Virtual Coffee {29}

Hello dear friends, welcome to coffee.

Our hostess Amy with her hillbilly latte inspired me to improve my regular blah coffee a little bit. Unfortunately my frother has gone on strike lately so my new and improved morning drink isn’t as visually appealing as it could be, but it’s definitely yummy, and that’s all that counts.

In case you’re interested it’s two teaspoons raw cane sugar, two teaspoons cocoa powder, a dash of cinnamon, a dollop of fresh raw cream, all this gets mixed vigorously with a teaspoon in the bottom of my cup and then I add a “long” shot of decaf coffee from my Nespresso coffee maker.

I’d also have to share with you this interesting “bouquet” I got from a friend the other day. I swear, her dad grows the biggest cauliflowers on the planet. Seriously, what does he feed his plants, I wonder?

If we were really meeting for coffee today, I’d tell you that we finally got to spend a relaxing weekend at our beach apartment, with a full complement of doors, windows, and working heating this time. The kids loved it, and though the weather wasn’t great we still spent several hours on the beach trying to get as much sand as we could in our clothes and shoes and watching the surfers.

Much like most of you we’re also gearing up for Turkey Day, which we will celebrate on Sunday – because it’s not a holiday here - with about 15 of our closest expat friends (and their kids, which will likely feel like a legion of barbarians descended upon us). Unfortunately, my Thanksgiving dry-run from the beginning of the month (or the great turkey mishap, as we like to call it) has totally put me off turkey roasting this weekend, thankfully someone else graciously offered to pick up that ball, so I’m off the hook!

And if we were really having coffee I wouldn’t be able to hold in my excitement because I got my tickets for Houston, y’all!! These birds are going home for Christmas and we’re over the moon!! (Or I am, the Boy keeps asking if Santa will know to go to Nana’s house this year.) The trip is going to be long and tedious but then we’ll be there for a month and a half so I’m thinking that should be long enough to forget about the nightmare 14 hour plane ride. I’ve already started my list of activities for the kids and obviously my shopping lists for me… and, in fact, if anyone from Houston has suggestions of fun stuff to do with a toddler and a preschooler they’d be very welcome.

I really hope my Mom and her husband survive having guests for that long!

So that’s all folks, now tell me, what are your plans for Thanksgiving? And have you started your Christmas shopping, cause I haven’t and I’m really hoping everyone’s as behind as I am?! I’m off to bake a three-layer, no food coloring, red velvet cake for the girl’s birthday tomorrow, which I’ll post on this week if it turns out decent.

Toodles, and thanks for visiting, now pop on over and say hi to Amy! 

p.s. notice anything weird about the following photos of me? Apart from the crazy hair I mean!

Yeah, it's like my iPhone is glued to my hand or something! And then I have the gall to try and "limit screen time" for my kids...GAH!

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Stuff that drives me nuts

I am a creature of habit, when I become attached to something it stays with me for a really long time; case in point, I have a stuffed bunny that’s been sleeping in my bed for thirty-five years. I am a faithful consumer. If I like a product, I’ll keep buying it. I have the exact same gap t-shirt in 45 different colors, I’ll be very upset if they decide to stop producing it. 

I’ve been a loving and ardent windows user for most of my technological life. I remember when I got my first notebook, I was a junior in high school. I needed something to write essays and opted for a Toshiba notebook rather than a word processor (yes, I’m that old) this is how long I’ve been using windows, practically since before windows became “Windows”. Of course, I should have known something was amiss in my life because my very first computer was an apple, back when apple’s logo was cute and multicolored. I was ten years old, it was a desktop, it probably cost more than a car and had less functionality than a toaster. It used floppy disks. My brother and I used it solely to play a game based on the Olympics, all I remember is the characters were almost stick-like figures and you had to slalom down a ski slope, or throw javelins, or pole-vault, stuff like that. So this week, after being a faithful windows user for nigh on two decades, I have gone back to my roots and bought myself a MacBook Air. 

It’s light as, well, air (aptly named) and thin as paper (almost). It’s pretty user friendly and I’m not noticing any major differences or difficulties. I was already in love with the iphone and ipad so it seemed like a logical next step. I haven’t yet transferred everything from my pc, so I get to say a long and heartfelt goodbye. There is just one thing that consistently drives me bananas, the lack of a “canc” key. In place of the “canc” key they put the computers on/off key. I use the “canc” key A LOT, so I really miss it, and I see no earthly reason not to put it in. So, Steve, before stepping down, can you do something about that please? Cause I keep turning off my damn computer as I’m typing this. Thanks.