Happy Fathers Day

Sunday Morning... Nag Champa burning....French press coffee....the delicate sounds of a Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd play list....Lacy snoring gently.

Even though I don't have any human children, I like to be the best dad I can be to Lacy.

We went to her doctor yesterday for her annual check up and shots and was given a clean bill of health. She's in much better shape than she was last year. She weighed in at 57.2 lbs where last year, she was 68 lbs. Instead of her laying around by the pool, I've been running her around.

Today, I'll be getting my gear in order, changing the backing on the 12 weight from 20 lb gel spun to 30 lb Power Pro since those silver beasts made short work of it last time, repairing the kayak where the seat cleat was pulled clean out.

The Difference Between Coffee and Colored Water

Lacy and I went camping with The Eversoles over the weekend. The weather was cold (36 degrees IS cold for Florida)and rainy. Poor Lacy was even shivering, so I snuggled her into my sleeping bag to warm her up. She slept ALL day after we got home.

The Eversoles have been my camping buds over the last few years. They were there for me big time after "the incident". April would be the perfect sit-com wife as she's very sassy and outspoken. Her husband, Kevin is very quiet and reserved, but isn't short of coming up with a zinger. We always have fun, humorous, spirited debates about everything from the huge camping kitchen and all of the gear that they bring, to the "inverted canoe incident" or "leaving in the middle of the night" that we won't mention right now.

This time, one of the subjects of debate was coffee or, for lack of a better term, colored water, which is what I call coffee that you can't taste....

Now, you have to understand that in order to not be at the mercy of other people's coffee when I do go with other people, I take along my backpacking stove, boiling container and French Press. For some reason, I go to bed early and get up early. I usually get up when it's still dark, brush my teeth, and start the coffee. To me, Folgers, Maxwell House and Chock Full O Nuts isn't real coffee. An "average" coffee would be 8 O'clock Bean Coffee and a top notch would be organic free trade dark roast that you'd get at a health food store. I guess my exposure to real coffee overseas means that I prefer espresso....also, powdered creamer doesn't count. I like to go with either soy milk or at least regular whole milk.

Back to this weekend.....

After making a light French Press full of coffee since there were other people having some, I used 4 scoops for a 32 oz pot full. April was the only one making a face about "Blah....this is like tar...this is like espresso". The boys thought it was fine. I thought it was fine. It was mentioned that, although Kevin doesn't drink the stuff, he does make it. I asked him how much he puts in and how much he makes for her. He said one scoop for 4-6 cups. WHAT? No wonder she doesn't like real coffee. I won't rag on her too hard because out of the Paula Dean cooking camping kitchen ya'all, came some really scrumptious marinated steaks replete with goat cheese, mushrooms and onions....I'm sure there was butter in there somewhere....YUM!