Ted, Ted, Ted

Drew is a very nice guy who makes a mean espresso. He works at Ritual Coffee Roasters, about 10 blocks from our house. I spend way too much time there. Here is Drew at the national barista championship in Minneapolis a few minutes ago. Chris Baca, another Ritual great, was on earlier in the day.

Today we strolled around San Marcos quite a bit, just looking at people and things and having a good time. There are a number of very old buildings, and they looked even better in the sharp, brilliant light that you get up here in the mountains.

We spent the day today tramping around a coffee plantation called Finca Niagara. The name seems to come from the beautiful waterfalls that drain the cloud-covered mountains, along the escarpments of which the coffee plants somehow hang on.

The coffee is in prime picking condition right now. Some workers we ran into, taking a break after their shift, reported that each worker can pick a volume about the size of a large duffel bag in a day, for which he gets 30 quetzales, which is about $4. One of them then opened his bag and gave us a couple of pounds to bring home. Paul forced him to take a little money for it.

We’re feeling pretty lucky: we’ve chosen the right time to be here. It gets cold and wet and grim here for about half the year, what the cloud-forest climate and all, but right now it’s just pleasantly cool and dry, just like home.

Last weekend a crew from San Francisco State University was on our block shooting a short film by a student named Drew Crocker. It had an angel, Jesus, and assorted pratfalls. I didn’t really get the premise, but we’ll see the finished work soon enough and all will be explained.

On my first trip to Chennai, I tried on a sari at Rasi’s, the big silk emporium in the Mylapore neighborhood. I was impressed with its elegance and ease of use, not to mention the glorious fabric, something I’d never had much of an eye for until then. Kevin held onto the picture for months, no doubt to avoid scandalizing the community. Only now does the sordid truth emerge.

We thought we were being pretty organized, what with getting Lilly’s lion costume way back in September and all. Of course, the day before Halloween we found out she had grown out of it already. So Carolyn led a pre-Halloween craft marathon, and Lilly came out as a beautiful fairy princess with a glittering tin foil crown. (See all the festivities.)

I have finally found a self-improvement, life-enhancement program I can get behind.