Coffee Spills

What I hear and see and think about at the coffee shops I patronize.
Brisk. Fresh. Well-balanced. Occasional nutty and bittersweet overtones.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Face Time, not Facebook

I had the most delightful, surprising conversation with a clerk at Panera's this morning.

"Did you have a nice Christmas?" (me)

"Yes, we had a wonderful time? And you?" (him, 20-something, but looks younger)

"Yes, we did. Plans for New Year's?"

(Pause.) "Well, I'll just be doing things with the family. We're going to try out the board games we got Christmas."

(Shock and awe.) "You mean, real board games, not computerized games?"

"Oh yes. My wife got Scattergories and my sister got the new Monopoly. Have you seen it? And I got (couldn't understand what he said)."

"You have a good day."

"You too."

Imagine. An evening with family playing board games.

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Off topic: I planned to link to the board games' webpages. Scattergories had 4 glaring errors in one paragraph plus one really awkward sentence. Who's writing for them? See if you can find them. I don't expect perfection in blogs or e-mails, but webpages for brands should give a potential client some confidence in the company.

"Scattergories (it's official title 'The Game of Scattergories') was devised by Hasbro in 1988. Hasbro own the famous boardgame brand Milton Bradley Corporation (MB), and published the game under that brand. Since it's launch Scattergories has become a classic, even spawning it's own daytime TV gameshow with NBC's Dick Clark in 1993.

Hint: Possessive pronouns. You don't write her's, or hi's or their's; don't write IT'S if you want to indicate the possessive case. IT'S is a contraction for "it is." I doubt that spell checks catch this. You just have to memorize it.

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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Dupuytren's Disease

Today as I was leaving the coffee shop I chatted with an acquaintance and noticed his hand was bandaged. He said he'd had surgery for Dupuytren's Disease which is when one or more fingers start to curl. It happens primarily to people of northern European ethnicity, usually when they are older. When it happens in the foot, it's called Ledderhose's disease. He'd had the other hand done some years ago, and it hasn't returned, although it can. Apparently there is no cure, only treatment. He described the surgery. Not pleasant. He lifted the bandage to let me have a peek, and I felt woozy. I'm a wimp. There's a reason I was a librarian and not a nurse.

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Drinking coffee at home

It's just not the same. My daughter asked if I'd like to have a nifty, expensive one cup at a time brewer for a Christmas gift. No, I said honestly, I like to go out, read the newspaper, listen to music, sit by the fire, and chat with the neighbors and strangers. Like the other day. After getting a refill, I stopped at a table of a man I've been nodding to for sometime. It turns out he comes in only one day a week because he's the care giver for his wife who had a stroke shortly after their 50th wedding anniversary 8 years ago. Some days she's better than others, but he can slip out briefly while she's still asleep. We talked for quite awhile. No, drinking coffee at home is just not the same.

Today I saw Pat. We used to have coffee together at another restaurant down the road. We laughed about "our section," the Christmas parties we used to have, the people who had died, who had moved out of town, and so forth. "And your children?" I asked. "That little girl you adopted?" She's 27 now and has a child, he said. The boy's 25 and in business. The youngest is 19 and in college. No, drinking coffee at home is just not the same.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Eye candy

Six handsome young men on tuxedos with long tails were at the coffee shop this morning. I spoke to one when I was getting a refill. They were from the high school ensemble and were doing a Christmas concert at the junior high. I told him I remembered when my daughter did that in the mid-80s. He smiled. Then I realized that was probably his parents' age.

Anyway, quite a change from sweat shirts and butt cracks.

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Monday, December 07, 2009

Coffee shop book groups


On Monday morning I meet with four other women from my church at Panera's. I regularly visit two different Panera's and they are popular spots for Bible study and book groups. There's a group of men from St. Tim's that meets at the same time my group does. Today I asked if I could take their photo for my blog.



We're taking a brief pause from reading "A faith and culture devotional; daily readings in art, science and life" by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington (Zondervan, 2009) to use "Messiah" by John Gugel (Creative Communications for the Parish, 2003) during Advent.

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Friday, December 04, 2009

Same baby, 14 days older?

Maybe it wasn't the same baby. The mother said it was 30 days old, and the one I saw two weeks ago was 24 days. Anyway, too tiny to be out and about. This time, Dad came along.

Yesterday packing away some things I came across my son's immunization and well-baby pediatric booklet. I think at first it was once a month, then every 6 months, then once a year. They do grow up, and I do mean up, very fast. I doubt that I took him anywhere except to the doctor when he was that small. Might have had a few people stop by the house to get a look at him, but I didn't have a car, so we probably stayed home until it was stroller weather in April and May.

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