Meeting With the High Church

This past Saturday my wife and I had the privilege of meeting some blog friends (some that I mentioned last week) at a Starbucks in Brownsburg. They were on their way to Lutheran Home School group that meets up in Ft. Wayne. If you know anything about Ft. Wayne (and I do since I was born and raised in the area) you know it's FULL O' LUTHERANS.

We met The Elephant's Child, A Round Unvarnish'd Tale and Boots on the Ground. Let me just report a few things:

• There were no elephants.
• No Varnish
• Boots on the Ground was not wearing boots (that I recall--actually, I didn't even look at her shoes. I'll bet my wife did because women always notice what other women are wearing.
• All three of these ladies have real names.
  

Actually, it was a great meeting. I think we talked for over an hour about parenting, teaching, blogging, etc. It's always interesting when you get to meet someone that you've gotten to know via the computer. All three of these ladies are top notch, 100% genuine people and I'm blessed to have met them personally. It seemed to me as if we were all instantly very comfortable with each other and talked freely the whole time.

Of course, that was just MY impression. They all could have thought that I was completely nuts.

Making the Most of Your Starbucks Visit

Okay, so I know that I dumped on Starbucks in my last post, but I genuinely like the place. They have become so big that they're an easy target these days, but I think they have a great product. With that in mind, I've developed a few tricks of the trade to make sure that you get the most of your Starbucks experience.

First, know your cup sizes. This has been discussed way too many times in popular media for me to attempt to be original, so I'll just state the facts:

Tall = Small
Grande = Medium
Venti = Large
Loco = 55 gallon drum



Starbucks Trick #1 - Just say, "No" to Loco
Don't order the "Loco" size unless you're really thirsty and have about five days worth of work you want to catch up on in just five hours (or, if you've given up sleep for lent).

Starbucks Trick #2 - Small Portion in Bigger Cup

If you like to add cream, milk, ice cubes, whatever--order a smaller size cup of coffee in a bigger glass. Believe it or not, the Starbucks people are ready for this trick. Otherwise, if you order a Tall cup of coffee, the Starbucks attendant might ask, "Would you like me to leave room for cream?" This can be translated as, "Would you like me to purposefully short you on your order so I can resell it to the next customer?" It's brilliant on their part, but you can easily get around this by saying, "I'd like a Tall cup of coffee in a Grande glass." Suddenly, you're a genius. Not only do you get all of the coffee you paid for, you're also getting a few extra cubic inches of paper coffee cup--at no cost!

Starbucks Trick #3 - Bigger Portion in Smaller Cup

Here's where it gets fun. Once you've proven to your local barista that you know your way around a cup of coffee with Starbucks Trick #2, you throw this one at them. Step up to the counter and say, "I'd like a Grande coffee in a Tall Cup" (i.e. I'd like a medium coffee in a small cup). Sure, you end up wasting about a half cup of coffee, but you get to watch Peppy pour it all over his hands while suffering only mild injuries that Starbucks' generous insurance premiums will cover. He'll be back behind the counter in six to eight weeks.