Harry Potter!!

July has been a busy month. It really feels like the 4th was just last week. My mother is coming to visit this weekend and as she leaves, my cousin is coming for a couple of days. It's family time. I don't know if its the sun or something else, but I'm looking forward to the parental visit. I'm planning a low key weekend. My brother, Stuart, who is mentally retarded, will stay over Saturday night, and we'll have a cookout with the whole family - me, mom, my brothers and Caroline. I'm becoming so domestic.



The biggest excitement of the month has been Harry Potter. Yes, I said Harry Potter. The fifth film started July 11 and the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released Saturday, July 21. I'm a huge fan. I pre-ordered my book in February, and cleared my calendar this weekend for the marathon reading of the book. I was not disappointed at all. Which is all I'll say seeing as there are others still reading the 759 page book.



I was eagerly anticipating this final book. Everyone was. You couldn't get away from it on the news and in papers. I heard little tidbits here and there about how longtime fans might be disappointed in the book. All I have to say is congratulations to J.K. Rowling and her publishers for feeding all kinds of misinformation to the press. I was expecting something completely different and that's when I realized the press had been manipulated or was in on the manipulation of the rest of us. Good job.



I'll wait another month or so to get into the details of Harry's story. If you haven't read it by then, sorry. Every new book in the series has been pre-ordered and then read in one (long) sitting. It's a tradition. But years have passed between books. Now that the series has come to an end, I'm going to leisurely read all the books again, straight through. I think it will be very enjoyable, especially since the movies continue to be a bit more disappointing every time.



Making a movie of an 800 or so page book has got to be challenging. So I'm not going to criticize the filmmakers for their efforts. Maybe if they made a 3-hour film, they could fit in the plot development and all the action sequences. But most of their audience are kids with little tolerance for a 3-hour sit down. I think the actors have really embodied the characters well and now it's hard to imagine the characters without seeing the movie faces. I don't mind though. Especially since the actors have been consistent throughout, with the exception of Dumbledore. The original actor playing Dumbledore, Richard Harris, died after the second film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.



Anyway, blogging is also a great time to drink iced latte. Give it a try.

Tall, Grande, Venti?

I think any blog about caffeine has to talk about Starbucks. Starbucks has grown so quickly that most people equate coffee with Starbucks. It's actually a quite unfortunate phenomenon. The problem is that Starbucks is like the McDonald's of coffee. If you like steak, do you go to McDonald's? No. It's not as extreme with Starbucks, but you get the point.

The thing about Starbucks is that it makes up its own rules about coffee. The most obvious and most talked about is the nonsensical labels for sizes. First, the smallest size is called a tall. Why? What's so tall about the smallest cup of coffee you offer? Then, the medium is a grande and a large is called a venti. Why does Starbucks use three different languages to identify its sizes?

What offends me so much about these sizes is that these labels are used for the espresso drinks. Espresso was not born as tall, grande or venti. No, espresso comes in shots. That's it. There's one, two, even three or four shots. The foundation of espresso drinks is the shot. Single, double, triple.

A cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 foam. If you start with a twelve ounce cup, you put in two shots of espresso. If you start with a 16 ounce cup, you would probably have to put double the espresso. Do you think Starbucks does that? Nope.

The worst thing is that Starbucks churns out these barristas, a cappuccino slinger, without really giving them the lowdown on coffee. Kids who haven't even lived long enough to know the magic of coffee are making your coffee drinks. You are leaving your caffeine fix in the hands of a 16-year-old. Watch out.

What do I recommend? My first suggestion is to support you local coffee joint whenever possible. Usually, your local coffee slinger has a passion for coffee. That passion is going to come through in every cup.

However, if you have to go to Starbucks, make sure you order it in Starbucks language. The fact is those barristas are given a formula and they can't vary from it. If you want your coffee to taste good, don't try to go against the tide that is Starbucks.

You, too, can be like Scooter

I was watching a DVD the other day and noticed something a little disturbing about this warning:

If I illegally reproduce a DVD, I can be serve up to 5 years in prison and pay a fine of $250,000. Isn't that the same fine Scooter Libby paid for his treasonous acts?

It's good to know I'd be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

I gotta vacuum. Oprah is on telling me to de-clutter my house.

Breakfast at Wimbledon

This morning's coffee came with a serving of Venus Williams, now one of the winningest women in tennis with four Wimbledon championships! Congratulations Venus!





I love women's tennis. I have missed the finals too often because it is played live at 9 a.m. But this morning I made it a point to watch it. And I'm glad I did. This marks the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson's Wimbledon championship, the first black woman to win Wimbledon. How lovely it is for Venus to win her fourth championship this year.


Our tomatoes are finally turning red. I have to be a little more patient, but it shouldn't be too long until we're eating home grown grape tomatoes. I've definitely noticed that our plants enjoy the rain. Even though I water them regularly, they come alive in a completely different way after a good rain.



My friend Meridith pointed me to an interesting website in my last post. Sweet Maria's (check out the links in the Coffee list) is all about home coffee roasting. This seems like a really cool hobby, maybe one I'll explore soon. Can you imagine brewing fresh roasted coffee??? That would be a sweet buzz!!



Coffee tip #?: When buying roasted beans, keep in mind the saying, "the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice." I know it doesn't refer to coffee beans, but it could. Look for dark roasted beans. It will give you a richer cup of coffee. Light beans will be more acidic. But it can't just be dark. It has to have that nice coating of oil.

Canasta

This morning I taught Caroline how to play Canasta, an old card game my grandparents taught me when I was a kid. It's a complicated game with many rules played with two decks of cards. The only people I knew who played the game were Jewish, so I always thought the game originated in Europe. I was wrong. It originated in South America. Interesting.

Anyway, I've been playing Canasta for as long as I could hold thirteen cards in my hands, which is as long as I can remember. Playing Canasta while visiting my grandparents is one of my fondest memories of childhood. I'm a good card player and I impressed my grandparents. I lived for things like that.

It also reminds me of fond memories of my friend Chris Mason. Chris and I would get together (in more recent times) to play Canasta. She's the only person outside of my family that I've ever met who knew how to play the game. She'd come over, bearing gifts of deli meat for my cat, Jack, and we'd play cards all afternoon. People don't do that kind of stuff anymore. Just get together and play cards. Maybe I'll organize a card playing night with my friends.

Anyway, Chris has since passed away from cancer. My only Canasta partner in town. I'm very excited that Caroline wants to learn. She's a good card player. I know once she gets the hang of it, she'll be a very worthy opponent. It doesn't hurt that I'm giving away some of my strategies along with the rules.

Something about Canasta just makes me feel at home. I hope we play with our children after dinner. Serve Canasta with coffee and vanilla ice cream.

Missing Leisure

If at all possible, I like to start my day with a leisurely cup of coffee. There's nothing like sitting down, relaxing, and taking that coffee in, savoring every sip. Of course, I don't get this opportunity that often. Mostly just on weekends. And Mondays. I don't work on Mondays. I hate working on Mondays. It just feels cruel to abruptly end your weekend and go back to work. So instead, I work four ten-hour days and take Mondays off. My Monday cup of coffee is the best. Sitting alone, the house is quiet, sipping my coffee. Mmmm....



The ultimate cup of coffee is the vacation coffee. Leisure, leisure, leisure. I don't understand why we take so little vacation in the U.S. It's just not enough to re-energize and reset. I don't have any vacation planned for the rest of the year, so making my coffee drinking as leisurely as possible is critical to my frame of mind.



The last vacation I had was in January, when Caroline, my partner, bought us an Olivia Cruise to the Caribbean. It was so lovely, and leisurely. Last night, we watched a short DVD that Olivia sent us as a keepsake for our cruise. It brought back the luxurious feelings I had that week (I'm jonesing for more vacation).



An Olivia cruise is a decedent experience. To be on a cruise ship with all lesbians is a wild experience. No matter what you do, you're doing it with other lesbians. I can't tell you how amazing that feeling is. And the cruise line is so accommodating. They take their jobs very seriously and I felt extremely comfortable. The down side is that no one I know, including me, can afford to do those cruises with any regularity. They are pricey. More so that your standard cruise line. So it's really only for the most well to-do lesbians. However, I highly recommend taking one. You will be so glad.





It's a luxury cruise. Your room is cleaned twice a day, and the bed turned down at night. The food is wonderful. Four course meals for dinner. Lots of entertainment. Our cruise had a performance from Lily Tomlin, Suzanne Westenhoefer, and the Indigo Girls among others. And, of course, the Caribbean was great! The water was so clear and warm. The beaches were clean. It was just awesome. I fell asleep in the sun everywhere we went. I highly recommend that.




Vacations are for treating yourself. Drink cappuccino. (Personally, I need to start my day with my morning coffee, but cappuccino from then on out.)