Roasting beans makes plenty of smoke! Did you see the smoke signals?

Roast settings used in today's roast:

Stage 1: 350 degrees f for 3 minutes
Stage 2: 400 degrees f for 3 minutes
Stage 3: 450 degrees f for 3 minutes

I could see the beans were getting too dark during Stage 3 so I set to Cool after only 1 minute in Stage 3.  The beans are darker than I'd like, but I'm sure the coffee will taste okay.

Posted via email from Out & About

  

Quite a few needlers made it to June’s meeting – some old friends and some new ones.  It is really amazing the diversity of talented folks who make up the needle nerds.

Here, Jolie knits a beautiful beaded scarf:

A close-up of Jolie’s scarf:

Carol is becoming quite an accomplished tatter:

Isn’t it pretty?

And of course, Sandra’s work is just marvelous:

 

If you didn't make it to June's meeting, we sure hope to see you in July.  Because July 4th is on a Saturday and some of the needle nerds will be taking a long weekend, July’s meeting will be moved to Monday, July 13th at 7:00pm at Michaels on Chapel Hill Road. 

Till then, Happy Needling!

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Will you being having sugar & cream in your coffee?

Very soon I will be making the best coffee in Douglas County. 

After thinking about it and studying it for the last year, I requested (and received) a coffee roaster and conical burr coffee grinder for my birthday. 

This morning I ordered some green Columbian Supreme beans and look forward to roasting my first batch of coffee.

I’ll keep you posted!

  

I had not heard of this book until I listened to a podcast (OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook) interview between Tom Ashbrook and the author, Douglas Blackmon. This book just won the Pulitzer Prize in non fiction (2009).

The interview was fascinating and I find the subject matter very interesting. This is an important book that I will make a point to read this year.

See Slavery by Another Name for more information.

  

 

My mother died more than 20 years ago and not a day goes by that I don’t remember her in some small way.  Memories about my mom often catch me off guard. . . one day shortly after my mom died, I was in a coffee shop and saw a so called “left handed” coffee cup.  My mother was a proud left hander and would have gotten quite a kick out of that cup, but I was overcome with grief and longing and could not get out of the coffee shop fast enough.  Songs on the radio sometimes provoke memories of my mother and the profound grief always follow.

People say, “time will make it better,” and in some respects they are correct.  Time blunts the sharp edges of raw grief, but time does not remove the grief.  I still feel it every day.  There are still times when I want to pull my hair and stomp my feet and demand to see my mother NOW! But those moments eventually pass.

Used to be I could not go near a card shop any time near Mothers’ Day, so I just avoided places where I might see the clusters of people searching for the perfect Mothers’ Day card.  Mothers’ Day would come and go and I would try to ignore it and the dull throbbing pain of not_having_a_mother to call or go see or send a card to.

My mother loved flowers but wasn’t much of a green thumb.  As a child, I remember my mother planting nasturtiums in a flower bed that nothing else would grow in. My mother called them “nasty stur-shums” and we would pick the leaves and eat them in our salads.  My mother also loved red geraniums and so in the summer time there were always pots of red geraniums placed around the yard.

Long ago my sister told me that she’d buy flowers every year around Mothers’ Day and place them in a vase on her kitchen table in remembrance of mom.  It wasn’t until later that year, while standing in line at the local nursery holding a pot of red geraniums in my hand that I realized why I planted geraniums in the pots on my front porch every year.

  

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (also known as the Yarn Harlot), will be speaking and signing her latest book on May 17th at 1:00 pm at the Cherokee County Recreation and Parks Facility (7545 Main St., Bldg 200, Woodstock, GA 30188) – Google maps tells me it’s about a 50 minute drive from Douglasville.

Tickets cost $15 and include two $5 coupons that are redeemable at the event and at  FoxTale Book Shoppe and The Whole Nine Yarns. Books will be sold at the event, and McPhee will sign all books purchased there.

You can call the FoxTale Book Shoppe to purchase a ticket (770/516-9989).

I simply can’t think of a better combination…books & yarn!  I’m interested!  Anyone want to carpool to Woodstock?

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We had a good time last night at the Needle Nerds May meeting. There was a mixed bag of talent and skill, with the tatters huddled together working their craft:

Our resident master knitter, who is always happy to lend a helping hand:

And her devoted protege & star student:

A couple of accomplished knitters who we met for the first time and hope to see again in future meetings:

And we were happy to see our new mother who was able to come out for an evening of crocheting

And, of course, I was there too, but since I was taking the pictures my picture is not in the mix.

If you didn't make it to May's meeting, we sure hope to see you at our June meeting, which is on June 1st, at 7:00pm at Michaels on Chapel Hill Road.

Till then, Happy Needling!

Stay up on the Need Nerds!  Follow us on twitter.

  

It is a very pleasant evening after some afternoon showers.

  

...and, oh, so pretty!

I will post more pictures later.

  

Epilogue is a new book club in Douglas County and reads award winning books, starting with Pulitzer Prize winning novels.  

 

Epilogue meets once a month at a local restaurant (we are currently meeting at Border's Books at Arbor Place Mall). 

Books are chosen at random from the list of Pulitzer prize winners.  The reading list for the next year has been formulated:

Meeting date	Book & Author	Yr
04/23/09	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz	2008
05/31/09	Gilead, Marilynne Robinson	2005
06/28/09	Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout	2009
08/09/09	The Keepers Of The House, Shirley Ann Grau	1965
09/20/09	Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson	1978
12/06/09	Guard of Honor, James Gould Cozzens	1949
01/17/10	A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Robert Olen Butler	1993
03/07/10	The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron	1968
04/18/10	Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler	1989
05/30/10	A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor	1987
07/11/10	The Color Purple, Alice Walker	1983
08/22/10	To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee	1961

I’ve created a discussion group on Goodreads for Epilogue.  Please think about signing up at Goodreads and participating in the discussion there.

If you would like to learn more about the Epilogue Book Club, call Julie at 678.321.6526 or send an email to julie@funfoodlife.com.

See also

Looking for sources for books?  See Reading on a Budget

Meeting Recaps:

• April 23, 2009: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao