*sniffles*

I've been a bit under the weather. After leaving the radio station last week my throat was feeling a bit scratchy, and then it started to hurt a bit, and then I had stuffy nose, and all the annoying little symptoms of catching a cold.

But I'm feeling a lot better now... plus John makes me "get-well-soon" lattes.

morning gelato!

This morning when we were making gelato at the caffe, many people come and wanted some... even before we finished the flavors we were making. Two ladies came when we only had 3 done, but they managed to each pick out 2 of their favorites out of the 3, and told me that they were so happy they got what they came for.

And then we had our morning rush. People getting Americanos and lattes, and teas, and then more people got gelato. I was suprised! We were going to make 8 flavors, but decided to only make 6 because the much cooler temperature and the rain... but now I think we may just make a couple more flavors before the day ends.

I guess rainy days are great days for gelato. Just like when sometimes I just crave a smoothie or a shake in a snowy evening... hmm...

roaster

John's been roasting fresh coffees at the caffe for a while, and he's enjoying every minute of it (except for the few times the fire alram went off, I believe.) With the growth of business and clientele, he has to roast several batches almost every morning to keep up with the demand.



We decided it's about time for us to upgrade our roaster.

John is hoping he'll be able to get a roaster with larger capacity before his birthday, and is researching and talking to coffee people a lot these days in order to make the best decisions on choosing the best roaster.

I wonder what he's going to do with our current roaster? Maybe I'll try to convince him to give it to me to play with... hehe.

10 years!

I ordered some food from Golden Isle and when I went and picked up the food the manager talked to me for a little bit. He introduced himself, saying that he had only been in the States for about 3 weeks. He then said, "Ah, you must have been in the U.S. for a while now." Hmm... did he get that from what I said?

Anyhow, that reminded me that today marks the 10 year anniversary from the time I came to Utah from Taiwan! On September 10th 1997, I dragged a huge suitcase, a huge military backpack, and a Teddy Bear, and traveled all the way to Salt Lake City. I was pretty young then, and thought I was all cool and "on my own."

In this past 10 years I've got both my bachelor's and master's degrees, taught in different schools, got married, started my own business, and broadened my horizons and expanded my social circles and experienced wonderful things. I've really grown! :p

Of course I'm still all silly, but I've really learned many things throughout the past 10 years! I think I'm a much smarter, or should I say wise? haha

I'm going to continue learning and being better for the future, so as not to let the past 10 years down!

yama the model

I've always wanted to take more pictures of the dogs and cats, but the only animal that would listen to all of my commends is Yama.

He'd sit (even though I have to use a stern voice sometimes) when I ask him to, and he'd stay until I'm dong with the pics.


oops i blinked!


oh, a butterfly!


hehe, i'm the most well-behaved dog at the household!

pavarotti

I was talking to Mariha and Mary at the caffe about how today feels a bit funky. Mary talked about how hard she cried in her car when she heard that Luciano Pavarotti died today.

It is sad to see a legend passed, and the sky seems to be a bit gray because of it as well.

labor day

John and I rented a 15-foot dumpster for a week, so we could clean up some of the old stuff in the garage, around the house, and in the yard.

So part of our Labor Day weekend was spent throwing away old junk we could never get rid of... the old matress and couch the dogs chewed up, our old table top, a couple of dead mowers, and of course the branches and trunk pieces from the tree we pulled down a few months ago.

And then there are just old stuff around the house... like one of the the LoveSacs the dogs like to lie on... We've had two 6-foot ones for a while now, so it was just time to let go one of them.

We still have a couple of days before the dumpster company come pick it up, so we're still deciding if we should let go of the old sofas downstairs. Maybe we will, so we can have pretty new ones soon. hehe.

lei cha - NOT!

My mom called me last night and sounded worried. She told me the can of "Lei Cha" she sent us was not Lei Cha. It was a mixture of ground mung beans, almond, and some sort of Chinese herb (I don't remember what exactly she said)... and it was a facial treatment for my sister. She said she totally forgot about it until she read my blog yesterday. She simply used the can as a container for the mixture.

Very nice. No one told me anything until then. I felt bad for John because I made him drink the whole 6 oz. of it and told him it was Lei Cha. I felt a bit stupid, and was not very happy about the fact that my sister did not say anything to me when she saw the "tea can" next to our other tea tins. Oh well.

Just to make me feel better, my parents told me the facial mixture was actually all natrual ingredients that were edible. I guess so. I'm just glad John and I didn't get sick.

So there it was. My first Lei Cha experience was not a Lei Cha experience after all. I guess since I sort of developed some minor interest for the tea (the real kind, of course), I may just find some just to give it a try soon.


On a bright side of this... Lei Cha is probably better than how we thought it was from yesterday's experience.