Ground Broken for Denny's

Two posts in one day? It must be that extra cup of Sumatran I had this morning. I did throw in some high grade robusta, for that extra caffeine kick. Yup, that must be it!

I drove by the site of the new Denny's today, and the ground has been broken. This location is just west of Wendy's on 32nd, in front of the Menards strip. I wonder how long it will take to erect the building. Not that I'm a huge fan of Denny's, having only eaten there once (and not by choice), but an all-night diner seems like a decent addition to the GF restaurant scene.

Another Coffee Thread

We started to talk about coffee on the sushi thread, so here's a fresh, new thread for our favorite morning brew.

I'm waiting on an order of 14 pounds of greens, but I'm just as excited to get the weird chicken t-shirt I ordered. Yes, I have a very patient wife.

Sushi and Kebobs

I'll be in DC for a week starting Thursday, and I plan to eat my body weight in sushi and Afghan kebobs. I really miss those foods the most. OK, Vietnamese, too. And Indian. Did I mention Ethiopian? A good churrascaria always satisfies, as well.

*sigh*

That is all.

Welcome, nice weather!

You sure took your sweet time getting here. What was the holdup? Did you make a wrong turn at Albuquerque? This has not been the best year so far. Waaaaaaaay too much sadness, right up through this past week. I'm hoping your warmth lightens our mood, lifts our spirits, and heals our hearts.

In Town Recommendations

EDIT: I got the scoop on Martinizing. They ARE NOT owned by C&R Cleaners, and never have been. They are part of a small cluster of Martinizing stores owned by a pediatrician (from Bismark, I think). EXCELLENT service? Not part of C&R? Owned by a baby doctor? All the more reasons to give them your business!


Here's a place where you can recommend, or ask for a recommendation, for a service here in Grand Forks.

I'll start: I recommend Martinizing Cleaners over C&R Dry Cleaners. The latter really messed up an order, and had a "blame the customer" approach. If the person taking in my order had put down the personal call she was taking on the phone and served me properly, then my order might not been so messed up. Additionally, the people at C&R were always grumpy to me when I did business there. Never again.

Thankfully, I found Martinizing. They are always happy to see me, pay attention to me, and have never messed up a cleaning order.

Hockeyland

Since moving to North Dakota, I've gotten back into hockey. I used to see a lot of hockey back in NY (RPI and Union were the big locals). My wife likes hockey as well, but probably not as much as me. She went to Colgate U., a small school with a big hockey team, and she saw her fair share, including the 1990 team that lost to Wisconsin for the national championship.

However, the attention hockey gets in NY is nothing compared to here in ND. This is ridiculous! And I mean that in a good way. I can't think of any high schools growing up that had hockey teams. Certainly not the one I attended, and we had fairly large (300ish?) students in each class. Here, it seems like even the elementary schools have teams.

I've seen a bunch of UND games via the telly, and I'll probably watch as many playoff games as they are in, but for me it's been the Minnesota Wild that has drawn my attention. (As I type this, I'm listening to the Wild play the Oilers, and Marian Gaborik just scored!) Nice.

I'm trying to get my seven year old son to watch the Wild games with me, but he doesn't seem to "get" the game when watching on the TV. He's seen some hockey live, however, and he does a decent job watching and trying to follow the game. The other night he expressed interest in playing. I think a used pair of skates might be in order for next winter.

My Coffee Supplier

This is going to be free advertisement for Tom and Maria (congrats on the new baby!) of Sweet Marias Home Coffee Roasting Supplies. This is a "mom and pop" shop. Literally, now.

Don't be scared off by the mid-1990s look of the website. The site holds so much incredible information that the serious and not-so-serious home roaster really doesn't care what it looks. Sure, there are bigger and fancier websites to buy raw beans, but this one is the best.

THE. BEST.

Tom travels the globe in search of the beans. He buys, and sells the finest beans on the planet. As a small shop, he often has to join up with a few other small shops just to compete in the bidding process against the big boys (like $tarbucks).

Have a look around. There's a ton of information, and a lot of helpful suggestions on brewing methods.

And don't be afraid to buy some beans and try roasting them yourself. Do you have an oven? Then you're all set!

Got a Coffee Question?

Thanks to anonymous for the prompt to create this post. It's been way too long since I've posted anything. The holidays, work, and a major death in the family have all taken me away from this place. I'll try to post more often.

Try.

I'm an amateur coffee roaster, not a professional, and I've been roasting for 1.5 years. In that time, my knowledge of the bean has grown far beyond my own expectations. It's amazing how much there is to learn about coffee. However, some days I feel as though I've only scratched the surface. Isn't that like any hobby? OK, passion.

I'm always willing to share a cup and some advice, so let this be your forum. Ask questions, give recommendations, whatever as long as it's related to coffee, even tenuously.

Aaaaaaand...GO!