Life Is But A Drink

I saw this print on Etsy the other day (see here) and it made me giggle.  Because I totally subscribe to this philosophy.  I love coffee, but I hate bad coffee.  Worthless, I tell you.

I’ve waxed poetic about our every day coffee (see here).  It’s really quite delightful.

But, today, let me introduce you to some really superb, amazing, wonderful, great, super duper, lovely coffee – Anderson’s Coffee in Austin, Texas.  And particularly their Panama Boquete coffee.  Holy guacamole, people.  This stuff is heavenly.

I lived in Austin for awhile.  And while we were living there, we happened upon this adorable little coffee company on Kerbey Lane.  And we literally fell in love with this coffee and would make the trek to Anderson’s each week for another bag of the stuff.  We remember it oh-so fondly.

It’s been years since we lived in Austin.  But while my husband was down there this month, he went to Anderson’s and – for old time’s sake – bought a bag of the stuff and brought it home with him.  I was overjoyed.  So excited.  Giddy with anticipation.  We filled up the coffee maker with it yesterday and… OMG it’s as good as I remember it.

So good.

So, so good.

So, so, so good.

{Oh, and did I mention it was good?}

If you live in Austin and you appreciate good coffee, go to Anderson’s and try their Panama Boquete.  If you are ever in Austin and appreciate good coffee, go to Anderson’s and try their Panama Boquete.  If you appreciate good coffee, you may actually want to make a special trip to Austin just to try their Panama Boquete.  Well, and see the bats because that’s kind of cool, too.  Seriously.

It also looks like they sell some coffee online, but I don’t see this particular variety there.  And I’m not so sure that’s going to work for me.  Because now that I’ve had it again, and it’s as good as I remember it, I’m not quite sure that I can go back to not having it anymore.  It just doesn’t work that way in my book.

If you were looking closely, you may have spied something in a couple of photos from some recent posts. 

Check out this photo from my post the other day on my cabinet-cleaning hysteria (see here for the full post). 

Or this photo from my post about our construction paper turkeys (see here for the full post).

Do you notice anything?  Look closely… 

Here’s a big hint…. 

I got a Verismo!!!  You may recall that I was obsessing over it a few weeks back (see here) and started plotting a way to get me one, including dropping a not-so-subtle hint about a possible anniversary present.  Well, my husband is not dense and he picked up on the hint and surprised me with it for our anniversary.  Yay, hubby o’ mine. 

We’ve been playing with it over the last couple of weekends.  And the good news is that we are really liking it.  So far, it’s totally living up to its hype.  It’s very easy to use.  The espresso tastes great.  It’s simple to clean.  And it looks nice.  What more could you want?

My absolute favorite drink at Starbucks is the caramel macchiatto.  As part of the deal, Starbucks gave my husband a jug of the vanilla syrup and a big ole’ bag of the caramel sauce (which I put into a little green squirt bottle so I could feel like a real-live barista) so that I could make them at home.  (The syrup jug and the squirt bottle can be seen in the top photo in the cabinet….)  

So far, we’re very happy.  And really enjoying sipping on a lovely latte or caramel macchiatto at home on Saturday and Sunday mornings :)

Dear Dentist:

Thank you for sending me a bill back in April for my March cleaning.  I’m sorry I didn’t pay it right away.  It somehow got lost in the shuffle.  So, thank you for sending me a bill in August, reminding me that I hadn’t paid the April bill.  I felt bad (really, I did) that I’d forgotten to pay, so I got online right away and had a check sent your way.  I was pleased that the check got to you so fast and you were able to cash it within 7 days of sending out the reminder bill to me.  I’d hoped that all was forgiven and we were back on good terms.  I always find it advisable to be on good terms with my dentist.

So you can imagine my surprise when I got this nasty little note from you yesterday with a bright orange (I’m guessing so I wouldn’t miss it) sticker that said you were going to send me to collections and screw up my credit rating if I didn’t pay you in full within 10 days.  So that’s how it is? 

I ended up having to spend a bunch of time (time I couldn’t really afford, mind you, and time that I would have much preferred spending with my kids) last night digging through our bill files to find the invoice with my little note on it (“PAID 8/12/12″) and then more time on the computer on the bank’s website to find a copy of the cashed check and then more time to print it out.  It was there.  My little check to you.  The one you cashed back on August 17th.  And now I get to spend another chunk of time on the phone with you this morning, arguing about how I really did pay and here I am looking at the cashed check and I don’t know why you didn’t credit it to the account but that doesn’t seem like it’s my problem and going around and around with you, I’m sure.  Because that’s the way it always is with these things.  Eventually, we’ll get it resolved.  Probably after I go all lawyer on you and raise my voice.   

All I ask, dear dentist, is that – in the future – you be a little more careful with these bright orange stickers with their threats and their exclamation points.  Because it sure irritates the heck out of me when you get all high and mighty when it was actually you that screwed up.  Yea, that. 

Oh, and while we’re communicating here, do you have any good recommendations for a new dentist in the area?   I’m not sure that this relationship is going to work out as we had originally envisioned.  It’s clear that we’ve grown in different directions.  It happens sometimes, you see. 

Sincerely,
Hilary