LOST predictions

I just watched the session finale of LOST last night. Here are my predictions:

If you are not up on Lost - and/or have not yet seen this season's finale, don't read.

1. Next season will begin with the original Oceanic flight taking off from Australia and safely landing in L.A. Everyone will then find themselves back on the Island through some other means. It's fate after all.

2. The Island will turn out to be a modern version of Mount Olympus - where real versions of Greek Mythological gods live (Jacob being one). Like Greek gods, these characters are quite fallible, powerful but not supreme, and quite willing to put on disguises and interact with humans. Also - like Greek gods there are different characters with different attributes and degrees of specialness.

(I am not sure why Jacob has been drawing people to the Island for so many years - at least back to the time of the Black Rock. He wants the Island to be found by certain people. Don't know why.)

3. Richard will turn out to be one of the crew of the Black Rock. He was given some divine attributes by Jacob (which is why he doesn't age).

4. When those on the island face ultimate judgement, they stand before Jacob as he takes the form of black smoke.

5. All the characters, all the players who have had a role on that Island at any time will turn out to be pawns in a divine "chess match" between those two dudes at the beginning of the season finale. Ultimately, the entire story of LOST - all six seasons (or however many seasons it is) will all be about those 2 men. Everyone else is simply doing their bidding.

Once the "pawns" realize what's going on they will rise up and kill their "gods". It appears that Jacob may already be dead. One down, one to go.

Kind of random, but I just like it a lot

Stand by me from Vendée 1 on Vimeo.

Click here to read THINK Magazine's article about Mark's Bros Coffee

Of fathers and daughters

Life has been pretty crazy around the Holmes' household for quite a while now. I have been so consumed with moving and settling into a new city, a new house and starting a new business that it is easy to lose focus on things that really matter. Through all the craziness, I think each of my daughters have grown about an inch.

I feel like I have missed it.

I turned around and said, "When did this happen? When did you get so tall?" I have been so wrapped up in all my own stuff, my daughters have gone about their business of getting older - without me.

Following the advice of a dear friend I took Abby (my oldest) to a "Fathers and Daughters Summit" today. These summits are put on by the National Center for Fathering. It was well done. I am so glad I went. How refreshing to be in the same room with 400 other fathers and daughters who desire a good relationship with each other.

To be quite honest, I was not super excited about going. I had a ton to do today - none of which got done. I had some great conversations with Abby though - conversations that were long overdue. It was a great day.

Emma - you're next.

Mark's Brothers are now selling coffee

We're open.

It's been quite a process, but we are now up and running. Mark's Brothers Big World Coffee Roasters is now in business. Visit us at www.marksbrotherscoffee.com. Our site is functioning but we are still finding revisions. Be patient.

If you live in the Dallas area, stop by the shop between 10:00am and 2:00pm (or whenever you see the light on). We are located at at 1915 Central Expressway in Plano (the south west corner of Central Expressway and Park Blvd - behind the Fishmongers and near the Asel Art). The suite number is 340. We don't have a sign yet - coming soon.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in what we are trying to do - who might be intrigued by our story and stories of the coffees we are trying to sell, please point them to our web site.

Thanks

O.K. - Kelly here (Greg's wife). I'm supposed to be editing his post, but I'm here to say that he copied mine minus the bling (he's really tired).

The honest to goodness deal is that this coffee is amazing; we are thrilled to have our website functioning (even with revisions forthcoming); and you have been tremendous in your support. And, well, we're REALLY HAPPY to be roasting coffee that is amazing - I'm loving it and we're hearing great things. Thank you! Your word of mouth plus great coffee are the best marketing tools we have going for us.

Don't tell him I invaded his blog; He'll never know.

More progress

We moved into our new home this last weekend. We are living in the midst of boxes and are surrounded by little projects that need to be done to make our house our unique home. It is great to be in our space again, though. We are very thankful. We love our new place.

I'm roasting - running "junk" beans through our roaster to get it seasoned and calibrated.

We were just told this morning that our web site should be up and running next week.

Soon we will be open for business.

Progress

As anyone who has started a new business already knows - there are about 15 things that need to happen (hopefully concurrently) before a business can really be up and running - there are legal issues, finance issues, accounting and book keeping issues, marketing issues, inventory, sales, purchasing, etc.



We are slowly but surely crossing things off our list.



This past week was the "dealing with the building and health departments in the city of Plano" week. No fun. The city has never dealt with a coffee roastery before, so they are not quite sure how to classify us. We are not a coffee shop. We aren't serving coffee by the cup - or any beverage - or any food items. But coffee is obviously ingested, so sanitation is very important. Pinpointing the exact requirements has been a bit of a puzzle for the city. In a way it's good that the city doesn't know what to do with a roastery - it means there's not a lot of local competition. But, we have had to adapt to several building requirements that we weren't expecting. Some of the requirements aren't too costly. Others, however...



The biggest requirement we have had to adapt to was the health department saying we had to install a 3 compartment sink (like in commercial kitchens), a hand washing sink, and a mop sink. That's all on top of a sink we already have in our bathroom. In case you are keeping score - that's six sinks.



Six sinks.



And - all those new sinks have to be in our prep area where - you guessed it - we did not already have plumbing. So, we have been doing our best this past week to keep area plumbers employed during a down economy.



On a brighter note - our big new roaster came in. It's hooked up and our vent stack is installed. The gas company is coming by today to check everything out and turn the gas on. We will start calibrating and seasoning the machine this week.



Very exciting.