Blibber-blabber

That's a picture of the coffee I was roasting this morning. I tried using my old steel wok and it works better than the cast iron frying pans I usually use. I love the smell of roasting coffee beans, but I'm a little weird. You knew that. Right?

I migrated north for the weekend to visit my parents in Roseville. Barry and the kids stayed at home. I needed to check on my parents, of course, but more selfishly, I wanted to pray with them. They are very faithful in their prayers and I miss being with them in prayer. It was so good.

We hit ALDI, did some mall-walking, and then stopped by Dick Blick Art Supply for inspiration. I ate a lot of my mom's wonderful cooking, and we took turns reading parts of "The Kalahari Typing School for Men" to each other. And then just as I was about to head home, a friend of the next-door neighbor's stopped by to see if my parents had a key to the neighbor's house, as he had not been answering his phone, had not made it to church that morning and now the friend saw the weekend's newspapers on the front step. My dad hurried over with his key, and they found the neighbor on the floor of his bedroom, dead. My dad was very distraught that he had not been checking on the neighbor every day. I doubt he could have done anything to change things, as it looked like the death was sudden; I doubt the man suffered. My dad is suffering, though, and the neighbor's wife, children and grandchildren certainly will. I'm praying for comfort for all of them.

On the drive home I discovered that in the Twin Cities there is actually a Minnesota Public Radio station that plays rock music. Well, rock alternative, and jazz, and rap. Lots of indie stuff. I don't get out much, as I am sure you have gathered, and so I heard some new-to-me music that I really liked. For example, I heard a couple of tracks from K'Naan's new album, Troubadour. I am not a rap fan, but I like this guy's sound. And he truly does come from the mean streets. It doesn't get much meaner than Mogadishu. And then there was The Bird and the Bee. I heard the Diamond Dave track off their newest, "Ray Guns are Not Just the Future." (With a title like that, how can it not be awesome?) For some weird reason they remind me of the B52s. And that makes no sense whatsoever. I cannot even find anything similar about them to the B52s. They just remind me. Anyway, now I'm catching up on their older tracks and enjoying them. What a lovely voice the Bird has. Plus she has a great name: Inara.