November Coffee Musings

I love Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend!  Starbucks introduced this coffee a couple of years ago and it really is a perfect accompaniment to all kinds of foods, sweet and savory, and great for after dinner.  Being home for four days (not to mention how damp and cold it was), I went through A LOT of coffee (one of these pounds is gone).  The Thanksgiving Blend is sold out at my SBux so I'm moving on to the new Christmas Espresso Blend.  I'll give a review soon.


I can't believe it's been 7 months since I left SBux. Doesn't seem that long.  I still remember it all to vividly. It's very strange not working Holiday at SBux.

All those red cups. The instant change from making frappuchinos to caramel apple spice and hot chocolates. 

Do you have a favorite SBux holiday drink? (check out the owl on the grande size cup)


One thing I do not miss is eggnog lattes.  Bleh! I know a lot of our customers love them but I am not an eggnog fan and really do not like making them.  Eggnog is loud (!), I mean really really loud and high-pitched, when you steam it and has a tendency to spray all over you.  We had a set of "Eggnoggles"  (goggles) in our store as an inside joke. Little Sbux secret for you there.

This red cup was a quad grande nonfat latte.  

Hints of Autumn

Today would have been a perfect Fall day...if it had been 10 degrees cooler (it was 88F and breezy and sunny, just a bit too warm).

First hint of Autumn is the arrival of Starbucks Anniversary Blend coffee.
My second favorite kind. The aged Sumatran beans gives it a nice depth and a bit of spice. Perfect for Autumn. A perfect with a pumpkin scone (I resisted this autumnal fav.)

While running errands this afternoon, I stopped by my old store and visited with the Sunday crew. I miss my Sunday crew. I miss my free pound of coffee a week also. But I do not miss being zombie-tired from working two jobs. Not at all.

Not much sewing time in today but I did finish another block of Hocuspocusville last night. This is my fourth completed block and a fun one to sew.

I worked a bit on my new project this afternoon until Edgar Poe muscled in on my work space. Because he decided to get in the way, he was used for block storage space (hee hee).

Another hint of Autumn is late afternoon dappled sunshine.
Morpheus enjoys this hint the best.

It's a Beautiful Day!!!

Today has been an incredible, momentous day. I took a personal day to stay home and watch the Inauguration with S. (and the cats--who napped through most of it). What an amazing day!

(photo courtesy of CNN.com) No matter who you voted for, you have got to be proud of our country seeing millions of people cheering and smiling. It was fun seeing all the places I visited just a couple of weeks ago. In honor of a day staying home, watching TV, and staying wrapped up in quilts (it's freezing here in the ATL), I brought out some special coffee.

Pike Place Special Reserve that you can only get at the original Starbucks in Pike Place in Seattle. This is some awesome coffee. A nice bold roast, great for celebrating.

I also enjoyed some time sewing while watching the Inaugural parade. I finished the top for my Valentine's Day table topper. The pattern is "Holiday Charm" by Bloom Creek. The fabric is Moda from a year (or two?) ago.

I hope I'll get this quilted and on the table before next month. I am now working on the borders for E.'s flannel quilt and hope to get that finished this week.

PS: check out the new White House website. Very cool! And with a blog too!

The Perfect Coffee for October

October brings one of my favorite coffees to Starbucks--Anniversary Blend. One of the perks (pun intended! I love a good pun!) of working at SBux is getting a free pound of coffee a week. If there is ever a worldwide shortage of coffee--I'm all set for a little while. Since it's only two weeks until Halloween, it's time to get out the Halloween coffee mugs. Gomez decided he needed to be in the photo, so there he is too (it's pointless to try to argue with him).

If you like a good, bold coffee stock up on Anniversary Blend because it's a limited offering (black cat not included).

Coffee and Books

Last night I had a great night out (on a Monday!). After my day job, I went to have coffee with S. at (no not Starbucks) Two Dancing Goats. The cool thing about Two Dancing Goats (besides the fun name) is they have the uber-ultra-mega-expensive-unbelievably-awesome coffee brewer called the Clover, which is currently the top of the line coffee brewer. Let me tell ya, it makes one excellent cup of coffee. So I had a fabulous cup of Costa Rica La Minita del Sol .

Then we went to a lecture by Rick Atkinson , Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author. He gave a lecture about his second book in a trilogy about World War II called The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944. It was a great lecture and he is a wonderfully entertaining speaker. I got my two books signed by him and he was very gracious with everyone answering questions and chatting while signing books. The first book in the series An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943 is one of my all-time favorite books (I told him that too--I'm such a dork!) Anyway, if you have any interest in history, I highly recommend his books. He brings military history to life in a wonderful narrative way (i.e.: not dry or boring!)

In local news, Atlanta seems to be running out of gasoline. Besides the numerous closed gas stations I've seen around in the past week, tonight there were actually lines of cars wrapped around and down streets waiting for gas--something I'd only seen photos of from the 1970s! I am glad I filled up over the weekend but am now wondering if there is some contingency plan....I mean just for getting gas to get to and from work which is all I do anyway. Um.....hello Governor/Homeland Security/somebody....y'all better get it together...it's not like we have much of a choice here in metro ATL with the lack of public transportation....

It's all about the coffee

Well no sewing for me this past weekend and it's looking pretty grim for the next couple of weeks. 5 shifts at Starbucks this week and 6 (!) the next. Well it's a good thing I get free drinks because it's going to be extra shots of espresso time for me.

I did finish a good book on Saturday "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks. She is a great writer and I've read her other books "March" and "Year of Wonders". Check them out if you need suggestions for your book club.

More coffee talk: we are nearing the end of our supply of my absolute FAVORITE Starbucks coffee (limited edition for the past couple of years). And I am stocking up.

Morticia update: she is still sick/sneezing even with the salmon-flavored super-antibiotic. I am still waiting on blood test results.

Coffee cups

Not much going on around here so I thought I'd share my latest coffee cup aquisition. Since I've worked at Starbucks nearly 6 years, I have about a zillion coffee mugs--one for every holiday, one in all my favorite colors, I even collect them from different cities. S. brought me one from Berlin when he went to Germany. I loved this mug though and *had* to buy it. I like the seaglass sort of blue and the fonts.