USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Spoonman]

And, And

A New Dawn, A New Day ...

it is a new day, and lets all make the best of ours

 

[kaz]

Hi everyone. About to have my second cup. Unfortunately I'm at work and I'm going to be here most of the day. The joys of owning your own business...

Hombre and I ran our own business out of our home before fully retiring a few years ago. I loved it but it isn't a job you go to and then turn out the lights, lock up, and go home. We worked when we needed to and as we wanted to which meant we spent a lot of odd hours in the office--early morning, mid day, late at night, or if I had a particularly challenging task sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. We never learned how to officially close but we still managed to have a lot of fun doing other stuff too.

So now we are retired and where do we spend a great deal of free time? Well, in the office of course--that's where the computers are. It's also centrally located for easy monitoring of whatever is going on in the kitchen, is right inside the front door making easy access for short term visitors, and we can see the big screen TV in the great room from our desks.

What you and AquaAthena say is so true. I'm not saying I don't have a life, but you are never "away" from work when you're a business owner.

 

[Ava]

Hi everyone. About to have my second cup. Unfortunately I'm at work and I'm going to be here most of the day. The joys of owning your own business...

The thing I loved most about owning businesses, is I had no boss. I was the boss. I had total autonomy. Total freedom to lose or win.

 

[Ava]

I love the images you post, Jughead. I've come to look forward to them. Those cartoons that used to be newspapers, when I used to read newspapers. Now everything I read is online...lol

 

[kaz]

Hi everyone. About to have my second cup. Unfortunately I'm at work and I'm going to be here most of the day. The joys of owning your own business...

The thing I loved most about owning businesses, is I had no boss. I was the boss. I had total autonomy. Total freedom to lose or win.

I have no boss, yet I've never had so many bosses...

 

[Jughead]

I love the images you post, Jughead. I've come to look forward to them. Those cartoons that used to be newspapers, when I used to read newspapers. Now everything I read is online...lol

Brings back memories for me as well of reading the Sunday funnies on the living room floor as a child while my dad read the Sunday paper ...

 

[alan1]

Ghost Pepper's are not the hottest pepper in the world, but they do rank as one of the hottest. Pepper hotness is rated using scoville units. Many people consider jalapeno's to be hot at about 5,000 scoville units but a ghost pepper is about 1,000,000 scoville unites, thus making it 200 times hotter.

A couple months ago, some of my co-workers were talking about spicy food and one of the Indian guys (we'll call him B) said he'd never had a food too spicy to eat, and we all know that lots of Indian foods are highly spiced. This led the conversation towards eating hot peppers straight, not just as an ingredient in a dish. Now then, I like my spicy food and hot peppers, I mentioned that I can eat pickled habanero peppers (300,000 scoville) right out of the jar. B didn't believe me, A few days later, he brought in a jar of pickled habaneros and asked me to prove it. Not like a manliness challenge, but more about his life experience had been that most Americans can't really handle extremely hot foods as some Indian dishes are prepared. I ate a few peppers, he ate a few peppers and aside from a couple other Indian guys nobody else could eat an entire habanero straight from that jar. B was impressed.

So, the ghost pepper.
Yesterday, one of the guys (we'll call him M) that had been involved in the previous discussion about spicy food, hot peppers and the habanero eating (he couldn't eat an entire habanero) brought in a ghost pepper from his brothers garden. M admitted that the ghost peppers were way too hot for him, but he sent an email to about 40 people asking them to come by his desk and take the "ghost pepper challenge", eat a piece of the ghost pepper. Imagine a slice of pepper about as big around as a quarter and as thin as a dime, then take one fourth of that, that was the size of the piece of pepper to eat.
Quite a few people that don't even like spicy food showed up (along with those of us that do). Some of the non-spicy people came by just see us crazy fools eat hot food and some actually wanted to try it just for the experience. M warned everybody that he had tried a piece that size the night before and it caused his nose to run and his eyes to water so badly that he looked like he was crying. B was the first, followed quickly by S (another Indian), A (an American and not a fan of hot) and myself. We're standing there talking, "yep, pretty damn hot, but not unbearable" "keeps getting hotter". Except for A, he grabs a snickers candy bar from my desk and eats it, it's just too hot for him and he can't take it anymore, then another snickers bar. None of us shame him, it is a hot pepper. We had each chewed for about 20-25 seconds before swallowing the pepper piece. After swallowing, it got progressively hotter for about the next 20 seconds until it reached its peak, then it took about 10 minutes before the heat started to subside, then another 5 to 10 minutes after that for the heat to be gone, depending upon the person.
We ended up wasting about 2 hours time at work what with people trying the pepper, not trying it, talking about it, etc.
S (one of the original experimenters) took another piece, but the second time it was an entire slice of the pepper about an eight inch thick because he said the first piece wasn't "too hot". One minute after chewing and swallowing his nose started running, his eyes became bloodshot and started tearing up, then beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Fifteen minutes later his stomach started a revolt so he had to eat real food.
M had already told us of his experience the night before, but he ate it again. He had the same results, he looked like he was crying.
B and I were ok and so were most that tried it. But then, most that tried it are spice aficionados. Same people scared us. One Indian guy spit it out and started hyperventilating, sweating profusely and coughing so hard we almost called for an ambulance. One lady chewed, then swallowed it and one minute later she vomited into the nearest garbage can. She was quite embarrassed. Everybody that wasn't a spicy food enthusiast got bloodshot eyes and a runny nose. One guy managed to get the pepper oils on his hand, then rub his eye, three hours later his eye was still watering and bloodshot.

The pepper did have good flavor though. I'd use it in salsa or chili. A new pepper called the Carolina Reaper is currently the hottest pepper. I want to try it.

 

[alan1]

Hi everyone. About to have my second cup. Unfortunately I'm at work and I'm going to be here most of the day. The joys of owning your own business...

The thing I loved most about owning businesses, is I had no boss. I was the boss. I had total autonomy. Total freedom to lose or win.

Wasn't every customer your "boss", so to speak?

 

[Sarah G]

And, And

A New Dawn, A New Day ...

it is a new day, and lets all make the best of ours

Susan Sarandon has a bracelet tattooed on her wrist, A N D A N D. I saw it and it became my motto. I believe it has to do with recovery as well. David Letterman has talked about the term before, really seriously.

I like it.

 

[Mertex]

Took a couple of the dogs for a nice long walk this afternoon. Now cooking a BBQ for dinner.

If you only knew how that reads.........

Yep....sounds like she tired them out before she did them in....now she's going to enjoy them BBQ'd.....

 

[peach174]

Morning !
Everyone have a wonderful weekend.

The bigger they are, the more they think - I'm a Lap Dog !

 

[saveliberty]

Except for Sherry, most people have a boss.

 

[kaz]

Hi everyone. About to have my second cup. Unfortunately I'm at work and I'm going to be here most of the day. The joys of owning your own business...

The thing I loved most about owning businesses, is I had no boss. I was the boss. I had total autonomy. Total freedom to lose or win.

Wasn't every customer your "boss", so to speak?

Every customer and every employee. Our wad is on the line. Employees can kill you if they are not looking out for you in oh so many ways.

 

[Derideo_Te]

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​

 

[Derideo_Te]

Good Heavens! It looks like he was knocked unconscious. Hopefully he was not seriously hurt.

I think his Raybans might have been broken too.

 

[Sherry]

Happy Saturday

 

[gallantwarrior]

Love that poster, Sherry. It is true. Too many people choose not to be or do those things and make themselves miserable.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I guess I'm a cheap old codger, but I've managed to build many things "on the cheap" by scrounging.
First, Habitat for Humanity runs a second hand store specializing in construction materials. A Salvation Army type affair with items of more interest to folk like myself. I've gotten flooring, kitchen tiles, doors and windows, as well as sinks and a brand new shower stall...all for pennies-on-the-dollar. My second favorite resource is Lowe's cull rack. They bundle up lumber "seconds" and sell them for half price, or less. There are usually some undesirable pieces in each bundle, but for the most part, the lumber is quite serviceable. At any rate, I decided to take a gander at what Lowe's had on offer and low and behold, they had a bundle of five-step, treated risers. That is exactly what I need to finish the upper deck on my new shed! Of the 11 in the bundle, one is questionable. Just goes to prove that when the time is right, karma strikes.
I consider myself rather thrifty.

 

[Againsheila]

stupid foot. I could walk yesterday without so much pain. Back to the walker today. Oh well, you have your ups and downs.

 

[Foxfyre]

Morning !
Everyone have a wonderful weekend.

The bigger they are, the more they think - I'm a Lap Dog !

LOL. Hombre was just commenting that Carlie, the miniature dachshund wedges in with him in his favorite chair and little by little manages to take over more and more space in the chair. He didn't get much sympathy from me though because Carlie has been sleeping with me since she arrived. I swear Sally the Shih-Tzu, all eight pounds of her, could take up more room in the bed than I thought possible. But sleeping with Carlie is like sleeping with a Saint Bernard and is just about as hard to move over so I don't fall off the bed.