Coffee geek that I am, I grind my beans with a Mazzer Super Jolly (you see 'em coffeeshops), brew my coffee with the ingenious Aeropress, and pull my espresso with a very serviceable Solis SL-70. And since I'm looking for ways to enhance my coffee resume still more, I've played with the idea of roasting my own beans...you know, the green ones you buy online in microbatches from places like Guatamala, Jamaica, Indonesia, etc.

Well, looks like the roasting plan will be put on hold for awhile...at least until we acquire a well-ventilated garage/basement. I just came across this very detailed piece on The (New) Economics of Home Coffee Roasting.

And, as you might already suspect, the number one reason to buy a home roaster is simply to experiment with it--create your own roasts and blends and try not to burn your home down in the process. Fun, but I'll have to come up with a creative way to justify that purchase.

The Coffee Bean Roasting Dream has not been crushed...but it has been deferred for the time being, which means at least until next week.

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I've been learning a little about the Fresh Air Fund lately, and thought their cause is well worth mentioning as Christmas approaches. In essence, the FAF is a non-profit that arranges for low income, inner city NYC kids to enjoy summer vacations in locations outside the city.

Take a look.

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I've been reading Dan Allender's excellent Leading with a Limp and posted some thoughts on leadership, exhaustion, busyness and retirement over at arieljvan.com.

If you haven't checked the book out yet, I highly recommend it.

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So I'm slowly trying to get the blog back on its feet. Here's a shot of Aidan wondering what to do with himself after we packed up the bookshelf he usually marauds. (We're moving December 20.)

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Starting tomorrow (December 4) is the yearly Big 12-Pac 10 Hardwood Challenge, 2008-2009 edition. The prospect of seeing KU, Baylor, Oklahoma and Texas kick the snot out of some decent Pac 10 teams was enough to lure me out of temporary blogging retirement. Here's the schedule...

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Oklahoma State at Washington
UCLA at Texas
USC at Oklahoma

Friday, December 5, 2008
Arizona at Texas A&M

Saturday, December 6, 2008
Baylor at Washington State
Oregon State at Iowa State

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Kansas State at Oregon
Nebraska at Arizona State
California at Missouri

Outside the four-day series window
Colorado at Stanford (Sat., Nov. 29, 2008)
Kansas at Arizona (Tue., Dec. 23, 2008)
Texas Tech at Stanford (Sun., Dec. 28, 2008)

Yes, I like bragging on the Big 12--but realistically, Colorado, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Nebraska, and Kansas State will probably drop their games against Pac 10 foes. The Jayhawks have already waxed Washington in a November match-up, so count that as a go-ahead run in the unofficial tally.

Now, as a warm-up for March I'm going to pick the winners in the upcoming games. Agree or disagree in the comments...

Thursday's winners: Texas over UCLA, Oklahoma over USC, Oklahoma St over Washington.

Friday: Arizona over Texas A&M.

Saturday: Baylor over Washington State, Oregon State over Iowa State

Sunday: Oregon over Kansas St, Arizona St over Nebraska, Missouri over California

Outside the 4-day window: Stanford over Colorado, Kansas over Arizona, Texas Tech over Stanford.

Best game in the series: Texas vs UCLA - two Final Four caliber teams battle it out before the Longhorns' superior depth take over.

Final tally:
Big 12: 7
Pac 10: 5

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I just noticed that Amazon has a ridiculous $5 MP3 album sale going on. This time around, they're bucking the typical "$5 Friday" trend and putting 50 albums on sale for Black Friday (instead of five).

Miss the Viva la Vida (Coldplay) or Narrow Stairs (Death Cab for Cutie) sales earlier this year? Now you can get another crack at 'em. Not to mention music by some other great bands: Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, TV On the Radio, Portishead, Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot, The Walkmen, Shearwater, and REM.

A good half-dozen of the 50 albums on sale right now will be on my Top Ten Music list for 2008. Go take a look,...just keep in mind, you may have to restrain yourself.

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UPDATE: You can now view and download the official NCAA BRACKET 2009. And NCAA Bracket Predictions are now up.

Thanks to the good folks at ESPN, we can begin engaging in NCAA tournament speculation in November. KU comes in as a #6 seed, which will probably be about right...although if the young (very young) Jayhawks win some games down the road, their "national champion" braggin' rights could pull them higher.

In the current bracket, KU opens the tournament against MU (#11). Which would be, quite simply, a regional grudge match on a national stage, culminating in an MU slaughter. Not as fun as shocking North Carolina, but not a bad opening round prospect...

In this bracket, KU would have to beat UCLA and win the West before they could play the Tarheels and fluster Tyler Hansborough again.

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Early in the life of this blog, I posted pretty frequently about my founding premise and guiding principle: the idea that life is bittersweet, and some of the most revealing insights into the nature of our lives, and the goodness of Jesus Christ, emerge in those paradoxical moments when good and evil, pain and joy, dark and light, commingle.

I stand by all of that, and you can still read those posts, although I talk about a lot of other things these days. However, when I cracked Spectacular Sins by John Piper, I couldn't resist passing along this excerpt:

We are pushing our way through a blood-spattered life that makes us feel connected to the world and disconnected at the same time. We are here but not here. Love binds us to the tragic earth, and love binds us to the Treasure of heaven. Christians are strange. Our emotions are inexplicable in ordinary terms.

If I may be so bold (as the ragged, penniless church planter complimenting the famous man): John Piper gets bittersweetness. And Spectacular Sins is shaping up to be a spectacular book.

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These are the three youngest kiddos in the Vanderhorst clan. We went on a photo shoot in Kansas City, Missouri's West Bottoms area a couple weeks back and had a lot of fun.

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