Daily Grit by Wes Thorp

Paramount Coffee in Lansing brings fine, flavored coffee to the world

 

Half-price holiday-flavored coffee from Paramount Coffee in Lansing

A cup of flavored coffee and the holidays go hand in hand for many people.  The city of Lansing has one of the best bean roasters in the country, Paramount Coffee.  We just bought several bags of their Christmas flavors at half-price.  We got the shipment this morning.

We've moved beyond Thanksgiving's pumpkin pie, but we can still remember it with pumpkin spice flavored coffee.  And then there's the various pepermint stick varieties.  It's not syrupy, sweet flavored coffee.  It's a flavor which easily registers on your palette and brings a coffee smile to your day.

I wonder if they'll serve Rice Krispie Treats in heaven

 

Gladys posted this picture on Instagram today. She made Rice Krispie Treats.

My wife knows that I like everything she cooks, the meat loaf, all the veggies, the hot dogs, the Boca Burgers, the Black Bean burgers and a long list of other gems.  Today, she made one of my all time favorites, Rice Krispie Treats.  

I love their taste, the cruch and their smell.  She started making them when our kids were really small. They loved them and eating them was always an occasion.

When we watch the Rose Bowl tonight, we will have a Rice Krispie Treat when we watch Michigan State University play in the big game.  We have even found a wine to go with them, Great Lakes Red.

You still have time to make them before the game.  Use this link for a how-to.

An occasion worth celebrating: Today's our 27th wedding anniversary

Twenty-seven years ago today, super-wife and I got married at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bay City, MI.  Sharing life with Gladys has been and continues to be the best thing I've ever done. 

Throughout the day today, as we get ready for a garage sale tomorrow, I want to compile a bulleted list of my memories from that day and from almost 30-years of marriage.  Here goes:

1. When I was fired from my job as pressroom manager at the State Capitol:  Somehow I got in the crosshairs of the political gods as got fired about 20 years ago from my position as the conduit between the news media and the legislature and the rest of state government.  After I was told, I knew that she was grocery shopping at the Meijers on Lake Lansing Road.  I went there and found her and our two very young kids.  She could tell what happened from the look on my face.  She never lost her smile and never lost her confidence in me.  She just wanted to know what I wanted for supper.  Wow,  that made me feel good.  I never forgot that.
2. Drinking wine and eating a McDonalds burger on our wedding day:  On our wedding night, we stayed at Bay Valley Inn in Bay City.  Because of a big convention at the hotel room service was amazingly slow.  So, we got in the car went through a McDonalds drive-through, went back to the hotel and feasted on the burgers and a bottle of wine given to me by my best man, Les Begick.
3. The text for our wedding sermon:  Pastor Les Tyvela who performed our wedding ceremony used the text we requested for our wedding homily.  Romans 1:10 tells about how Paul wanted to visit the Romans to support them in their faith.  That was our mutual goal and that's what the pastor talked about.
4. Our wedding reception:  We got married in the morning and our wedding reception was a brunch at the old Michigan Haus on the outskirts of Bay City.  There was plenty of kielbasa, potato salad and like items.  I remember lots of people in a place that at one time was a classy restaurant and watering hole for the area.
5. Honeymooning in Acapulco: We were given two weeks in a timeshare condo just south of Acapulco.  But because of air traffic controllers who were threatening to strike we weren't sure about when we would get there or when we would get back.  O'Hare Airport was wall-to-wall people who were anxious about being stranded.
6. Our wedding processional, Jesus Loves Me-This I Know:  In Bay City, Gladys taught with a teacher who was also the church organist.  He agreed to play for our wedding.  He offered to write a special processional.  I asked if he could include the kid's song, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know."  The organist, Don Sandor, did.  The song has special meaning to me and it was extra special when he played it at our wedding service.
7. Krista holds on to her pants:  I remember shopping for groceries one time with Gladys and Krista who was small enough to easily sit in the cart.  I remember she wanted to go check out another part of the store.  I told her to "hang on to your pants."  She did it, literally.  With her little hands, she grabbed on to her pants.  Fun memory.
8. Barely a toddler, Justin tosses his socks:  In our old house, we had a small circular kitchen table.  It was pretty cozy and when we sat down, I'd quite often take off my socks and toss them under the table.  One day, Justin toddled from the front room into the kitchen and pitched his socks under the table.  We smiled and we knew who he got that from.  Another good memory.
9. Long conversations over Char House pancakes--Before we were married and on Saturday's when I went home to Bay City, we'd usually have breakfast at the Char House on Tuscola where they would make great pancakes.  We would talk about everything and time would fly by.  We both drank lots of coffee.  I still enjoy breakfasts with Gladys and time still flies by.
10. Yeah, there's still more---

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Tags: weddinganniversary, immanuel lutheran church, bay city, bay valley inn, mcdonalds, acapulco, air traffic controllers, ohare airport,