Mike and Becky gave me these very cool tiki waterfall thingy last night. It was a Christmas present (thanks guys! I love it!). We all (Mike and Becky, Christine and Aaron, Kim and I) went to Riverbank Lounge after Becky's fun gig at Stumpjack. We had a great time and lots of laughs. Riverbank is the cat's pajamas...love that place!
It's a desktop waterfall and he's got a candle atop his noggin'.
Here's a very cool set of linocut prints that my 13 year-old daughter Jesse made for me for my birthday last month. Click to enlarge. Yes, my kids are very talented artists.
Cheyenne also has a sculptural piece presently being shown at the JM Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan.
It's been a super-chaotic last week or so, but then this year that has been more often the case than not. Mix together a few music event reschedulings, a new tastings schedule (see Kim's Wine All You Want blog), updating our menu, the new Stumpjumpers Club developing, more online ventures than you can shake an empty coffee mugs at...toss in a couple of foolish individuals with more ego than common sense trying to rattle the Stump cage, even more uninvited equipment repairs, the downturn in the economy...measure in few handfuls of new, exciting projects, including a couple of significant writing projects besides my bi-monthly coffee column for the newspaper, and some preliminary work on a couple of very cool projects with our friend Dave from Lakeside Apparel. 
Slow-Aged Lot 826 by Perdomo
No picture of the Angry Joe cigar, so I went with this image of a guy rolling a cigar. He looks kind of angry though.
I enjoyed Angry Joe's with a little glass of Apple Pie Liqueur, an apple cinnamon liqueur from the Missouri Tavern in Springfield, Wisconsin. The sweetness of the liqueur contrasted nicely with Angry Joe. You can, of course, get Angry Joes at Lakeshore Cigar in Manitowoc on Washington Street (and you should! This is a great shop and Joe always has something tasty in the humidor and plenty of warm conversation...it's a place where no-one is a stranger, even if it's your first visit).
She also said,
I did a little online digging and found the following two images, one of the opening title credit to the show, "White Christmas," that Pat was referring to, and one with Bing actually standing in front of that original backdrop. This is the coolest...I love that Pat tips his hat to this classic broadcast, and in such a subtle manner.
In a follow-up email Pat indicates that other images will follow as the piece progresses. I'll post those images when he forwards them. Don't forget, Pat Dinizio is gonna rock Stumpjack sometime in early 2009 (Jan or Feb I believe...will let you know as soon as he forwards his itinerary). It's going to be the event of the year folks, guaranteed fantastic.
Paul & Talane in rickshaw...I love the look of the street and buildings behind them.
Maria, Keralee, Paul and Talane at Stumpjack this summer
Jeremy working as the sommelier
Paul Braun and Julie Ruh
Joe calculating some math problem
Gettin' crowded
Larry and Peggy...probably our most dignified friends
The new, and still unfinished wine bar.
Nick laying it down
The evil Spock in the alternate universe episode.
Allie came down from Menomonee
Nic shows up just a little too fashionably late.
My latest artwork...I call it "Exercise in Black & Yellow #3"
This way to my house...Given that this is an election year I’m going combine a little political trivia with the discussion of coffee. I’m also going to get more openly political than I normally do. I’m going to come out and just tell you who my favorite presidential politician is.
Ready?
My favorite politician is…Teddy Roosevelt!
Teddy looking determined...and he was.
Yup, he of the old Bull Moose party and Rough Riders fame, who advised “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” and whose popularity inspired the creation of the Teddy Bear. That was a little disingenuous of me to name a past president, but it’s the truth, Theodore Roosevelt truly is my favorite president and as luck, for me, would have it, he was also a passionate coffee connoisseur. His place in the coffee world was secured with two things: one, when he requested that premium coffee from Puerto Rico, which he described as “grand!” be served at official state dinners and functions.
Roosevelt and the boys ready to kick some tail if'n they don't get some Puerto Rican coffee NOW!
Roosevelt chose wisely in requesting Puerto Rican coffee. It has been deemed one of the super premium coffees in the world for over a hundred years, and justifiably so. Puerto Rico shares much the same growing conditions as other coffee growing island countries of the Caribbean and the Hawaiian Islands. All have the high mountains (1,000 to over 3,500 feet), rich soil and equatorial weather that produce superior coffees. These coffees exhibit what is known as an “island profile,” a cup that is, generally speaking, incredibly smooth, very low in acid (described and tasted as brightness or bitterness) and well balanced with an almost buttery mouthfeel.
"You there! Get me a cup of Stumpjack Coffee now, dadburnit!"
Freshly roasted Puerto Rican, at an upper medium, full city roast, produces a distinct and delightful cocoa aroma for the first few days following the roast. It is not a coffee that rocks you with overpowering flavors or boldness. It’s soft, creamy and oh-so-smooth; a wonderful brew for people who either can’t drink a lot of coffee because of things like acid reflux or who just aren’t into bolder coffees. You may detect a gentle sweetness in the cup, and its mildness makes it the one that I enjoy best in the evening.
After drinking Stumpjack Coffee Roosevelt is in joyful mood and waves to crowd.
Puerto Rican coffee is, in fact, very similar to the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain (JBM). JMB has been marketed more effectively than Puerto Rican, but both compare very favorably in terms of taste, aroma and texture. At one time, however, Puerto Rican coffee was the premier coffee in the world. During the mid to late 19th century Puerto Rican was the most expensive coffee on the planet, and set a standard of quality that other premium coffee growers aspired to achieve. At our shop we only partially joke that “Puerto Rican is the coffee that the pope drinks.” At one time that was in fact the case, as it was indeed the coffee consumed at the Vatican, as well as by royalty and heads of state throughout Europe and the U.S.
However, a couple of hurricanes in the late 1800s crushed Puerto Rico’s coffee industry. The slow recovery following that devastation, along with certain political influences and the increasing profitability of the island’s sugar cane industry, were too much to overcome and the country never reclaimed its former dominance in the coffee world. That’s actually good news for us today. The coffee is as outstanding as ever and yet does not generally command the same prices as other similarly excellent island coffees. To be sure, it is not cheap, at anywhere from $20 to $28 or so per pound. But compared to JBM or Hawaiian Kona that both go upwards of $50 per pound it is quite a deal.
The other thing that Roosevelt is famous for in the coffee world? After finishing a cup served him from the Maxwell House Hotel in Tennessee he uttered the phrase “It’s good to the last drop,” which became the popular slogan for Maxwell House Coffee.
My Grampa, Fred Smith, caught a nice musky from a Trout Lake near Minocqua in 1974. Grampa is 94 now and he's still kicking the crap out of fish wherever he chooses to wet a line (he still makes at least one or two trips to Canada each year just to put the fear into them and let 'em know he's got their number). This musky now hangs in the Stumpjack here in Two Rivers.
We have a few signed and numbered limited edition prints of this poster by illustrator extraordinaire Tina Kugler. Tina's art opening is tonight at Persimmons in Manitowoc.
This will be my chair from which I'll deal with salespeople who pop into the shop unannounced (they will be forced to sit on the floor before me as I humiliate them for their presumptuous behavior).
Jesse will hold court in my absence.
They will then be dropped into the snake pit with all of the various deadly vipers that the girls have collected.
Laurie Svatek, mountaintop in Peru (I'm pretty sure she said Peru).
Stumpjack Peru Café at the top of the hill.
Detail...with people in line waiting for a spiced coffee.
Mike Zimmer and Kim before the big walk-over.
Greg Buckley thanking everyone who had a hand in the new bridge.
The tail end of the walk-over.
Kayak flotilla under the bridge.
Last Monday (July 14) Kim and I drove up for an overnight at the cottage of our friends Marty & Lori Suettinger. Actually, it is Marty's aunt's cottage, and it's outside of Sturgeon Bay right on the water. The place is cute, the weather was fantastic, Marty and Lori were great hosts and great cooks, and we had a totally wonderful and relaxing evening. Lori's son Thomas and a couple of his pals were there lighting fireworks in the evening, and Lori's cousin Jessica (I think she was a cousin) and her boyfriend Kyle came over from Sturgeon Bay to hang out for a while too. Great time...thanks Marty and Lori!
Here's a few pics from a disc Marty just dropped off. He takes tons of pics of anything and everything, and here's his own Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
