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Archive for October, 2004
October 31, 2004 at 4:32 pm · Filed under On the Radar, Points In Time
Tagged with:
10 year,
Charlotte Latin School,
reunion 
Last night Charlotte Latin had our reunion at Tutto Mundo. I must say while I was looking forward to seeing some people, I was more worried that the turnout was going to be lacking since the early sign up list was really shy of people I was good friends with. One soul I thought I could count on, an old friend Brian Carol, assured me he would come, while one Jason Dinsmore, I thought I would never see again. Amazed and astounded the inverse was true. I spy Jason and about fall out, and no Brian is to be seen. Loser! We had the band all ready to go back together! Freak! Ok so we were missing one other, Bill Coley, lost in the woods with child or so the rumor has it.
It was fun to check in with a lot of people that have been out of the state or just out of touch. Everyone is doing about as good as one can. There are still plenty of people in academia and it looks like it will become many. While others have found their way back to the arts and are striving for a way to pay for it all. Then there are those of us in the workforce striving to find our own nitch or a better way to make the pay to be happy. Everyone felt better rounded. Those who were severly one direction smoothed it down, and those who may have lacked some social adeptness, had found it. There was just a good bunch of people representing last night and it was fun.
Tutto Mundo took our food without a final call, which I think irk’ed a good many, and their music was so loud I have almost no voice today due to the level we had to communicate. It was fine overall though. Maybe next time they can have it at my Caffe, wouldn’t that be a treat.
Hey Jason, if you’re reading this you better know that you have a lot of years of incommunicato to make up for. Need to hypnotize you into remebering to call an old friend when you’re in town you bastard. hehehhe.
Anyhow here’s a big thumbs up for seeing who was there, and here’s a big TThhhrrbbbttt for all of those that didn’t make it due to some odd psychology that is bull. We missed you and really wished you could have made it. Maybe I can get you back to Charlotte when we open our coffee shop.
-a
October 28, 2004 at 10:44 am · Filed under On the Radar
Last night Robin got into a fender bender on her way to UNCC for her Wed. class. One of those 15 year things that happens in the span of a breath. Everyone is merging, someone cuts in front of someone else, causing a young inexperienced driver to slam on their breaks right at the moment that Robin is checking her blind spot to make sure she is clean. ..Bam..
The great news is Robin is fine. A little shook up, a little sad at the fate of her vehicle, but fine none the less. Her initial shock left her a bit discombobulated and all the rules of accident procedure left her. The other young driver was not prepared either. Police were not called, incident reports not written. Robin did give the youngster her information though, and was later called by a parent of the kid. Robin is such a good hearted person, even in shock. heheh.
This morning we got the car into the shop. A flat occured on the way. We get to the shop and the early morning estimator looks at it and goes, ‘You know this isn’t driveable right?’, hah. The radiator has been pushed back far enough to interrupt the fan, thus bringing about a large potential for overheating of the engine. Rolling on a flat for a mile or so hopefully didn’t do much damage to the tires assembly. This would have been a larger and larger financal hit if it weren’t for Robin’s clean record and a good standing with Allstate. They are now handling the situation. Hooked her up with a rental car since an adjuster won’t be on site to see the car for four possible days. I’m really curious what the bill is going to come back as. Its a lot of subtle damage once you get past the big crunch. Hood is bent, frames torqued, radiators mis-aligned possibly in need of replacement, fans torqued, bumper & side panels will need replacement, headlight assemblies, etc.
It’s been fun. 
I must say though we’re handling it all in stride.
-a
October 25, 2004 at 8:30 am · Filed under On the Radar
This weekend was good. It was full. It was a mix of work and trying to avoid work. It was a lot of thought even when in downtime thinking of our new coffee establishment. Jeff needed some help on Saturday so we did lunch and stopped by Caribou to remember why we didn’t like them. We’d like to give thanks to Caribou for giving us said reminder. You still suck. No whole milk on the grounds, a taste of slightly scalded or old milk with an espresso histogram that was peaking in odd places. Thaaaanks. Its amazing how much we are surrounded by the mediocre. People have little to no reference its sad.
Sunday Robin and I drove around East Blvd in Charlotte. I needed to canvas the area to see if it could handle a real coffee shop. In a mile stretch, maybe more like 500yds there was a Dilworth Coffee House, Starbucks, and Caribou, all on one side of the road. The Caribou in this region has won Best Coffee in Charlotte by Creative Loafing which is really really sad. They have a superb location with a shitty product. Again the idea of an uneducated Charlotte audience sits there in front of us. The Starbucks on this street is also larger than normal. My gutt says that we could do it. There is a nice space available and we could fight a good fight, but common, this is Charlotte, there is enough room for us to not start a fight yet. We had a pretty good pizza at Brixx and then began to look for my Sister’s jewlery store Dilsey Coal. We found the street sign, and also found an empty storefront with out a sign, but thats as good as it got. With overcast and a damp cool day, we packed back in the car and went to sit at Dillworth Coffee House. This is the original one. I was hoping that their first store would offer more than one of the knockoffs experienced in Matthews. It was better than before but still not the best. Their Barista at least knew a bit of quality in his milk steaming. It was thick and lush, almost cream like but a little off. Then the shot itself, I’m not sure if I disagreed with the bean or with the preperation something though was off. They had a wifi hookup which was oddly behaving. Robin couldn’t get her connection working and my old TiBook was doing just fine. Of course till my battery expired on me. That’s when we headed home. There were also some notable locations at Park & Woodlawn and a possible Office to Retail conversion on Providence and Wendover.
The rest of the day I spent in between watching some television and working on a presentation exercise that Jeff and I agreed would be good of us to vision on our own so we could merge for a great idea. Robin made an excellent bacon, sundried tomato, cheese quich. Jeff and I spoke from about 8:30 to 11 hashing ideas, concerns, basically idea wrestling coming away with some very fertile ground and a passion to see this thing move forward.
Here I am though. Its monday. I’m a bit tired. I could use another few days in a hypnotic state but this will do.
-a
October 22, 2004 at 7:01 am · Filed under Quotations
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
— Lou Holtz
October 20, 2004 at 6:26 pm · Filed under On the Radar
I find myself again, like a waking dream..in a coffee house. Ok ok, so we are working on seeing what all java is offered in Charlotte. Last night we enjoyed a better than Bucks cup at the Dillworth Coffee House in Matthews. Tonight after Robin’s class I find myself in pretty much the only place around UNCC, Jackson’s Java. They roast on premises, have a rather large, but really not too large menu, 32 syrup types, bagels, muffins, and some items for sale. It’s not hippy like I thought but more starving artist. They supposidly have evening music from time to time but I can’t find floor evidence of it yet. Some other notables; two coffee grounds, Cima espresso maker.
Jeff and I have agreed that doing this is really good for us. Just after visiting and sampling one locale we felt great. Tonight, I feel even better. Watching, looking, inspecting, curious like a cat, calm like a predator, Muahahah (fade to black).
Ack.. Robin has just called for her ride so I have to jet.
-a
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