I Love Coffee

Image via WikipediaI love coffee, but it hasn't always been that way.  I guess you could say that it was an acquired taste for me.  When I first started drinking hot, caffeinated beverages in the morning, I started with tea.  Drinking tea was an adventure for me.  I really got into trying all of the different varieties of tea available in the grocery store.  My favorites have been Earl Grey and English Breakfast teas. 

Eventually, I moved on to drinking coffee in the morning.  My approach to drinking coffee mirrored my sense of adventure when I went out to discover coffee.  Instead of going with the standard ground coffee that you can get in the grocery stores, I ventured out to the gourmet coffee shops to see the wide variety of coffees available.

I bought myself a nice little coffee grinder and bought my coffee in whole bean format.  Grinding my beans gave me a fresher taste to my morning brew.  I tried all kinds of different coffee; Kona from Hawaii, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, coffee from different parts of Africa and South America.  Eventually, I moved on to Starbucks drinks.  This time of year, I love Egg Nog Lattes.  It is a rare treat for me these days, as I have moved back to drinking grocery store coffee.

I have been thinking a bit more these days about going back to more variety in my coffee.  Every now and then while browsing the store shelves, I look at the wide variety of Keurig K-cup coffees that are available and think I would like to get a Keurig machine to replace my little 4-cup Mr. Coffee coffee maker.  Since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, the Keurig machine and the 4-cup Mr. Coffee is perfect for me for the small amount that it makes. 

In addition to the K-cup coffee, I was browsing my local Giant grocery store last week and looking at the variety of coffees that they had available in their coffee aisle.  They had Kona blends, Sumatra blends, different South American and African blends.  They are a little more expensive than the Columbian ground coffee that I have been getting, but not that much more.

I don't think that I will ever go back to grinding my own beans again, but I would like to add some variety back into my coffee drinking.  One of the few things that I would like for Christmas this year would be a Keurig coffee maker.  With their My K-cup filter, I can also use my favorite ground coffee to make a cup as I need them. 

Related articles

• Starbucks offering Keurig K-Cups of select blends (jennstrathman.com)
• Starbucks to have Keurig packages in U.S. grocery stores in Nov. (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Green Mountain Coffee Goes Home for the Holidays (fool.com)

Maui Golf

We made it to the beach, and the only thing my son talked about the entire drive down was going to play miniature golf at Maui Golf. It is safe to say that Maui Golf is not the greatest miniature golf course out there. The obstacles are not very difficult and there are no moving parts like windmills or the like. However, it is the course my son likes so we usually end up there.

The reason my son likes it so much is because of its name, Maui Golf. He has a real interest in the Hawaiian islands and can name most of them along with their nicknames, like Kuaui being the garden island. He actually learned all these things by watching game shows and YouTube videos. He loves when contestants win trips to Hawaii. Playing miniature golf with my son is an interesting adventure in and of itself.

The concept of taking turns is lost on him. He will play from the tee until he knocks the ball in the hole. Most of the time, he doesn't even wait for the ball to stop rolling before he hits it again.  Keeping score is also a mute point with him, but we do it anyway.  It doesn't really matter what the score is, because he doesn't seem to have a competitive bone in his body.  Though he does get excited when he gets a hole in one.  I learn a lot about play from that guy.

Vacation Time

Image via WikipediaI have been looking forward to this week since the beginning of July.  On July 5th, we had to take our son back to school for his summer school session.  The summer school session is the longest session that he has without a weekend home, a little more than seven weeks.

I was particularly concerned about this particular session, not only because it would be so long and we would have to wait so long for him to come home, but because there would be some changes to his routine during the new session.  He does not respond well to change.

The main reason I was concerned was because he was going to be moving to a new classroom.  He had really connected with his first teacher and one-on-one aide when he started at the school last November.  While the school must have thought he was ready for the change, I was apprehensive to say the least.

He was scheduled to come home from school tomorrow, but we received an email from the school nurse on Monday.  First she informed him that she had found his glasses on her desk and that they were bent to the point where they could not be worn.  In six weeks during the summer session, he had broken four pairs of glasses, only one of which could be repaired.

Her other concern was that on Monday he refused to get off the floor.  He kept saying, "I have lost so much weight."  He must have heard that from somebody at school, but the nurse did express her concern as he has lost over 30 pounds since starting school.  He had also started to refuse to eat his favorite snacks.  For all of those reasons, it was decided that we would pick him up a couple of days early.

So, yesterday, my wife went out to the school to pick him up and bring him home.  Unfortunately, he has come home to a hot house as our air conditioning is out, and we have to wait until Saturday to get it repaired since they had to order a part.  Plus, I had to go get my second sleep study done last night, so I was not able to spend as much time with him as I would have liked to on his first night home.

I can't say for certain that the change in classroom teacher and aide had anything to do with his behavior during the summer session.  I do know that in the first seven months he was there, he didn't break a single pair of glasses, and to completely break three pairs in six week is saying something.  We also do not get the same feedback from his current teacher as we did his former one.

Image via WikipediaIt has been our plan since we learned his summer schedule that we would spend a few days at the beach next week.  We have access to a mobile home in Ocean City, so we will head out one day next week for a few days.  He has been looking forward to it for a long time so he can go play some miniature golf at the Maui Mini Golf Course.   It isn't the greatest miniature golf course out there, but he likes Hawaii, so that is where we will go.

Of course while we are out there, we will go down to the boardwalk and hit some of our favorite Ocean City eateries like Bull on the Beach where they have some tasty pit beef sandwiches.  While we are there, we will probably spend an evening or two at Arthur Purdue Stadium to check out a couple of Delmarva Shorebirds baseball games.  I can hardly wait.