackson did a good job on "Call Me When Your Sober" and is shaping up to be the female Chris Daughtry. And Melinda Dolittle just sang her butt off on "I'm A Woman." So this is looking like a two woman race for the title. The amazing thing about the two of them is neither seems to realize how good she is.

The Handy Geek

If you know me, you know that I most definitely not a handy man. To the point where even little household projects scare me to death. My wife has more confidence in my handyman abilities than I do. If you go back to last years blogs, you'll see the one about my putting together a gas grill and how she encouraged me to do it. Well the toilet seat in our bathroom has been broken for a loooong time. And my mom also got a new toilet seat for her bathroom and when you factor in Sunday's snow, I couldn't avoid the toilet seats any longer. So figured what the heck, and after unscrewing a total of 4 bolts and screwing them back in I had installed moms toilet seat and fixed the one in our bathroom. When you add that my shoveling a whole gang of snow Sunday afternoon I think I qualify for some kind of handy geek award :D

Snow Again

Ok, well we woke up to more snow this morning. Actually we woke up to my Pastor Porky calling to have me send out an email that church was canceled because it was snowing. I sent out the email and promptly went right back to sleep and didn't wake up til 11:30 or so. That was soooo nice, I can't remember the last time I slept that late and it was such a blessing to be able to do it. Not a whole lot else going on. I'm watching the end of this weeks race, and yes I've been awake the whole thing :D. Mark is 9th and I'm hoping he'll make a move toward the front soon.

More ramblings

In her comment to my previous post Kirsten made a couple of good points. First the comment about NASCAR being a good sport to snooze during is valid. I have been known to catch the first 20 or so laps, nap and then wake up for the last 25-30 laps and I know I'm not the only fan who does. Hehehe.

And I apologize to all of you for not keeping up with this blog. I started one over on battlecry.com and have been faithful with maintaining that one and unfortunately this one got ignored. You can click here or on the My Battlecry link over on the right and you can catch up on some of my previous posts. I promise I will try to more frequent with the posts here. Please feel free to leave any comments you'd like.

So I watched the 12 guys on American Idol last night and what a forgetful night of performances it was. I don't think anybody was fantastic. I thought Phil Stacey and Chris Sligh were the best of the bunch but that's not saying much. Nobody really wowed me last night and it'll be interesting to see how the ladies do tonight.

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

Those of you who know me well know that I am a sports nut, and that I root for the Yankees, Cowboys and for Mark Martin with a passion. Well today's Daytona 500 broke my heart. I thought Mark had won the race that had eluded for sooo long and I was sure when cars started crashing again on the last lap NASCAR would do the right thing, throw the yellow and Mark would get the win. Well once again, NASCAR left me baffled with their inconsistency. No disrespect to Kevin Harvick either, I'm certainly not a fan of his but he made an awesome run to get up there and my hat is off to him. As with my previous post though, it seems as though NASCAR will continue to interpret the rules however they want to and fairness and safety will get rolled over. Oh I do hope this is Marks last season so I won't have to endure their inconsistency any longer.