Coffee snob

Many of you already know what a serious coffee drinker Troy is.

Belgium was tough because their version of coffee is nothing like ours. When you order koffie there, it's served in a tiny cup. It's more like espresso than American coffee. But at least it usually comes with a cookie or a delicious piece of Belgian chocolate!

After a while, Troy found a place in Ghent that roasted regularly. He brought a filter and carafe to Logos, making coffee there every day. Everyone soon became big fans!

Northern Minnesota was even tougher than Ghent. The closest coffee roaster to our hometown is an hour away.

When we returned to Charlottesville, Troy was happy to have his beloved Shenandoah Joe again. But living without freshly roasted coffee for a while got him thinking.

I would probably already have classified Troy as a coffee snob. He's disgusted with me when I grind extra coffee to save myself time later. Apparently, ground coffee needs to be brewed within 2 hours for optimum flavor.

Well, the stakes have recently gotten even higher. He's now started roasting his own. He buys it green and uses a whirley popper (stovetop popcorn maker) over our propane burner outside. I have to admit,  it's pretty cool and it is saving us money now that the price of coffee has gone up again.

Plus, he's having fun.

And ... it's good!!


He's perfecting his method and thinking about starting a small batch coffee roasting business with bicycle delivery. Any other coffee snobs out there?

Are we done moving yet?

We just moved back to our old neighborhood in Charlottesville. I'm looking forward to being closer to a number of our friends and within (safe) walking distance to some restaurants. Our last place was convenient to shopping but not at all walkable. Living in Ghent made factors like living in a neighborhood that is walkable and bikeable even more important to us.

I have now moved at least a dozen times in my life. It never really gets any easier. This time we decided not to ask any of our friends for help with the move. Our last couple of moves in Charlottesville were horrible. We had a crew of incredible friends who stuck it out for some long days with us. Incredible. But we didn't want to put our friends through that again.

We hired a few college kids to help us with this move, and it was amazing how fast that truck got loaded. We also have pared down lately, since the robots now have their own place. We probably we were better prepared this time too.

We've been cleaning out the old place and slowly unpacking what we can--living in disarray.There has been a bit of a stressful saga with our old place as well, since it got foreclosed on. I'll be anxious to have that all over with.

In any case, I think we are going to like living in our new place. Despite the chaos, one member of our household has already completely adjusted. She has claimed her spot under the skylight for long naps every day. I wasn't the only one excited about getting out of a basement apartment!

The doctors are in!

We recently had the chance to see a number of folks that we have known for the past 5 years graduate with their PhD's from U.Va. There were lots of fun graduation festivities and it was really great to see people who have moved away but returned for the ceremony.

4 of the 5 graduates - Lee, Wendy, Loren and Alli

Many of the musgrads!

Yay! Congrats for the grads!

It was also a bittersweet weekend. We've had such a nice community of friends here in Charlottesville. But it's a strange time to be returning to the area, since many of our friends are now leaving or looking for jobs elsewhere. College towns are wonderful in so many ways but the transient nature of places like this can also be slightly depressing. Oh well, I look forward to seeing where everyone ends up. Maybe we'll have to plan a road trip sometime to visit them all!

Steal this glass!

Courtney, a friend of mine since grade school, came to visit us recently.

We had a great time during her visit. It was a good excuse to get out to one of our favorite places--the Blue Mountain Brewery--for the first time since being back in C-Ville. They have a great way incentive to get people there on Thursdays as it's "steal this glass" night. The cool thing is that you get to walk off with a glass for every beer you drink. Between the 3 of us, there were 6!

They have some wonderful beers (and pizza) at Blue Mountain. I'm a big fan of the Full Nelson, it's really hoppy and refreshing. But they have a seasonal kölsch right now that is also impressive, it reminded me of the traditional beers we had last year in Köln.

Courts and me trying not to get caught stealing

Isn't it wonderful how with old friends you can pick up right where you left off?

16 years

A lot has been going on in the last month. When I picked Troy up from the airport after his tour, we enjoyed some time in DC. To celebrate our 16-year anniversary, we ate out a lovely restaurant called Cedar. It was quite a treat. He had the "Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin with goat cheese grits, applewood bacon and roasted cherries" and I had the "Grilled Local Rockfish with mixed spring vegetables and Frantoia extra virgin olive oil." Yum. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Since the weather was too nice to be inside at a museum, we ventured to the national arboretum. The azaleas were blooming and the bonsai garden was incredible!

Koi look funny when they are eating

Japanese White Pine in training since 1625!

Nice view from the azalea trail at the arboretum

Most of you already know that I'm a big planner. Mostly I plan because I need something to look forward to. It's too easy to get caught up in the daily grind and the busy-ness of everyday life otherwise.

Leading up to the tour, we had a very stressful couple of months. I planned this trip, as well as an overnight to Richmond to see one of our favorite bands, Iron & Wine, in order to have a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It worked pretty well.

Now I'm thinking forward to my birthday in July. I always tend to make a plan for birthdays too, to avoid being disappointed by having nothing special to do on the big day. It'll be impossible to top last year's birthday, which we spent in Paris, but a plan involving good food, drinks and scenery is usually a successful one. Maybe we'll head to the mountains this year...

Birthday Boys

When Troy got back from Amsterdam, he wondered aloud if he had been in Charlottesville before the tour. That's how crazy things were leading up to the tours. It's nice to have Troy back home. We've been busy trying to establish a sense of normalcy now, catching up with friends and having some fun.

This past weekend, our friend Steve turned 30. He and Aurie hosted a toga party to celebrate his and Troy's b-days (since we never really got to celebrate Troy's). Most of us had never been to a toga party but it was a funny idea and people got into it. It was a great time. The birthday boys enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

What a difference a month makes!

March 26

April 26