Me and my Coffee Habit

(Jeff Kubina – Flickr)

Hello, my name is JoeMama and I’m a coffee addict…(Hello Joe says the room)

I absolutely love a good cup of coffee.  I wouldn’t consider myself a coffee snob at all.  I’ve drank coffee from just about every locale: truck stop, my kitchen, coffee shop big and small, from a coffee single, and I’ve even eaten instant coffee straight out of the jar.  What can I say I love this stuff.  To me there is nothing better than walking out to the dock very early in the morning when the water is like glass, sip my coffee, and say hello to the sunrise.

I digress.  I’ll get to the point.  There isn’t a coffee maker in my office area and I’m surrounded by non-drinkers.  So when I need my fix, I’m left to suffer.  We do have a near-boiling water tap nearby and I’ve used it along with some coffee singles.  It’s okay but I need more.  Better flavor.  So the current debate I’ve got bouncing around in my head is the following three options

1. Coffee Maker
2. French Press
3. Thermos

So lets do what any good engineer would do and weigh the pros and cons scientifically.   Let’s take a look at what I need and then balance them against. 

What I need – good coffee, not a lot of volume necessarily (32 oz max), and easily to clean/maintain (since it’s in my office.

Now to the pros/cons

Coffee Maker –

Pros:  Makes a good coffee with whatever volume you need.

Cons:  uses electricity, have to make sure you watch the burner so you don’t scorch, you have to ditch the filter everyday,

French Press

Pros:  Makes great coffee with limited amount of volume,  uses no electricity, easy to maintain (just dump and rinse)

Cons:  Need certain size grind on your coffee, Need boiling water to make this happen.

Thermos

Pros:  Takes a finite amount of coffee anywhere, get a good thermos and you get a piping hot cup anytime anywhere.  Pour and enjoy.

Cons:  You have to brew ahead of time, another item to lug back and forth to work.

The verdict….

I need a good, warm cup of tasty java.  I always am rushing out the door for work so I think that rules out brewing ahead of time.  My schedule varies from day to day.  Sometimes a ton of meetings.  Sometimes not.  This means I don’t have time to babysit a coffee maker.  This is a sure bet that I’ll scorch a pot and end up having to scrape it.  Looks like I’m going to give a run with the French press.  Am I crazy?

THE WINNER

Road Trip!! (finding some truth along the way)

We took a trip to pick up my oldest from his grandma this past weekend.  We met halfway in lovely Wichita, KS.  This trip resulted in roughly 18+ hours in the car.  Sounds like a lot but I love a good drive.  I get a lot of good thinking behind the wheel.  When I used to have a 45 minute commute to work, I had to have a tape recorder nearby because as I drove I would literally download my brain out of my mouth.  Lots of good ideas.  To capture these ideas I would record them and transcribe them later.   This trip allowed me to think about a lot things.  Mostly my Christian walk and how it is speaking through my family, work, and me.

We found a lot of good modern Christian stations between here and Wichita.  This isn’t Gospel but modern rock that praises God.  I am a normal guy who loves the Lord.  Do I have shortcomings? You betcha.  I am not perfect because I am a Christian.  I try to achieve perfection because I feel that Christ deserves that much but I come up short on a daily basis.  I am made perfect because I believe and he loves me back.  Now getting to the point.  I heard Matthew West’s ‘Something to Say’ and the message behind says that everyone’s life speaks for the Lord.  What is my Life saying?  As I said before, I’m a normal guy.  I love sports, my wife, my kids, playing the guitar, etc.  I have areas of my life that are far from perfect.  They are broken.  I need fixing.  I look to the Lord to show me how.  I’ll never be Billy Graham and stand at a pulpit and preach to the masses or Bart Millard and sing God’s praises to thousands.  My life is my testimony.  I heard something on the Dan Patrick Show about Tim Tebow.  They were talking how he operates in a football locker room and Dan said that Tebow just takes on an attitude of ‘I’m here to help you.’  He is not the standing on a street corner screaming for people to repent.  This really spoke to me and so has this verse.

¹⁶"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may ^(T)see your good works, and ^(U)glorify your Father who is in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

So putting it all together.  I am a normal guy who is trying to let the Lord speak through my life.  I will not thump my bible in your face but I am here if my friends, family, or whoever wants to talk about the Lord.

It’s Alive!!!

Sometimes I have something I want to say with more than 140 characters.  I’m still learning how to use these sets of tools.  Twitter, Facebook, and Blogspot are a great way to communicate and they all have their place.  I guess I’m sorting out how I’m going to use them all.  Each has their great points.  I’m bringing this old bird back from the dead.  I know a few months ago I said I was going to 86 this thing but as time moved on it became apparent that I needed more than 140 characters to get out my thoughts.

I’ve messed around with how I’m going to format this.  Largely I think I’ve been chasing my tail.  My original thought for this blog was a catch all of thoughts, feelings on whatever trips my trigger.  It could be spiritual, sports, work, family, whatever.  I tried to make this blog like others but I’ve gotta make this one MINE.  In essence this blog is going to be about nothing from here on out. 

Whether I have one reader or a thousand, I’m going to stick to the original concept.  So I’m going to proceed to bore you all to death from here on out. 

Monday Musings

1. Thank goodness the Celtics lost.  I don't know what it is about the Celtics I don't like.  I think it's scars from my childhood where my Dad revered the Larry Bird and trash talked his young Laker-fan son.
2. The coolest thing about Twitter is that an Astronaut can tweet from space.  Follow this guy at @Astro_Mike.  I can just see him floating in front of his keyboard.
3. Jalen Rose on Mike and Mike gave shout outs to folks that were twittering him while on the air.  The game is changing and the world is getting smaller.   Wouldn't be surprised if the 'request line' is replaced by a twitter feed.
4. Realize I'm probably Twitter-heavy right now, but I read twitter like a news wire.  It has become my way of following the news as it happens.  I follow News organizations, politicians on both sides of the aisle, and watch things like Twit-Scoop.  Twitter provides a great vehicle to watch stories develop real time.
5. If you haven't visited Lifehacker.com or Instructables.com, then you're missing out.  These are great sites for how-tos and ways to use a little elbow grease to save some $$.  Plus if you're a pack rat like me than it is a great way to deplete your inventory.
6. Speaking of Jalen Rose,  I'm listening to the podcast of Mike and Mike from Friday.  He's tremendous.  He is captivating, carries conversation, and knows how to deliver a point.  He's got a tremendous future in the broadcasting business.  Combine that w ith his basketball chops.  He'll be a force.
7. Yellow Ledbetter:  Does anyone know the lyrics to that song?
8. Pelosi needs to answer for 'CIA mislead me comment'.  If the CIA did lie or mislead her, they can be prosecuted.  She needs to put her $$ where her mouth is.
9. I needed to read this today.  "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." Galatians 5:1
10. All Joe Biden needs to do now is send out the google maps link where his bunker is located.  Put a mic in front of this guy and he disengages the filter.

The Sunday Bullets

 

1. Duck-Duck-Goose vs.. Duck-Duck-Gray Duck:  So far DDG is winning by a large margin.  The only place I’ve ever seen DDGD is Morris, MN
2. I can’t be the only person who loves Wasabi Soy Sauce Almonds
3. Apparently there was some rhyme and reason for not releasing Gitmo photo and holding tribunals.  The viewpoint is a little different when you have all the intel in front of you.
4. I was really hoping the Lakers would have lost to Houston.  I think Chauncey and the Nuggets can get it done
5. Joe Mauer is awesome.  Brent Gardner thought he had home plate but Mauer made a great play.  Mauer is the man
6. Why does my 2 year old think he’s 17?
7. The Penguins of Madagascar is a really really funny cartoon.  If you haven’t seen it you should.
8. Covering the words of Jesus in Sunday School and we talked about becoming ‘Fishers of Men.’  I definitely cannot fish by the net full but I pray that I am learning the skill to cast my line.
9. Made my own Salsa Verde this week.  It was pretty good but I need to find some fresh tomatillos.  If you used canned tomatillos it may taste a little sour.

Pirate Fail

This is one of my new favorite blogs (Failblog.org)…It’s Hilarious

see more pwn and owned pictures

Finally…a voice of reason…

I’m going to just let him talk cause he pretty hits it out of the park

What say you?

Simple is better

Going a new direction with this blog.  I think I’ve cluttered this page up with too many gadgets.  I’ve decided to simplify.  I find the blogs I love to read are the simple unadorned blogs.  Now I’m not straying away from being a media-rich blog because I think that a picture says a thousand words.  So read on and enjoy.  Leave me comments sometimes I feel like I’m talking and no one is listening.

Rejoice in him always…

I was leaving church a couple of weeks ago and I saw my friend BC leaving church with his wife.  BC just finished up serving our country in Afghanistan.   He was on the front lines and certainly in the line of fire.  When I saw BC, I remember saying ‘praise God.’  I’ve been thinking about this and I had it all wrong.  Here’s what I mean – even if something terrible had happened to BC I should still be saying ‘Praise God’ in the same way.   See we need to praise him no matter what the circumstance because he is there and in control.  He is not leaving us to the randomness of this world but using us for his purposes even though we may not understand.

It says in Philippians Chapter 4:4 to…

4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!

That always is the key…not hard to figure out – it means always.  It doesn’t say ‘Rejoice in the Lord when things are good.’ – ALWAYS.  Now is that easy?  Certainly not.  It becomes even harder to rejoice the harder circumstances in life are.  He will deliver you.  Maybe not in a way you believe to good at first but as time passes the good will emerge.

MercyMe 10 is out