Coffee Nerds

The recipe: 2 Heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin puree 4 Cups water 2 Scoops of Coffee Revise to preference. We basically put two big dollops of pumpkin in with the usual coffee grounds.

Today the 17th, is Evaluate Your Life day. Although it seems daunting it can be very useful. Seems a little scary but if you really put your mind to it and evaluate where you’ve been it makes it easier to make adjustments for your life now. You don’t have to evaluate your whole life either if that seems a bit too much. Perhaps the last year to make things easier. Either way you get a good idea of where you’ve been and where you want to go and to better correct your path to that goal. The recipe: 3-4 Scoops of organic canned Pumpkin Pie Mix (we recommend Farmer's Market brand, it's spiced to perfection.) 2 heaping scoops of coffee for every two cups of water (Kicking Horse "Hola" and bottled spring water work great) 1/3 cup of organic milk 

Harvey Ball, the creator of the smiley face, was a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts. He created the smiley in 1963. That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet. As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace. Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day. He thought that we, all of us, should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world. He declared that the first Friday in October each year would henceforth be World Smile Day. October 5th is World Smile Day this year. You can go to Ball's hometown and celebrate with their big festival, which has hot air balloons, sidewalk chalk art, and the world's largest human smiley. Or you could just smile. That's good too.

September 26th - Johnny Appleseed Day. The birthday of John Chapman, who became known as Johnny Appleseed as he traveled Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ontario planting appleseeds. A missionary, John Chapman preached the gospel as he traveled. He would plant apple trees in nurseries and then built fences around them to protect them from animals. He’s famous for scattering seeds at random but that’s more legend than truth. Johnny Appleseed is often shown with a cooking pot on his head. The is another half truth. He wore a tin hat that he could cook with, but it wasn’t an actual pot. His apples were tart, more likely to be used for cider than snacking. Supposedly the last surviving tree planted by Johnny is on a farm in Nova, Ohio. Apparently there’s a Johnny Appleseed museum in Urbana, Ohio. That’s Leuke's hometown!

Talk Like a Pirate Day lands every joyous September 19th. COFFEE: Lucky Jack's Triple Black Iced Coffee TRIVA: Hobbit Day is scheduled to land on September 22, Bilbo and Frodo's birthday in the famous books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Fans can celebrate by being barefoot all day, eat seven meals Hobbit style, Breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, or have a literary discussion and read some Tolkien. You could marathon the whole movie series or throw a party in honor of the "Long Awaited Party". No matter what you do you should totally celebrate Hobbit day! In other Hobbit history, the book itself was first published September 21, 1937, making this week the 81st anniversary of the classic novel. Tolkien himself designed the illustrations and cover art of the first edition. It was just 1500 copies which sold out quickly thanks to good reviews.

Batman's first appearance was in Detective Comics in 1939. Detective Comics had a variety of different stories and characters in a collected anthology format, and it's actually where the name DC came from in DC Comics. Originally Batman was drawn by creator Bob Kane in a red costume with wings and a very simple mask. Bill FInger suggested revising him to have the famous cape and cowl we're all familiar with. Bruce Wayne, Batman's secret identity, comes from two real life historical figures. Robert the Bruce, a famous Scottish hero, and Mad Anthony Wayne, a general who fought for the United States during the American Revolution. Other fun facts: The University of Victoria offers a college course about Batman Gotham City got its name when Bill Finger randomly placed his finger on "Gotham Jewelers" in the phone book.

August 30th is Frankenstein Day, in honor of Mary Shelley, the woman who wrote Frankenstein. Born in 1797, Shelley wrote the novel was just 18. The story of a man who creates a monster through scientific experiments, Frankenstein is one of the earliest known sci-fi stories, predating the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells by several centuries. Mary Shelly went on to write historical novels and a post-apocalyptic novel called the Last Man, which tells of a future world destroyed by plague. Frankenstein Day in honor of Mary Shelley, born August 30 1797 Toasted Marshmallow Day August 30th National Eat Outside Day - August 31st

National Potato Day! August 19th is National Potato Day. - Potatoes are one of the most common crops in the world. In fact, they're grown in all 50 states and 125 countries worldwide. Potatoes are high in starch, making them function like carbohydrates. They're also a good source of vitamin C and B6, so you become a pirate, you don't need lemons, just bite into a potato to keep the scurvy away. - The largest potato chip ever was 23" wide by 14" - In the past royalty, such as Marie Antoinette, wore potato blossoms in their hair. - Info is conflicting on the largest potato ever. One page i read said 18 pounds, but most other entries are a more conservative 7-8 pounds, which is far more realistic. - French fries date back to the 1600s, and actually originated from Belgium. Thomas Jefferson is credited with introducing them to America when he served them at the White House. - Potato crops date back to 5 to 8000 B.C. when they were discovered by Inc...

Jokes from this week's episode! Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! I needed a password 8 characters long so I chose Snowwhite and the seven dwarves. A ham sandwich walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender says "Sorry, we don't serve food here." What do you call a pig that does karate? A pork chop! Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay they'd be bagels! Why does a chicken coop only have two doors? If it had four doors it would be called a chicken sedan. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants? In case he got a hole in one. What did the yoga instructor say when her landlord tried to evict her? Namaste How many apples grow on a tree? All of them. Why did the coffee file a police report? It got mugged. How did the hipster burn his tongue? He drank his coffee before it was cool. The oldest known joke was found recorded on a Sumerian tablet dating back to 1900...

Apple just recently became the world’s first trillion dollar company. Stacked on top of each other, a trillion dollars in $100 bills would be 631 miles tall. That’s higher than the International Space Station. On August 8th the Columbia space shuttle took off on a secret mission. Space aliens?? Probably… or perhaps just a couple classified satellite launches. They also took a human skull sliced into ten layers. The intent was to study radiation penetration through human bones. Gross. Nagasaki was bombed on August 9, 1945. The atomic bomb was called “Fat Man”. In the Fallout series there’s a gun called the Fat Man that shoots tiny nukes. Until now I had no idea the name had historical connotations. Everyone knows the Declaration of Independence happened on July 4, 1776, when America declared independence from British rule, but in those days word traveled slow. The king didn’t actually learn of the declaration until August 10, over a month later. Parliament refused any kind of r...

It’s the first day of August and you know what that means, National Catfish month is here! August 1st - Mountain Climbing Day - so declared in honor of two men who climbed 46 mountains in New York. On August 1st in 1774 Joseph Priestly, an English theologian, author, and chemist discovered oxygen. He did this by focusing sunlight on a lump of mercuric oxide. The gas produced made flames burn brighter and helped a mouse live four times longer than normal. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. August 2nd - Ice cream sandwich day. Yum. August 3rd 1958 - Operation Sunshine - The US atomic submarine USS Nautilus traveled underneath the North Pole. The first time anyone that we know of other than space aliens voyaged under the ice.

July 18th national caviar day, yuck! Caviar comes from the sturgeon fish. There are different species resulting in different colored eggs. They are very nutritious for you. Sturgeon almost went extinct in the early 1900s when they were big. They still haven’t reached a healthy number to this day. July 20th marks the 49th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing. It's been almost 50 years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. July 20 is also the birthday of explorer Edmund Hillary, who was born in 1919. In 1953, he along with his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay became the first confirmed to ascend Mount Everest July 24th is Amelia Earhart's birthday. Earhart famously went missing July 2, 1937 when she was flying her plane across the Pacific in a record-setting attempt to fly around the world. The US Navy searched 250,000 miles of ocean with no luck, causing conspiracy theories that have persisted over the years.

July 4th sidewalk egg frying day. It’s been so hot here in Colorado we probably could do this! The 5th is Apple turnover day. Yummy! I love me some apple turnover s And fried chicken day!!! 1937 spam is first introduced. According to its label, Spam's basic ingredients are pork, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Natural. By the 70s “spam” became genericized trademark used to describe any canned meat containing pork. July 5 1994 - Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos. Now the fourth largest company in the world, Amazon was originally going to be called Cadabra until someone misheard it as cadaver. July, 6 1699 - Captain William Kidd, the pirate, who also worked as a pirate hunter, was captured in Boston, MA, and deported back to England. Kidd was executed a few years later. The primary charge was murdering a member of his crew with a bucket. July 6 Louis Pasteur successfully tested an anti-rabies...

The 27th is Sunglasses Day. The first sunglasses were invented in 12th century China. They didn't protect against UV rays, and they could still obscure the eyes. Chinese judges would wear smoke colored lenses to help themselves seem emotionally aloof while trying cases. The 28th is Paul Bunyan Day! There are a lot of crazy stories about Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe mostly dating to the late 1800s to early 1900s. Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes are Babe's footprints, the Grand Canyon was made by Paul dragging his ax behind him. It took five storks to carry Paul to his parents in Maine. He was that big already! They kept him in a bed off the coast of Maine and when he would rock it created such big waves it would flood the coastal towns. The townsfolk were not happy. When Paul was short on help he trained giant ants to help him. They weighted over 2000 pounds and ate nothing but the best Swedish stuff. The ants did the work of 50 ordinary men. In the winter Paul bundl...