Hand picked by Juan Valdez

 So Paige went to the grocery store and bought a coffee maker tonight. We don't drink coffee. But she "saved" sixteen dollars! Grandpa and Grandma Addink are coming over for lunch tomorrow (or Sunday dinner, as they would call it in Iowa.) They are coffee drinkers, so Paige thought it would be good for us to make coffee for them. We have also noticed that on occasion when my mom comes over, she takes along a thermos full of coffee. I think she needs the coffee just to keep up with our kids, and it's a subtle hint that we are not providing an adequate caffeine supply.

I love the smell of coffee, but never have acquired the taste for it. Apparently coffee is one of these foods that tastes awful, but you are supposed to like. So the nice way of saying that it doesn't taste good is to say it's an "acquired" taste. So I decided tonight to become and adult and to acquire the taste. Paige picked up some fancy chocolaty coffee (I figured this might make it more palatable.) I brewed up four cups. It smelled wonderful. I poured all four cups into the giant Dordt college mug (previously used only for childish hot chocolate.) I added a copious amount of creamer, again hoping this would improve the taste, and took a sip. Ughhhhh. Still tastes like coffee. I added some sugar, starting with a small amount and working my way up to an entire plantation. Hmmmmmm, starting to taste better, but still not what I would describe as "good." Figuring that "acquiring" a taste takes some effort, I kept drinking until it was all gone. By the end of the cup, the taste actually was acceptable, probably because coffee has some numbing effect on your tastebuds.

So, four cups of coffee and a pile of sugar later... I am still wide awake. And jittery.

Next week maybe I will try to acquire the taste of beer. I think the stuff tastes like dirty sweat socks...