YouTube

B. made his debut on You Tube today! The Saturday jazz group he plays with most weekends posted a video - it's fun watching the kids 'jam'. If you know me and you want to see it, please email me and I'll tell you what to search for so you can find it.

The day was a morning full of church. Working at the coffee cart was exhausting and frustrating. It's hard work when there's a lot of supplies to be unloaded and restocked. And it's hard when one of the workers spends a lot of time chatting with folks. And the third helper was a teen who had absolutely no idea what to do - so consequently, did very little. I was sweating like a stuffed tuna - and they're standing around chatting. Made me nuts...and glad I'm not working there every weekend 'cuz I know I would blow my stack at some point. J. had a break between services and he helped me wash and dry all the equipment. I was so glad for the help 'cuz I wanted to get on my way to my errands.

First stop was waiting in the long lines at Costco to fill up the cars. Gas was down to $4.14/gallon - and it shocks me to say that's 'down' and that it's still as high as it is. We get 3% cash rebate back on all gas purchases so that saves us about 12 cents/gallon more. We're trying to get B. to take the time to gas up there - after receiving the Chevron bill this month, and having my mouth drop open at the shock, he needs to coordinate with us to drive across town, use one of our Costco Amex cards to fill up and then come home and give us back the card. In January, when he's 18, we can add him to our account - which we will probably do, though that's a bit scary. We got him a Chevron card and he only uses it for gas. But the temptation of an Am Ex card that can be used anywhere is a bit worrisome. He's a good kid - and we'll probably add him so he won't need us to be with him, or have been able to get a card from us - in order to gas up there. The lower price (compared to Chevron) combined with the 3% rebate does make a big difference - and we're squeezing every penny lately, as is most of America.

The new Mercury Mariner hybrid is expected to arrive at the dealership in the first couple weeks of August - so hopefully, we will end up buying it and that will save more. With only a 1.7 mile commute each way, it would seem I'd drive very little - and I don't, really. But add in the trip to Starbucks every morning, and driving home for lunch, and then the after work errands, etc. and it adds up. And in town, the van gets really bad mileage. So a hybrid is a good idea, even for someone who isn't driving hundreds of miles each week. I figure if we all buy hybrids, we'll use that many fewer barrels of oil - and that's what we need to do to cut our dependency on foreign oil, which we can no longer afford to import. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. If we were to buy a car for the boys, it would be a Prius or a hybrid Honda Civic - neither of those cars 'excites' them but if they want a car and if we're helping to pay for it, that's what we're buying. We're going hybrid all the way!

I worked a bit outside, continuing the pruning and removal of various shrubs. We still need to measure and order the raised beds and plant some fall veggies soon.

Another Monday looms and I'm hopeful tomorrow will be less of a blue-sy Monday than last week. That day sort of set the tone for the week and it made the week just drag by. We need a more upbeat start of the week.

I 'won' (on eBay) a 'LeCube' espresso machine which is very, VERY cool. So now, we're waking up to really great espresso, made a shot at a time. Mixed with steamed milk and froth and a little sugar free caramel or vanilla syrup. It's delicious and the whole family is enjoying it - well, mostly me, J. and B. H. has never been that into coffee. It's a slick machine and I got it for less than 1/3 of retail...only thing is: it isn't working perfectly (it's purchased from the manufacturer as a 'refurbished' model) so I'll contact them tomorrow and enact their 'temporary replacement' policy. They'll send us a machine to use while they repair this one - no shipping charges. It should be fine. It works fine, really, but the espresso size shot is supposed to be using less water than the lungo size shot - only they're both using the same amount of water. Which I discovered when my smaller espresso shot cup overflowed. It's sort of 'important' because the coffee capsules you use are many different strengths and flavors - and some are best when brewed with the smaller, espresso size shot of hot water. Sounds picky, but let me tell you - this coffee is really great! We have so many different kinds to try - and when we decide on our favorites, we can order what we like. It's great. It's made by Nespresso, which is a division of Nestle. And Nespresso is the company that makes our milk fr other, the Aerocinno, which I absolutely ADORE.

I'm rhapsodizing about coffee....whatever gets me out of bed with a smile on my face, right?