See you in September

Well hello, coffee-lovers!

Much of my "free" time over the past little while has been devoted to writing a new article for Barista Magazine (everybody's favorite joe journal!), working on developing a Barista Boot Camp for the store and training new employees, like Jane here.



Jane is one of those new baristas who is just a dream to work with in those first few sessions: she's eager, quick, intuitive and asks great, challenging questions. You know how sometimes you can just tell when somebody's going to be crack at this game? Man, is that a good feeling or what?

Here's a picture of Jane learning how to tamp!



While it's a cool photo, I'm sorry to report that she has two actual human arms, not one ghostly almost-invisible arm, in real-life. Too bad, I kind of like the ghost arm!

I'm also in the early planning stages of booking my first trip to Coffee Fest Seattle and, possibly (also not possibly, knowing me) competing in the latte-art competition that goes along with it. My latte art isn't the best in the world, for sure, but I do love pouring it, and I do love meeting other people who are into this geekery.



So who knows. But darned if I don't love a good workshop about gelato. Don't mind if I do!

Also, for my birthday this year, the world gave me a beautiful sunset and a great view of the Statue of Liberty. That's worth blogging about!



Tough life, am I right?