Less Hustle More Coffee

For the “Birthday Day” Meal we went to Olive Garden. We were going to do take out. But the day had its challenges (made me mad is what that means) so I asked if we could just eat in instead of toting food home and eating it half cold.

I decided on Chicken Parm. I ate half and took the rest for lunch on Monday. It was delish. I went for the birthday dessert. Another layered Cheesecake. The one we had at Hermitage Steakhouse was better but don’t let that sway you, as they were BOTH very good. The one below was very RICH in chocolate and that is not bad right? The one at Hermitage Steak House was lighter, and had a variety of flavor and texture and sat on a bed of very tasty raspberry which gave an explosion of flavor. I could be a cheesecake connoisseur? Looks like I already am, lol.

And for those of you not on Instagram, here was a story I posted. I video’d pouring my wine, thinking it would be a good B roll shot on a video but probably not. This is what George did……See if you notice. How can you miss it.

He’s a mess for sure.

Shopping Experience Not a Good One

Shopping in today’s world is not a very pleasant experience. I needed another pair or two of jeans for the Texas trip. I only have one pair of jeans that fit good. Let’s just say that the last year has been a good comfort food year making the pants quite the tight ones. I had given all mine to Good Will, not ever going back, but ennnnhhhhh, looks like we ate what we wanted, so I’m baaaaack at full size! lol. And now without proper clothes. I had ordered some tops recently mainly for home. The tops seem to be easier to deal with as I have always liked them oversized and baggy. But the jeans, after Thanksgiving and Christmas, are just not fitting anymore. So we went to Belk. I thought maybe things had relaxed a bit but no dressing rooms. So I had to buy 6 pair and take them home and try them. Costs a fortune to try on clothes. I told the lady ringing us up we’d be bringing most of them back. Bless the hearts of anyone needing those sizes for the period of time as I had them at home. (That seems more germy than just going in a dressing room, as now my germs from home are back in their store.) Maybe they store them somewhere to let the germs die? So bless the hearts of anyone needing close to my size b/c I had them all at home trying them on. You have to take out a small loan to go buy a pair of jeans so you can buy the whole lot, take them home and keep ones that fit and take them back. We just used the credit card. (Rolls eyes). Then when you wanted to pay for something – it was a cake walk – keep walking around and around until the music stops and there is your register where you can pay. Every register had a person there but they were “closed” – “keep walking”. I was thinking the stores are desperate but there all 12 of us people were there wanting to buy things and only one person ringing it up. I don’t know that I’ll ever go out shopping again! I’m sure I will but this was insane. We just didn’t have time to order them and them come in – in time.

Coffee Tasting Experiences Continue

Well, I’m not sure I have a lot to tell. But I’ll just start typing and we’ll see what comes out. First I need to go get more coffee. We are taste testing the coffee gift still. We like all the coffees so far. Today was the 4th and final one of the kit we have. It looks like we cannot go wrong. The quality of the coffee is exceptional. I am learning how to taste “the tones” of the coffees. Today is fruity. Not really, but there is a faint taste of peach when you first sip. Just slightly. It’s hard to describe. But it’s ever so slight but still very good dark coffee. Am I becoming a coffee connoisseur? Sounds like it. We have to go in and rank them on the website. That’ll be hard to do. Not that it means anything here, but for the sake of me remembering, I’m posting this so I can come back and look. We have to wait til we get back from Texas to order it.

My ranking:

1. Profile 3 (Guatemala) – Tones of Tropical Fruit, Lemon, Brown Sugar
2. Profile 2 (El Savador) – Fudge, Toast, and Molasses
3. Profile 1 (Ethiopia) – Tones of Peach, Lemon, and Orange
4. Profile 4 (Brazil) – Tones of Marzipan, Chocolate, and Earthy

I am shocked that Brazil made 4th. But it’s like the cheesecake. It’s all VERY GOOD COFFEE. How does it compare to Starbucks? Hmmmmm. This gets difficult to put into writing but I’ll do the very best I can.

Starbucks coffee is very strong in taste. VERY Strong. Lots of earthy and chocolate vibes. It’s almost as if it is roasted having in mind that flavors and creams will be added to it. In their store I have to add cinnamon to calm it as it is so bold and strong. At home we add more water to it and get it just like we like it. I like to grind the beans for a fresher taste and not allow any fillers, not that they would but it gives peace of mind. Still the flavor is very robust and earthy – which we like very much.

This coffee is different somehow. It’s still a very robust coffee – looking this up in the dictionary – meaning of strong and rich and sturdy. The beans are to be ground fine to get the most of the flavor. The body is lighter – and somehow drinking out of a china cup helps release the finer tones of the flavors – although I’ve not tried it in a regular cup so not sure how accurate that statement can be other than I know this to be true in the past when drinking coffee from a delicate cup.

So basically this is a good sturdy coffee in which you can taste the slightest tones of flavor. A very good pleasant experience on a higher end of the spectrum of this morning ritual of goodness we pour inside ourselves every morning. It’s been one of conversation and sometimes laughter when we compare by using numbers. It sounds like “who’s on first?” from a Saturday night live skit. Well the 3 is better than the 4, but I really like #2, which sends one into howls of laughter in the kitchen. You really like #2?

And to be honest, the ranking – they are all so close in comparison that whatever they send us and in what order, will be fine with me.

Getting Ahead Before I Get Behind

So a friend gave me this daily calendar at work. It has nice sayings on it. I will be taking lots of pics of them. And will put them on my blog here. A perfect saying. I went in to work yesterday early and stayed a bit over. Left at 5:45 a.m. -ish here at the house and got home about that time in the p.m. yesterday.

I made good headway into getting my monthly taxes by the 15th paid in case we dart out to Texas. That way that deadline won’t be missed. Now all the deadlines are at the end of the month. But it takes all month to get there. Except for that one week where I’m waiting on things from others and that is how I believe I’ll be able to make it by taking the week off to Texas. Looks like the timing will be perfect too. I got critical things done for the first week of January and the last week of the year. And then I’ll have the end of the month to crunch things up and catch things up.

Prepping for Texas and a Hot Toddy

We are mostly packed and gathered for the Texas trip. Dear Daughter’s doc appointment is today in Abilene and perhaps we’ll know something today if they are inducing and getting it on the schedule.

I had meant to change purses, do my nails and toes, and repack my vitamins last night but honestly all my good hours were spent at work. When you work 11.5 instead of 9, you have given up your spare time at home. So I will try again tonight. I’m NOT hopeful as it will likely be another long day. It’s a payroll day.

Yesterday my left ear went silent on me. It seems to be better this morning. I could not tell what was going on with it. Maybe water had gotten in my ear somehow from the shower? George fixed me a very small hot toddy. I held a hot compress to it and I tried googling how to unstop your ear. I could not tell the exact moment that it went back. I think either it was gradual, or I got used to it. It’s not as annoying anyway. But sleep helped I’m sure.

So my next To Do items Isome previously mentioned) are:

• Change purses
• Nails and Toes
• Download Big Sur
• Cancel Sophos
• Find Security Replacement
• Catch up on Email

Revamping the AT&T Cell Bill

Not sure I mentioned it but we stopped at AT&T to check on temporarily adding a line for my iPad. He asked if it was cellular ready. Duh…I seem to remember choosing one that was not, now that he mentioned it. It was cheaper and I didn’t need it at the time. But he upgraded our plan to allow for a Hot Spot. The plan actually costs the same but it switches us to paperless billing (dangnabbit). But we took the bait so I could have a Hot Spot. I’ve needed one a few times this year. So all is well and I can use my iPad while we travel.

I better get ready and go to work. Likely won’t get there early today. But I can’t give ALL my spare time to work just to have a week off. I mean if you work all the hours of your vacation the rest of the month, is it really a vacation? One could certainly argue you got time off in a row, but honestly, it’s never time off. The hours are going somewhere else in the month. You can betcha sweet dollah on that one!

Ya’ll have a beautiful Tuesday. And I’ll be back at some point with news on the plans. I am having a bit of blues that our holiday days are over. I wanted to get more done. But we did good I guess. We got enough done. I know there is another mis typing in this entry but I couldn’t find it, to fix it. And need to go to work, so just forgive me instead! We are REAL here!