Two Hands, Stupid

Have you ever fallen off a moving treadmill? I did this once. Not that it was actually falling “off”, but it was more like an attempt to get “on” the moving apparatus that caused the situation. It’s not often that I find myself jogging at the gym on the treadmill. It’s something I save for frigid winter days when there’s no option to go outside for a little ski or something. Anyway, there I was about 3 minutes into my jog, completely annoyed that I was watching Gun Dog: Bird Hunters on the TV with an out of range remote control in my hand. Bugged by my inability to control my environment, I stepped off the moving treadmill to walk up to the TV to get the thing to change to something more appropriate, like today’s Oprah, for example. Should I have asked the man 2 treadmills over if this was ok? Maybe, and this is probably why karma took control in the next moments. Read the rest of this entry »

Ta-Da!

Most people won’t refuse free cookies or free coffee, but thank goodness my highly polite friends, neighbors, and work colleagues were willing to give the garage coffee in the little brown bag a try. Some of the roasting attempts tasted great and some tasted downright boring. The quality of the green coffee beans that can be purchased by home roasters over the internet is as uncertain as Brittany Spears’ behavior, but none the less entertaining to roast and try. Read the rest of this entry »

Science or Art?

Flip red switch to “on” position, temperature control to “high”, ensure fire extinguisher is nearby. This is how the instructions for my new in-home coffee roaster read. Great, I’m going to burn the house down because I’m too lame to buy coffee at the store. I decided to stop there and back up about 20 steps. Now that I had the equipment that could actually turn out a decent roast, I needed to match my coffee roasting skills to it. This wasn’t cave-girl and the popcorn popper anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

The Good Stuff

Certain things in life are saved for those of us who fit into descriptive categories like “artsy fartsy” and “clog wearing”. It would be reasonable to say that I am not a fit for either of these categories, and may be as far away from them as a person can get since I’m mostly amused by rules, process, boxes and squares.

Without offending those who seem to have a knack for colorful dress, or choosing Dutch-inspired safety footwear, I might suggest that the above two categories fit with types who make their own kitchen gadgets from materials grown in their own gardens, or drink breakfast juices from green plants that would send my allergies so far into outer space that I’d need a moon sized Zyrtec to stop the itch that’s taken the place of my eyeballs, or think it’s a good plan to roast their own coffee beans in a “not intended for that purpose” popcorn popper out in their back yards just so they can have fresh coffee every week. Wait, what? Read the rest of this entry »

Hair and Cake

That was how it started (hint..read the first post first, starts from the bottom up:)). I was on a big high with the thought of starting and running my own business. The only problem was I didn’t know what I was going to sell. How does a person figure that out? I only knew one thing for sure, and I learned it from the companies I’d worked for in the past. If you’re not authentic, you’re just another company trying to sell stuff. People don’t believe in your stuff if you don’t truly have a connection with what you’re selling. It’s just that simple to me. I had to feel personally connected to what it was that would become the core of my business, and something I loved as much as a family member. This would become my adopted child, and I never wanted to be embarrassed about it in public or have to ask for my money back. Read the rest of this entry »

First Day on the Job

Here it is, first day on the job for real. How did I get here? That’s a good story. Don’t the craziest experiences always make for the best journeys?

About 14 months ago I decided to leave my respectable job in the outdoor industry after being employed in the same company for 14 years. (No comment on the 14.) I’d worked my way up the ladder over the years, and had a great position. It was the kind of job that when people asked about my work, they acted surprised like they didn’t actually think I was that smart. I liked the people at my office and had been lucky to receive tons of professional opportunities along the way. Why in the world would anyone leave a job like that? Honestly, I was ripe for a challenge to land in my lap, but didn’t really know it until the phone rang. Read the rest of this entry »