Daily Dose

Daily Dose of Women – Michelle Tea

2 Comments / GLBT, Sights & Sounds /

MichellesMichelle Tea – someone I never thought I’d see in person but as TW says, it’s gonna be that kind of year for me.  First Michelle Tea tonight at Wild Iris and then Susie Bright at Blogher in July.  Pretty darn cool!

Michelle read from her new book, Rose of No Man’s Land, and answered questions.  She signed some books and was just very nice to everyone in the room.  (Our Michelle is amused because she got her book signed "To Michelle T from Michelle Tea" – it’s the little things in life, isn’t it?)  And who knew Michelle Tea was a high school teacher? Can you imagine what that class might be like?   Scarey and cool at the same time, don’t you think? 

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Daily Dose of Coffee – New Media Mavericks

Coffee & Tea /

I want to know who is writing the descriptions of Boca Java’s "Bloggers Fuel" coffees.  I’ve read a lot of blog reviews over the last week and they all have two things in common – they think the coffee is good and they think the description is inaccurate.  To be specific, everyone seems to take issue with the adjective "robust". 

I wish I could be the first blogger to break away from that, but I can’t.  The first Bloggers Fuel we tried was "New Media Mavericks".  Boca Java describes it this way:

‘Unfiltered Truth’ Lead the information reformation with this medium roast from the prized Tarrazu region of Costa Rica with excellent body and robust richness.

Ummm no.  It’s actually a pretty good coffee.  But it’s not robust.  It’s smooth.  It’s got a nice, but not overwhelming, flavor.  I’d happily make it again and again and again.  Particularly in the spring and the summer, when I prefer a lighter blend coffee.  I wonder what it is like over ice.  I don’t do iced coffee so I’ll never tell you, but I’d like to suggest the idea to another blog reviewer.  I bet it’s a good iced coffee.  Not robust, but that’s ok.  Coffee does not have to be robust in order to be terrific.

The next Bloggers Fuel going into the grinder is "Blogs of Bravery"…. .  What a great name, I can hardly wait for morning!


 

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Daily Dose of Stuff – Monday

1 Comment / Monday Meme /

Hmmmm I didn’t have anything pre-planned and had to wander around the house looking for something interesting or odd to share.  It was kind of hard, believe it or not.  Well hard until I hit the garage and kicked this bag of piano parts brought home by Michelle last month.  She’s going to "make something" out of this stuff.  Someday. 

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What is that doing in your house?  Join the fun and add your link here!

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Daily Dose of Diet – Pancakes

5 Comments / Foodie, Travel Log /

Portland_pancakehouseWe pulled into the parking lot of The Original Pancake House in Coral Springs, Florida at around 9:30 on a Sunday morning.  The parking lot wasn’t packed but it was definitely crowded.  The waiting area was packed and I began to worry about just how long our wait might be.  I was worrying needlessly, less than 5 minutes later we were on our way to a booth.

The menu at The Original Pancake House is a spiral bound, laminated pages type of thing with lots of pictures and even more advertisements for area establishments.  That’s not something I see very often.  Coffee was brought immediately, and a pretty nice cup of coffee it was.  After a lot of back and forth about what I would order or she would order or we would order, several items were eliminated due to the 20 minute prep time caution next to them.

The waitstaff was incredibly friendly and incredibly quick.  The kitchen was busy so there was indeed a wait for the food but the coffee flowed and we had a newspaper to entertain us. 

The mandarin crepes were pretty interesting.  I’m not a fan of crepes but these sounded particularly good and I’m glad we ordered them to share.  I ordered the original breakfast burrito and was pleasantly surprised with two breakfast burritos in a sun-dried tomato wrap.  The food wasn’t quite as hot as it could have been but it was fine.  And, it was good.  It’s rare to find a breakfast burrito without meat and asking for the meat to be left out invariably gets you a burrito with meat in it anyway.  TW ordered the Huevos Rancheros which were very hot and included a very large pan of vegetables.  It was a pretty dish and was served with pancakes on the side.

We had a very nice breakfast; good coffee, good food, good waitstaff.

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Daily Dose of Cupcake Toppers

Cupcake Toppers /

kids_spring06_clipart.jpgMother’s Day weekend has arrived and that means small children everywhere are putting the final touches on the perfect Mother’s Day gift. In celebration of kids crafts, here’s a clip-art cupcake topper idea from Martha Stewart. Cheap and easy. Use Martha’s designs or better yet – let your child draw the design, scan and print.

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Daily Dose of Coffee and Water

2 Comments / Coffee & Tea, Foodie /

Last weekend was synchro weekend in south Florida. We took advantage of it and made a trip to the Whole Foodsin Coral Springs. Sort of boring, particularly in comparison to the newly opened Wild Oats in Tampa. Boring was good, it means we spent less money! Though I was annoyed with myself for not buying something that I knew RJ would be fascinated by. I ended up ordering it for her yesterday and had to pay shipping on it. Next time I’m tempted to impulse buy, I should follow my impulse. (I say this a lot because I almost never impulse buy, odd for someone who leads such an extravagant life. That’s me, a long line of contradictions.)

What I did buy while at Whole Foods was a selection of bottled waters and bottled teas. Some for me, some for Prince J, some just because. I’ve tried two so far – one surprisingly bad and the other surprisingly good. O2GO is the surprisingly bad one. It has absolutely no nutritional value, though it has a touch of orange flavor. The only bennie is the oxygen and last time I checked, I had plenty of that. The surprisingly good water was W2O – Water for Women. I bought the Tropical Samba flavor and expected not to like it. I liked it, a lot. Ended up drinking the entire bottle yesterday evening. I’m surprised it doesn’t have more calcium added, since it is bottled for women, but it makes up for that by having a ton of folic acid and all of the B vitamins a vegetarian could want and never get.

bloggerfuel.jpgNow about the coffee… TW received a package of Bloggers Fuel yesterday from Mr Bruce and the folks at Boca Java. This is nice enough but I’m just a little annoyed. I’m the one who signed up to test the coffees and blog the coffees, not TW. I’m the one who got the note from Mr Bruce saying he would ship my coffee soon. Yet TW is the one who received the blogger fuel kit with the coffee cup that makes me consider tossing my old faithful smiely mug aside. I’m sure Mr Bruce just got confused because TW has ordered stuff from him, because she and I share an address and because they seem to have some shipping issues in general. (TW’s box arrived in less than stellar condition but at least it did arrive.) Oh well, any coffee in this house is thoroughly tested by me and usually only by me. It’s the coffee that counts, not the shipping label, right?

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Daily Dose of Music – 6 for 6

4 Comments / GLBT, Melissa Ferrick, Sights & Sounds /

6for6main
Finally!  Melissa Ferrick has been promising a 6 for $6 download and it has arrived.  The songs are "new" and they are acoustic, which is cool.  (Melissa wound up playing my birthday show acoustic and I was really glad it worked out that way.)  They are also never going to appear on any ideal MF set list I might dream up. 

I’ve talked about some of these songs in previous posts about Melissa, (Click the Melissa Ferrick category link on the right sidebar if you want to see those entries.), so you know I’m not really all that thrilled with them.  On the otherhand, when Melissa sings "Standing up here singing my secrets", in Easy, it’s definitely the truth.  These songs, sans Rest Now, feel very much like she’s sharing her secrets. 

Rest Now is the only song of the six that’s different.  It isn’t about her.  It isn’t her story.  It isn’t her secret or her pain.  It’s a tribute to the late Chris Whitley.  It’s a good song.  I liked it the first time I heard her play it in a show, and the second time and I am enjoying this acoustic version as well.

If you’re a Ferrick fan you should grab the six now to tide you over til the album is finished – and that’s the kicker here, Melissa’s had a rough year and the money would go along way toward getting Never Give Up into our hands by the end of the summer or early fall.  If you aren’t a Ferrick fan, I don’t think I can recommend this six to you – choose one of the albums available in her store, instead to start you off.  (Other Side or Skinnier Faster Live  would work for you – preferably all three)

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