Counter Culture coffee tasting

Posted in a day in this life, food & drinkLeave a comment

I went to the Counter Culture coffee tasting in Durham on Friday. They served a light roast from Columbia (Santafé).

The speaker told us about the region and the beans (The growers used to sell commodity beans to Maxwell House and decided to up their game. Now they’re growing specialty beans.) Then, we discussed flavors people noticed. *I* am a heathen and can’t discern specific notes in my coffee.

The second half hour was Q&A with people asking about best way to brew and he talked about the differences in the roasts. Because of the kinds of questions, I suspect that every week is a new crowd.

It was interesting, but it was also a 30 minute drive one way and I’m not sure I’m that invested in it.

The parking lot smells divine.

sometimes I’m a little bad

Posted in artLeave a comment

In 1988, I spotted an art glass perfume bottle in a shop in Blowing Rock, NC and was just blown away by it. BUt, it was $350 and totally not in my budget. We were back up there about 6 months later and I stopped by just to see it. Not to buy it. Kind of like going to a museum to see your favorite painting. It was marked down to $275 and was still out of my budget.

A couple of months later, Hurricane Hugo came ripping through SC (I lived in Charleston) and I evacuated to my parents’ house in the NC mountains. After the wind and rain blew past, they went to work and I got to entertain myself. I decided to go wander around Blowing Rock and stopped in to see my perfume bottle. They were selling out the collection and it was $125.

I knew several things. One was that it was not going to go down in price any farther. Another was that the power was out in Charleston and there wasn’t going to be any bank access until after I was paid. My paycheck was direct deposit so there WOULD be money in my account in 2 days and any checks I had written in the mean time would clear, no problem.

So, I wrote a check. I have no regrets nor remorse.