A World of Many Hats and Not Enough Shoes

I spent a good part of one of the legs of our vacation trying to convince my better half of this fact.  He was not convinced while I continued to maintain that I am an addict not a snob.  He told me I needed to try and convince others, so... what do you think?

Let's get down to brass tacks shall we...

I do not like the taste of coffee... addict or snob?

I never have liked the taste of coffee and don't think I ever will.  It has always smelled delicious to me, but the taste is something I have never actually "enjoyed."  Even flavored coffees, which smell even yummier, the taste simply masks the inevitable bitterness that is coffee that I don't like.  So when I drink coffee it is not for taste... addict or snob?

For me, feeding my addiction is more important than what I feed it with.  It does not matter to me where the coffee came from, cheap or expensive, caff or decaff, dark, cream, black, sugar, flavored, or whatever, I will happily drink any coffee served me... addict or snob? 

There is one place that we have been served by far, the world's worst coffee, which was basically water not coffee, and someone I know won't drink their coffee, while I still do without problems... addict or snob?

I don't always drink coffee with cream.  Sometimes I will get a nasty cup of gas station coffee and drink it black or a really expensive cup and drink it filled with cream.  It simply depends on my mood that day, how I want my addiction to comfort me, etc, etc, etc... addict or snob?

Finally, look at the facts... I own a $5 coffee maker and I only buy cheap coffee beans or what's on sale and I honestly don't know how to make a good pot of coffee and I "wing it" every time... addict or snob?

HOWEVER...

I am a total espresso snob.

I will call any bean junk that makes a cruddy espresso because seriously, if you are going to drink/make espresso, it helps to be a snob. 

I can say that because I honestly used to not be a snob in this area.  With our old espresso maker, I would use whatever and not care.  With our new one I have used whatever and then, we found an amazing source for fresh roasted beans that create delicious espressos and I have been ruined for all other beans, nothing compares.

Mike, owner of Capanna Coffee Company, roasts amazing beans and after using those in our wonderful Gaggia Espresso Machine (that the Cramer Dev employees got us for a gift, so nice!), I am a firm believer on the value of a good roast and good grind in order to get perfect crema.  I am a total espresso snob.

It is not that I won't use other beans now and then when in a pinch but unlike bad coffees, I will care and can totally tell the difference.  I will still drink it (thanks to my addiction) but will really be grossed out the whole time.  Bad coffee I will drink and still not care... addict or snob?

Am I a coffee snob?  There is 1 vote for yes and 1 vote for no.  Every vote counts and no offense taken! 

Honest.

Update:  Josh will be writing up a side on this debate.  Unfortunately for me, he makes some good points, :)!

Oh, how I wish I could scold those bunnies.  Or catch them by their jackets... sigh.

In reality, our garden (and lots of those arounds ours) has been ravaged by bunnies.  They, the bunnies, have had no qualms about eating our edamame (soybeans), beans, peas, broccoli, and the occassional cherry tomatoes.  However, even with this sna-fu, I am still hopeful and still enjoying the fruits of our labors.

Let me show you where we've been...

The above left is our garden upon returning from vacation.  The whole thing looked like a big grass field.  It took 3 days of continual weeding to unearth...

Can you see the difference on the right?  You are looking at cauliflower in the foreground, peppers, broccoli, behind broccoli are beans that I have yet to weed as a possible way to keep the bunnies from finding all the beans.  The broccoli and cauliflower are the final ones left.  Our freezer is full of these two veggies and they look sparce due to the bunnies' tummies.

(Left) L to R, carrots (with chives in between), kohlrabi in front with brussel sprouts behind.  (Right) Ignore the weed, but this is how brussel sprouts grow... who knew!

Pretty Kohlrabi, tastes like a hard cabbage.

(Left) It's not zucchini, but winter squash.  They aren't dead yet and there is one tiny veg. growing.   (Right) Close to far, squash leaves, pepper plants, garlic (the yellowing ones), onions (the tall green ones).

About 4" across, a yellow onion, very happy.  Yup, onions grow out of the ground.  Crazy but true!  Garlic looks similar but grows under the ground.  The garlic's green stems go to yellowish brown when they are done and the onions go to brown when done.  Again, crazy!

(Left) Hiding in the tall grass is my cantaloupe on the left.  For some reason, I have convinced myself that the tall grass will help defend from squash bugs.  Stranger things have happened. 

(Right) All these tomato plants and eggplants and pepper plants are ones I planted wayyyy to early but they are all doing fair.  Smaller than normal, but fair.

(Left) Foreground are my 3 purple cabbages that have finally started to make heads.  The weeds on the top left are hiding what is left of my pepper plants.  Eaten almost entirely by bunnies.  On the upper right are completely demolished edamame/soybean plants.  They have been systematically chopped off at the exact height all the way down the planted line.  The dirt behind them are where there were more plants that got eaten and we dug up to attempt to replant.  *Sigh*

(Right) To the left are more bean plants half eaten by bunnies that I am attempting to hide in grassy weeds.  On the right are happy eggplants.

(Left) Here is the tomato patch I planted later.  It is big and beautiful and doing great!  They are very dense and have much foliage.  I kept picking out the sucker stems and the plants really liked that.  Now, if they would only turn red, :)!

(Right) This is it... the whole lot.  I do indeed believe that this year has been much more difficult than last year.  I am learning a lot, which I will post later.  But in case you were wondering how things were going... there you go.  ;)!

*In the story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Fishing stories, hunting stories, war stories, birth stories... they all are about the same.  They each involve you personally and you could tell them again and again and never feel guilty.

Here is my fish story...

After having the one and only restful morning of our vacation (ie all the boys out doing restful fishing on the boat while Miriam and I drank coffee, read the Word, watched birds, and swung on the air chair), when the boys came back my father-in-law (aka Grandpa, aka Mark) was itching to go do it again, this time with just Miriam and I. 

We were walleye fishing, which I hear, means a lot of waiting.  We had been out for a while and Grandpa kept saying, 10 more minutes.  Miriam had caught some sunnies and was d-o-n-e, done.  She sat on my lap facing me and was hugging me while I continued to sit and hold my 6lb test line with a big ole night crawler on the end.

Since we were fishing for walleyes, Grandpa had coached me how to notice their bite vs. another fish's bite.  Finally, I thought I had something and responded accordingly and Grandpa was quickly telling Miriam to stand up because Mom had a bite.  It took a lot of coaxing since Miriam was d-o-n-e, done.

Standing up, I had to jam the pole into my hip to keep from losing it into the water as I was pulled all around the boat.  Mark coached me through the whole event, which I could not have done without him.  It was a northern (pike) and they have sharp teeth.  They like to bite through lines but since I had him on the side of his mouth, there was no biting my line off, I merely had to hope my 6 lb line would hold with the drag it was previously set on for walleye fishing.  The fish made 5 runs on me, to the left and right, left and right, and finally under the boat, the battle seemed to last forever.  Miriam was bouncing around me, still d-o-n-e, done, and trying to hold my leg.  The fish was not going to give up but neither was I.

Finally, Mark got the fish in the net and set it in the boat and I screamed like a little girl.  I couldn't tell if my screams were from excitement, the size of the fish or (most likely) the fact that I was so afraid it was going to bite Miriam or I with its big teeth.

It took a while for me to calm down and begin fishing again.  Within 10 minutes I snagged my second fish, a 19" walleye.  Not as exciting (though rather unconventional) but still a good catch.  Grandpa could've fished all day after that excitement but like I said before Miriam was d-o-n-e, done.

So here it is, the fish and I with my father-in-law for extra encouragement.  These are slimy fish and again, the teeth.  3 noteable fish caught in my life, 2 attempts at fishing over 5 years, I figure it is ok to be proud this time.  I can't wait to see what I catch in another 5 years...

And though it is a little fuzzy, my truthful face while holding the fish...

Our van, "God bless her, her ways, her mysterious ways," has just rolled 220,000 miles!  Phew!

So our van, in it's day of 1993, was the bomb and tripped out with all kinds of novelties, one of which is the gem that is it's gas mileage gauges*. 

It has...

1. A trip meter
2. An average miles per gallon (mpg) meter
3. A second by second mpg meter
4. An average miles left in tank meter

What does this mean? 

It means brilliance!  Josh and I have decided that if all cars made had these gems of features, people would save a ton of money and there would be a lot less speeding.  It means a challenge!  You can moment by moment tell how much gas you are using and work your speed to get more out of each gallon.  It means we love our van!  Didn't see that one coming did ya?  It means that east coast senator isn't smoking crack!  The one who said we need to research making the speed limit 55mph again... yea, that guy, he may be onto something.

Our favorite meter is the one that does the second by second mpg.  When you go up hills it goes way down, 18- mpg, when you go down hills it goes way up 44+ mpg.  Now for the averages...

If I travel 55-60 mph I get 35-40 mpg.  If I travel 65-70 mph I get 25-30 mpg.  If I travel 70-72 I get 22-23 mpg.  If I travel 75+ I get 18- mpg and a possible ticket.  AND If I travel behind a big truck at 70-72 mph (and as proven I hear on Myth Busters) I get 44-49 mpg.

I worked the system our whole 1815 mile trip.  Well... except this one point, after we drove from MN to IA and I was then driving back up to MN.  I started getting grumpy, and well, started driving a bit faster and ruined my average down to 22.8 mpg.  BUT I made up for it on our drive home and by the end of our trip we had a 23.0 mpg average on our cherry of a 1993, 6 cylinder minivan... amazing! 

We also decided that we needed to install an optional paddle boat type of pedal system that is installed into each seat's flooring so that when we are doing things like going up hills we can flip out the pedals for one and all to help out get some additional power going to stop the general decline in mpg that inevitably happens on hills.

We came up with a few other brilliant ideas but they are true brilliance and well, we're gonna save those for another day's business adventure.

All in all, this only truly proves one thing... we love our van!

Again, didn't see that one coming did you?

*Since we just replaced the battery before our trip we know they were all recently reset.  HOWEVER, this all assumes that gauges are accurate which really, who knows... but we're pretty sure they are.  AND, this is still low gas mileage compared to our Camry which got, no joke, 40 mpg on road trips!

Not to be speaking in sweeping, gross generalizations, but if Iowans are known for their tendency to swing wide, then Minnesotans should be known for driving in the left lane when not passing.

Once we entered the great state of Minnesota, I was noticing this trend among interstate/highway drivers.  First, people were driving under the speed limit, in both right and left lanes.  Then, I noticed this continual habit to have a clump of cars and trucks all huddled in both lanes, for no road construction reason.  The amazing frequency of these two eventsmade me ever so curious.

I caught up to the front of one of these clumps and realized that they were caused by a single person, driving the exact speed limit in the left lane, and staying there.  And nothing, I mean, nothing, was going to get them out of that left lane.  Even without anyone in the right lane, they were staying put.  I then started noticing that it was generally the folks from other states that would finally pass the left lane driver. 

Now, in our household, one of our members, continually comments on midwestern behaviours... like, not taking the last piece of food, dessert, main dish, whatever... at least not without a lot of "no you take it's."  The tendency then to allow someone to drive in the left lane on the interstate when they are not passing must be another midwest trait.  However, I have only seen the intense appeal to do this happening in MN and since I have listened to way too many Prairie Home Companions, it could be truth.

Whenever I have listened to GK and his news from Lake Whoa-be-gone(sp), ignoring the obvious negative implications he adds, he paints MN (and a lot of times specifically MN Lutherans) in very considerate, sacrificing images.  I can only imagine how the act of allowing someone to drive in the left lane would be a not-wanting-to-hurt-feelings activity and those who do this random act of driving in the left lane being the why-keep-switching-lanes-and-confusing-people activity.  Both acts for the betterment/love of others.

Upon speaking of this phenomenom with my MN native husband, he confirmed it going way back to his youth and memories of his mother, driving slower on purpose to avoid the clumps, while his father would drive in the clumps and manuver his way in and out.  I surveyed MN relatives and they said it was because the right lane is more bumpy than the left, which I would agree with however, does that truly justify the act?

For all the kindness AND because I am not a MN native AND since I have recently been reformed on not (always) swinging wide, I can't help but think this is another inappropriate driving act that should be avoided and needs it's own driving law diagrahms to support.

I'll get right on that after I recover from this vacation.

(*Oh, and this is Dana, logged in as Josh, :)!)