Cuvée Coffee Tour

Saturday, I had the privilege of visiting and touring Cuvée Coffee out in Spicewood, TX (west of Austin – even further west than where I live). Now, if you’re like me, you’re wondering how in the heck you pronounce the name and where it came from. It is actually a french wine term and sounds something like “koo-veh”.

It all started when Sarah replied to an email from Jodi (@tastytouring) and got on the short-list to bring a guest out to Cuvée for a little tour of the place which was organized by Jodi (kudos and thanks to her). Well, as it turned out, Sarah had to work and was not able to make it. She insisted that I (still) go, in honor of her. I am so glad that I did. There ended up being about a dozen of us there which made for a perfectly sized group.

Mike McKim is the owner and answered any and all questions about coffee, his business, his road to where he is now, etc. It is encouraging to hear his story, about how he went from a job in telecom, to roasting his own coffee for himself and friends/family, to selling espresso machines, to finally having his own coffee roasting company. He is “living the dream”, if you will, getting to do what he loves (it’s obvious).

On a business/marketing note, this was an awesome step forward for Cuvée. Mike and his wife spent 2 hours of their Saturday giving a tour of their roasting hub, which will trigger “word of mouth marketing” via the small crew that was there, to people that he may not have been able to reach on his own. I love that. He got me and others excited and educated about coffee and his business. We can’t help but spread that around – especially in a place like Austin.

Thanks for hosting us Mike & family.

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• p.s. Check out Eli’s post about the tour

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, that Cuvée also does 1-day barista training. How awesome is that? So coffee shops will send baristas there to get trained on techniques, etc. The goal is to ultimately use their current house as a sort of B&B for people to come from out of state and be able to get trained in the “skills of coffee-making”.

@CSLewisDaily

If He who in Himself can lack nothing, chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed

via @CSLewisDaily

Collaborative Consumption

/via http://collaborativeconsumption.com

Some of the sites mentioned in the video are listed below. I can’t remember how exactly I found this video, but I do know that it was somehow tied back to Colin Beavan, No Impact Man. S and I started the documentary the other night on our Roku, and are really enjoying it. I look forward to sharing more thoughts from the movie.

Anyway, I think what this video here is talking about is quite fascinating. I can be such a selfish person and think that everything I own is all mine. But, nothing I have is truly mine. I think the type of collaborative sharing that is talked about here could really change a lot of things in the world. I need to let some of my walls down, and these are a great start.

Take AirBNB for example. This is a site where you can rent a house or a room from somebody else on the site. I probably wouldn’t think twice about doing this. But from what people are saying in some of the reviews, I think it could be a neat experience, and an awesome way to save money while travelling.

• Tredup
• Freecycle
• Swaptree
• Bookmooch- share/trade books
• Zilok- rent anything online
• Shared Earth
• AirBNB

- rent rooms or entire houses while travelling

Happy Hour at La Condesa

S and I went out for date night last night. We went into town a bit early to dodge traffic, and I finished working at a coffeeshop. The shop just so happened to sell Love Puppies Brownies, which I have to say is a strange name for a baked good. We grabbed one for dessert and then hit La Condesa (@lacondesaaustin) for happy hour/dinner. Man was it good. We grabbed a table on the balcony and nestled on a pleasant Austin sidestreet tucked away from the hustle and bustle. I ordered the hanger steak and a mojito, and S got the tortilla soup and a chicken taquito. Overall it was a great date and great food.

Next on the list: El Naranjo which we have heard rave reviews about

I learned about spark plugs today

My one of a kind father-in-law drive 2 hours to my house today to hang out and teach me how to change the spark plug on my weedeater.
I am thankful for him. There is just something about learning a new skill that is like nothing else. And learning it from someone who has loads of knowledge … is that much better.

Facebook and Twitter, and technology for that matter, are not the same as a face-to-face teaching session. I loved it.

Two (cars) become one

We are considering becoming a 1-car family. I say “family” even though it is just S and I now. We expect kids to come along in the not too distant future so we have to take little ones into consideration when discussing a decision like this.

Our “better” car is 13 years old – a 1997 Honda Accord with 185k miles. Our other car is a 1996 Toyota Camry with 135k miles. I am somewhat attached to the Accord since it was mine before marriage. Lately though, S has pointed out to me some signs that it is just getting old. S had the Camry and overall it is a good car, just needs a little TLC – like installing the replacement door handles that have sat on my shelf for over a year.

I had thought lately about what life would look like with only one car between the two of us. Now, the main reason that I was thinking this could work for us is because I work from home, and S only works three days/week. I rarely go anywhere during the day unless I am meeting friends for coffee/breakfast. All that to say, there are very few times where we are both out of the house separately.

For example, a friend in Waco works from home and his wife stays at home with their 4 kids. They only use one car because typically one of them has to stay at home with the kids. I’m sure there are times when she could take the kids and he would need to leave the house also, but I think this is rare and it can be planned for.

So I mentioned the idea to S on the way home one afternoon. To be honest, I tried to make it sound like a loose thought that was more of a passing one, than one I had actually put some valuable thought into. She took to the idea more than I expected. We have since been throwing around the idea and need to get some things in order so that we may list our cars on Craigslist – like tracking down titles and getting cars washed.

Here is the financial breakdown of what we’re thinking:

$3,500 – Accord
$2,500 – Camry
$1,000 – money sitting aside from stuff we sold
$3,000-ish – money we have saved up that we’d purposed for a car, just haven’t been sure how to take action

Approx $10,000 total. Now, since our lifestyle permits this flexibility of only having one car, we both believe that we could be happier with one solid car than 2 slightly solid cards. I feel quite confident that we could get a really good card that meets our needs for between $9k and 10k – like maybe a Prius Oh, and we do not plan to go into debt for an updated car, or even for a 2nd car. It is not an option, if you were wondering.

In the event that I were to get a different job where I had to drive to an office, we would definitely need a 2nd car, but we have time to save for that. I don’t know what that savings plan would look like at this point, but I feel confident that it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

A few other hurdles that come to mind:

• Less flexibility
• Plan ahead when we are scheduled to be somewhere at conflicting times

Benefits:

• Save on car insurance – put the money towards 2nd car
• Save on (some) gas
• Opportunity to strengthen marriage through communication and selflessness

What are your thoughts on being a 1-car family? Would your lifestyle allow it?

Tomatoes are growing!

raised bed

planted in the Earthbox

planted in a 14” pot

I planted two tomatoes in my Earthbox at the beginning of April. I had the box for a year but hadn’t been hit with the reality that I could grow my own vegetables at home. This year was different. Maybe it’s that we live near so many great farmers markets and near great local food vendors. Good, real food, is in the DNA of this city.

So, I decided to go to Natural Gardener here in town, and I picked up a cherry tomato plant, and a celebrity tomato plant. Then, my mother-in-law gave me one of her heirloom plants that she grew from seed. I decided to plant the celebrity plant in a 14” pot and put the other two tomatoes in the Earthbox. [The Earthbox comes with fertilizer that you need and a watering "pipe" if you will, that puts water into a reservoir at the bottom of the container, that the plants pull from when they are thirsty.]

So, a month into my gardening, I have several tomatoes growing and looking healthy. I am somewhat surprised that I have had such good results from my pot, considering I hadn’t done it before and wasn’t sure if the plant would have enough room to grow.

We also filled in our raised garden bed in the backyard this weekend. I built a 4′x4′ bed of 8” tall boards, topped off with some rich Hill Country Soil from Natural Gardener. In the bed we planted red bell peppers, green bell peppers, jalapenos, and more tomatoes.

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What is Facebook for?

I have been asking this question a lot lately. I just don’t seem to find any value in Facebook like I do Twitter. Granted, I know they’re different. But if I’m going to use a product or a service, I want it to provide some sort of value. I feel like it takes away [time] more than it gives [value].
Right now, the main reason I keep my account activated is because of family – at least a way to somewhat stay connected besides just email. We haven’t done email too well in the past.

A new backyard

Yesterday we laid 1 pallet of sod in the backyard. A friend of mine owns a construction company and was awesome enough to pick up the pallet and bring it to my house. Sarah helped me with laying down some top soil here and there, as well as laying the sod – especially in the tricky places where it had to be cut into pieces. 1 pallet definitely goes a lot further than I anticipated. Check out some of the photos. Oh, and I also put together a raised flower bed that will soon have veggies in it. So, I guess it should be called a “vegetable bed” and not a “flower bed”

The Swell Season concert on NPR

Ever since I saw the movie “Once”, I have loved Glen Hansard’s voice. I just so happened to be looking at NPR.org today, and saw this concert linked. What a joy to listen to.