My Birthday Coffee Gift Items – Part 1

Coffee Beans
     October.  For the past 29 years, it has been the month I have a birthday, and get a year older.  It’s kind of strange how it happens every year on the same day, but it does and I’m not going to complain.  Earlier this week I came in from work and was pleasantly surprised by gifts Mrs. Coffee had for me.
     What gifts did Mrs. Coffee have waiting for me when I arrived home?  Take a look!

     As the image above shows, Mrs. Coffee had baked me a cake, had me some Breyers Coffee flavored ice cream, and had me an assortment of new coffees!  The coffees as pictured from left to right were: Folgers Black Silk, Chock full o’ Nuts Original blend, and Yuban Original.  Out of all the coffee blends, I had only previously consumed the Folgers Black Silk blend.
     I know nothing about Chock full o’ Nuts Coffee blends, and the only thing I know about Yuban coffee is that Michael Pachter said on this site that he drinks it, and that it is “super strong.”; so I’m looking forward to trying both the Chock full o’ Nuts and the Yuban coffee blends.

Questions
     Have any of you tried the Chock full o’ Nuts blend, or the Yuban blend?  If so, what do you think about them?

August Brewed – Coffees Consumed, Games Played

Coffee Beans
     Family, work, school, and flying out for a friend’s wedding is where a lot of my time was invested in August, but I did make time to play some games, and coffee consumption was a daily occurrence as usual.
     With the 31 days of August 2011 now history, let’s take a look at the coffees I consumed, and the games I played during August.

Coffees Consumed in August
     Folgers Custom Roast – This was a 270 coffee cup container purchased in July.  It lasted us until about the middle of August, and I enjoyed it while it lasted.
     Seattle’s Best Coffee Organic House Blend – This was a blend Mrs. Coffee purchased me as a surprise back in June, and it has survived since then.  I checked just tonight, and there is still some coffee left in it, probably enough for another 6 cup pot.
     Tully’s Bold Coffee French Roast – This was a Keurig coffee pod that I brewed up in one of my friends’ Keurig coffee machine.  It had a good solid flavor to it, and filled my cup up to the top.
     Trader Joe’s, Joe’s Dark Coffee – This is a “coffee by mail” story.  Reader, and fellow blogger, Charlie mailed me this container of coffee.  It’s a whole bean coffee, so I have been using our coffee bean grinder every few days and making a few cups.  I just brewed myself and Mrs. Coffee a few cups of it tonight(Thursday), and I will probably ration this coffee out so I can try to make it lasts a little while.  A huge thanks to Charlie for the coffee, and I have been thoroughly enjoying it!  You can read Charlie’s writings at his blog, NicodemusAtNite.com.
     Maxwell House French Roast – Mrs. Coffee purchased this container of coffee in August, after going about 2 months without purchasing any Maxwell House coffee blends.  So far, it’s
     Two Cups of Starbucks – I flew out last Friday, August 26, to be a friend’s wedding.  After staying up super late Thursday night doing schoolwork, then waking up early Friday morning to leave, instead of brewing the coffee before I left, I decided I would just grab a cup of coffee at the airport.  After getting through security, I went to a Starbucks in the airport, and purchased just a “tall” house blend.
     One Cup of Seattle’s Best Coffee – On my connection flight down to Louisiana, I decided to give Delta Airlines’ in-flight coffee a try.  They serve Seattle’s Best Coffee, and the coffee was definitively piping hot.
     Community Coffee Dark Roast – This coffee was provided by the hotel we stayed at for the wedding.  Being that the wedding was in Louisiana, it makes sense that Community Coffee was provided, because Community Coffee Company is based in Louisiana.

Video Games Played in August
     Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Mrs. Coffee and I borrowed/traded this game from our neighbors, because I knew it had cooperative play.  If you don’t know, Mrs. Coffee and I have played through New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Donkey Kong Country Returns together, so I figured we could give Kirby’s Epic Yarn a try.  We finished the game’s “main” campaign on August 11 together, but I haven’t played the game since.  Mrs. Coffee has been playing her own game file on a regular basis though, attempting to unlock everything in the game.  I enjoyed our play-time together in the game, but the game is relatively short, and not extremely challenging if you don’t try to unlock everything; though unlocking everything does require more time, and skill.
     New Super Mario Bros. Wii – While I mentioned just above that Mrs. Coffee and I have completed NSMBW and DKCR cooperatively, neither one of us finished the campaigns on our own.  Well, we started playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii with our neighbors in early August, and our objective is to complete the game with four players cooperatively.  So far, we have made it through World 1, and are now at the half-way point in World 2.  Four player Mario madness is a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to continuing our adventure in the near future.
     Rage of the Gladiator (WiiWare) – I attempted to accomplish a “Rank S” on a certain boss battle in Challenge Mode, for a YouTube user that asked me if I could assist him with a video.  Unfortunately, I haven’t accomplished the Rank S while recording game-play footage yet.
     Super Mario Bros. (Virtual Console) – I have found myself playing this in short, quick, spells.  Being that the game has “shortcuts”, I can get to World 8 quickly, but World 8-2 has a few jumps that get me, and if I reach the final castle as little Mario, I have issues “defeating” Bowser.
     Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – Keith from RespawnAction.com sent me Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune a few months back, but I delayed playing it because of my backlog of games.  I started playing it in July, and I have enjoyed my time with the game so far.  A huge thanks to Keith again for the game, and if you like FPS/action games, make sure to check out his blog, RespawnAction.com.
     Medal of Honor: Vanguard – I have used the online video game trading service Goozex.com several times, and Medal of Honor: Vanguard was the last game I received from the service.  I’m working my way through the single-player campaign slowly, and I was actually surprised to see the game offers 4-player local splitscreen multi-player, though I haven’t tried it yet.

Filtered Thoughts
     In total, I consumed eight different coffee blends in August, not counting one iced “coffee” drink, and played six different video games.
     While Kirby’s Epic Yarn was the only game I completed in August, it wasn’t on my video game backlog, so I can’t take it off the list.  As for the iced “coffee” drink, it was something Mrs. Coffee and I had not purchased in many years, basically since moving to North Carolina; more on the iced “coffee” drink later though!

Questions
     What coffee blends, or other beverages, did you find yourself consuming a lot of, and what games did you yourself playing in August?  Any recommendations, or warnings?

July Brewed – Coffees Consumed, Games Played, & Site Notes

Coffee Beans
     July was crazy busy, as I thought it would be.  If you missed the post, Mrs. Coffee and I were blessed with a new son on July 4, and then Mrs. Coffee and I had our wedding anniversary a few days later.
     July has 31 days in it, and we had family visiting us for 15 of those days, and were out of the house for 2 of those days with the new guy being born.

     So, with a new baby, wedding anniversary, family visiting, and normal work, I’m surprised I played as many games as I did and kind of surprised I didn’t consume more coffee toward the end of the month.
     What games did I play in July, and what coffees did I consume?  Let’s take a look!

Coffees Consumed in July

     Folgers House Blend (Medium Roast) – This was either a 240, or 270, coffee cup container purchased in June, but we finished it off early in July.
     Seattle’s Best Coffee Organic House Blend – I enjoyed a few pots of this throughout July, and still have some left as of August starting up.
     Folgers Custom Roast – Another big 270 cup coffee container Mrs. Coffee purchased for us, and it even came with a little “bonus” pack of coffee.
     Community Coffee Medium Roast – This coffee was brought up from Louisiana when Mrs. Coffee’s mom came to visit us in July, as it has been in the past.
     Random Coffee – When we were in the hospital, they had an instant coffee machine like a Keurig, and I tried several of the packets.

Games Played in July


     GoldenEye 007 Wii – I was able to squeeze in a few online multi-player matches at the very beginning of July, but basically none after the beginning.
     Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream Virtual Console – I still enjoy picking up the Wii Remote and going after Glass Joe and the other boxers in Punch-Out!!, but I still can’t remember beating this game because of how difficult the final match is!  I can reach Mr. Dream, and land a few punches, but my reflexes soon fail me and Little Mac is boxing the same guys again
     Monster Hunter Tri – Monster Hunter Tri was one of the games on my “New Year’s Resolution” video game lists to complete, and I had been trying on a more regular basis since April this year to beat the game’s single-player campaign.  I finally finished the single-player campaign on July 13 and saw the credits roll.  Will I pick it back up again now that I’ve finished the main campaign, more than likely, because there are still more monsters I need to hunt online!
     Mario Kart Wii – This was the game I purchased for Mrs. Coffee for Christmas this past year, and while she played a few races on Christmas day, the game remained untouched for months after that.  We finally broke it out this month and played the game together, and I also played some of it by myself with my own file.  One of the first things I noticed was a coffee connection in the game, as well as something else that I don’t recall from past Mario Kart games, but more on both of these later!
     Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – This game was not part of my “New Year’s Video Game Resolution“, and part of my resolution was to not “purchase any NEW or USED video game(s)” before completing my older games.  So, did I break resolution with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune?  No, I didn’t break it, and I’ve got another post on it inbound, but it has to do with Keith, and RespawnAction.com!
     Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Another game not on my list, but yet I’m playing it!?  Well, Mrs. Coffee and I did a game exchange of sorts with our neighbors.  They loaned us Kirby’s Epic Yarn(and Wii Sports Resort), and we loaned them Donkey Kong Country Returns.  Mrs. Coffee and I have been playing through Kirby’s Epic Yarn together, and we are a little more than 20% through with the game right now.
     Rage of the Gladiator – I was contacted through my YouTube account about recording/uploading two more battles from Rage of the Gladiator, so I started playing one of the bosses again to practice so I can get a video up on it…hopefully the videos will be happening soon.
     Fish’em All – I played the demo for this WiiWare game a few months back, and ironically the same week I saw the developer of the game giving away free copies of the game.  I signed up for a copy, and the developer sent one over to me.  I attempted to beat a level I have been on for a while, but was not successful. I really need to record some footage of this game, so you can see what type of game-play it has.
     Greg Hastings Paintball 2 PS3 – I played just a little bit more of the single-player career mode in the PS3 version, though it is exactly the same as the Wii’s single-player career mode.

Site Notes
     1)  Reader Points!  Some of you may remember when I posted about the “Reader Points” a few months back, and as of now I have it updated through April of this year.  May’s Reader Points totals should be up by the end of this week, and news regarding those soon after.  So, if you have been wondering about the “Reader Points”, an update should be happening later this week, or early next week.
     2)  Coffee posts?  While I do lots of video game related posts, I don’t do many coffee related posts.  Beginning this week, I am starting to do more coffee related posts.  The posts will be simple(and hopefully enjoyable), and they will be random, but I’m hoping to do at least two coffee related posts a month.
     3)  Gaming Nights!  While my schedule is a lot more hectic now, I am going to try and do two “gaming nights” a month, where I post up a game I’ll be playing online, and hopefully some of you can join me.  If any of you want to know what games I have that are online, you can check my “Contact Me” page, that has most of my online multi-player games listed.  If you see a game that you own, and would like to nominate it for an online “Gaming Night”, feel free to leave it in the comments.

Questions
     Did any of you try any coffee beverages in July, and if so, would you recommend any of them to us?
     Also, what games did you all find yourselves playing in July?