School Has Started (and I was tagged)

The weather is getting cooler (mid 80's) and the sky is gorgeous. Things would be wonderful if I could just get the squirrels and the crows to stop eating my figs.

The knitting in my life:
Well, school has started, and not just for my teenage son. I have started the Masters Class Level I, and I am getting ready to start a Norwegian knitting class. I am really excited about both. I have done 12 of the swatches for the Masters class. I am going to add one or two pictures of them I am in the early stages of learning how to utilize this program. It already seems limiting for the novice. Enough of that. The multi-color baby sweater got the best of me. It has vexed me at every turn. I went to sew the sleeves on and they were too small. I must have switched over to the 12 month size, and needless to say (however, I am going to anyway) it is now banished to the UFO basket until, maybe (or not), the next granddaughter comes along. My lace shawl is moving along now. I have two more rows before I start knitting the end section! I thought I would never get to this spot. It feels good.

What is going on in my life:
My youngest son has just started his senior year in high school. Wow. He has settled down into a study routine (he had summer assignments for his AP classes). My mom is going to visit my sister, and then my brother and is going to be gone for 3 whole weeks!! She lives with me and does not drive anymore, so the only break I get is when she goes on a trip. I have to say that my sister is great about scheduling those trips! It is just going to be my kids, my DH and me. Oh yes, I cannot forget my Rose (the dog). It is amazing how quickly I fall into the "she's gone" routine. She has been with me for 11 years, and......well, let me say this, "they do not make a house big enough for two families!"

The coffee in my life:
This week I have roasted an aged Sumatra Mandheling. My family loves it. The coffee is roasted with a profile that brings the heat in low, and then increases it as the roast moves along. If the heat is not brought in at the right time, I will loose the momentum of the temp rise, and stall out. The bean is drier from being aged (5 years in a temperature controlled environment) and grown at a low altitude. I roast to full city. The coffee is smooth and amazingly mellow with a subtle malty flavor. I am very pleased with the profile.
I also roasted some Selve Negra. I do beleive that I have landed on the perfect roast profile. This is a clean, high grown bean. I bring my heat in full-throttle, watch my temperature rise, and slide the heat down in order to keep around a 16 to 20 degree per minute rise after it gets going. It is not such a high grown bean that I use my "open hopper" technique for bean development. It fills out beautifully without it. I took this batch to full city and the taste and aroma is amazing. The beans roasted just long enough to take the edge off the brightness, but not so long that the roasty char flavor started to overwhelm the flavor. When I open the bin, the aroma sweet and floral and I can hardly stop smelling it. The flavor follows suit. The family raved about this profile. Not too acidic but with a nice lift to the flavor. The body was light and silky. The flavor was floral with a hint of caramel. I think I will stick to this profile.

Here I get sappy:
Here at home times are tough. My son-in-law was let go from his job (recession reduction), and he cannot find another comprable job (again the recession). They are going to loose their house because of all of this. My daughter is a real trooper. I cannot say how proud I am of how she is dealing with this. My son-in-law graduated from the top law school in VA, so he is enormously qualified. He is diligently searching for a job here in VA or in NC. He has passed the bar in both states, and he is only 24! He graduated college at 20, and he graduated from UVA at 23. He is everything I could ask for my daughter. We could use a lot of prayers for a quick resolution to his job situation.

On another note: TAGGED!
It seems that I have been tagged.
chickenlily tagged me quite some time ago. I am now taking up the torch.

Here are the rules:

Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving comments on their blogs.

So I'll start with 7 weird/random facts:

1)I used to own a coffee shop, and I still own my 15# Deidrich roaster. I roast my own coffee, because quite frankly, I like the way I do it.

2)I love my garden. I have spent the last 10 years finding unique plants and planting them in my yard. I love to propagate, and have a "nursery" on my back deck.

3)I hate it when my husband leaves the top off of the toothpaste.

4)I collect coffee mugs. This should not come as a great suprise. I have them from all of the places I lived and visited (my husband used to be in the Air Force)

5) I do not wear any make-up. I own it, but DH hates it, so I save the $ to buy, you guessed it, YARN.

6) There are only 3 states that I have not been to: Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. I hope to remedy that before DH retires.

7)I like ketchup on my macaroni and cheese.

Now........I am going to tag :

knititknititgood

RoHunDoc

smellyann

KimberlyC

BookishlyFab

5DogNight

Turtleknits

Now to say TTFN.