Exciting Times

Sorry we haven't kept in touch much.    We've really have a LOT going on this summer.  Well, not so much me right now, but Michael certainly does.

He is about to become a business owner. He is opening his own coffee roasting business along with a partner, Bruce. We finally managed to come up with at least enough of our part of the  financing to get us started. We found this cute little espresso cafe in downtown Vancouver called Paradise Espresso and Deli by chance not long after Mike & Bruce decided to become partners.  Mike and I went there to grab lunch.  He was familiar with the place, having talked to the owner several times in the past about working there and helped him with some roasting.  They serve sandwiches and of course coffee drinks. While we were there, the owners daughter, who was working behind the counter mentioned that her dad was selling the place.  So Michael called him the next day and let him know he was interested. Of course, Bruce and his girlfriend were in Europe at the time, so Mike didn't know if he would be interested, but when he got back, they looked at a few other places, but decided on this one.

Michael and Bruce will continue the espresso cafe with a few changes, but the main focus of the business will be a coffee roastery that will focus on Kona coffee, though that won't be the only one they offer. This part of the business will be strictly a wholesale business if I understood correctly. Right now Michael just completed all the legal forms (rather than having a lawyer do them up). Michael is very good at that sort of thing you know. Now the seller, Phil, just needs to have his lawyer go over them. Tentatively they are looking to take over the business on November 1. Scary and exciting at the same time. Oh, the new name of the cafe will be McKona Koffee Paradise Kafe. Michael's moniker on the home roast list he's on is Mike McKona. So, stay tuned.  More will be unveiled as things move forward. 

As for me, I'm still working in Portland, and still wondering what I'm going to wind up doing when they disband our Admin group. Not sure where I'll wind up. We keep hearing rumors that the powers that be have placed us somewhere, but no ones telling us. Plus we're not sure when it will happen. Could be next week, or next month. Needless to say, it's just a little stressful. I'll be eligible for full retirement in November, but Michael says I'll probably have to stick it out a couple more years. BUT, I'm still going to have my retirement run to see how much my annuity would be. Who knows, maybe I could go sooner if it's enough.

We did take a little time out in August and made our annual trek to the Long Beach Kite Festival.  It was great fun, visiting with our friends from Seattle, enjoying the beach, sand and of course the kites.  If I can ever get Mike to download the pictures we took (I'm sort of inept at that), I'll post a couple of really interesting ones.  We had pretty good weather overall, it rained some on the last Saturday, but not bad enough to bring the kites down.  Unfortunately, when it got done raining, the wind died and everything came down anyway.  Overall, it was very enjoyable.  Taylor stayed at the house while we were gone to just look out for things. We boarded the kitty because he was taking medication and had a drain tube in his leg from an abscess we discovered the week before.  He's doing fine now, though we still have to give him subcutaneous fluids everyday because of his kidney problem.  Oh, I also took the next week off and just dinked around the house.  I hated to go back to work.

We want to let you all know how much we love you all and hope that someday very soon, we can all get together again. 

Love, hugs, and kisses

Debi & Mike