We're still alive!

It's been five months since we've updated this blog.  And it has been a fast five months.  Way too much has happened in the last five months to try and tell you everything, so we will highlight the best we can.  We've missed all of you.  We haven't exactly been social butterflies.  We spent about 90 days completely exhausted from working 80-90 hours per week each.  But things have settled into more of a groove and we're slowly but surely getting some form of a life back.  No complaints here though.  Life is what you make of it and we chose this life....

* Our dreams came true on August 7 when Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea opened.  We always dreamed of a place where people can hang out with other people in a relaxing atmosphere.  Five months later, the experience has been more rewarding than we even imagined.  We've met so many great people.  We've seen people get married, have birthdays, release movies and CD's in only five months!  We can only dream what many more years of this will bring our way.  Liam gets to spend virtually all of his time with at least one of us.  Also a huge blessing.  Here is Ugly Mugs' MySpace and Facebook pages if you're interested.

* Liam turned one on September 24.  We had a party at a local park with about 25 friends and family.  He got WAY too much stuff but the highlight was the cupcakes his friend Rebekka made for him.  For a child (and his mother) to spend the first year of their life without any soy or dairy to be able to eat a *vegan/soy free* cupcake was priceless.  He at three of them!  He loved them!  And he had a complete sugar crash about half an hour later.  The last few pictures of the day he doesn't even look like he knows who he is.  It was a good day.  He is now able to have dairy, but no soy.   That has made life so much easier.  He's healthier and happier than ever.

* We celebrated our 3rd anniversary on December 2.  Courtney won the awesome award by giving me a surprise anniversary weekend that included a trip to a local vineyard (yes there is a vineyard in Tennessee) a stay at a B&B and a good concert.  She spent months planning it and had everyone from our employees to some of our customers in on the surprise.  Very well done.  Everyday I'm reminded how lucky I am to be married to her.  

* Christmas brought the usual amount of holiday cheer to our family.  We watched the Griswold family Christmas for the millionth time, got to see Liam and his cousins be excited about a present from Santa under the tree and a much more sentimental (i.e. budgeted) spending season.  

So what does 2009 hold in store?  Only God knows!  We're excited about this year for ourselves and for Ugly Mugs.  Maybe a vacation, more time with friends and family.  Hope for more peace and a decrease in suffering all over the world.  Here's wishing the best for you this year also!

'Till next time (hopefully not five months from now).

TDT

Cupcakes 'before'

Cupcakes 'after'

With Mom at the pumpkin patch around halloween

Sporting Mom's glasses (how much does he look like her...)

On our annual pilgrimage to find the perfect DeLozier Christmas Tree

Happy New Year!

Teeth, Paint and Fireworks

Liam's twin

Some of Courtney's friends from her old job found a young actor that Liam looks like.  The only movie I can think of that he was in was "Stepmom".  The funny thing is that his name is Liam. Check this out...what do you think?

Liam will be 10 months old this month!  Can you believe that?  He is blessing us with his first tooth!  Teething isn't as bad as it has been built up to be, knock on wood.  Although it looks quite painful to see some object poking through his gums.  He also continues to try and crawl.  Here are two consecutive videos that were really funny to shoot!  You'll have to pardon the dorky dad talk narrative.

Crawling attempt #1

Crawling attempt #2

And a few more photos of him just because...

The CFO of Ugly Mugs

the 'eyes' picture

Not afraid of the camera

"Hey Dad play that one with no notes or words, yeah thanks"

Now We Have a Skeeter and a Scooter We did it. All those stories you may be hearing about how scooters are selling like crazy all over the country. We're part of the fad. We recently purchased a 50cc scooter from the local scooter shop. For those of you who grew up in the Nintendo era, 50cc engines are the beginner levels on Mario Kart, so we're not exactly street racing this thing.  It won't go over 48 mph, maybe that is a good thing. And it's hard to feel very 'masculine' on it, which works out well for Courtney. What we can do is get 85 miles to the gallon and make it very economical to bounce back and forth from home to the coffeehouse and do our part to help curb the fuel demand that isn't helping gas prices.  We also get the two fingers down to the side from the motorcycle riders around town!

Skeeter

Scooter

Why we got a scooter...I know, classy, but it's true

As Far as Ugly Mugs Goes...

God Gives Us All Gifts And mine is not interior design.  We had the place painted and walked in after it had its first coat on it; I nearly had a heart attack. We chose a color called 'pollination', sort of a green/yellow color as an accent in a few spots. It looked like the sun threw up on the walls! I had a complete meltdown, couldn't focus the rest of the day. I was just waiting for someone to cross me so I could go off. Thankfully, that didn't happened because I have Courtney and Liam in my life. And thanks to Courtney's sister and her family who imparted their endless wisdom upon us and graciously worked late to help us resolve it. I guess that is better than bad days that many other people have in the world. 

See that yellow, it will be the last time you do...

...except for this picture

As for the rest of Ugly Mugs

The paint issue is resolved and our floor is now complete.  Lights are being put in and equipment begins being delivered this week!  By this time next month, we'll be open and in full swing.

We had some custom seating made, here's an example.

Speaking of 4th of July, feel free to ask about the still flaming firework that landed out of the sky on to Courtney and I.  I have a really great hole in my arm now.  

The next time you hear from us, I expect Ugly Mugs to be open.  EXCITING!  Until then, 

Our Love, 

tdt  

FAQ's

Disclaimer: Sorry about the layout of the text of this blog.  I spent forever trying to fix it and we want to go to the park.  I have no idea what the problem is, but it can't be user error!

Liam and Courtney just returned from a week in Destin. I stayed home and ate frozen pizza, spent some good times with friends and slept in, until 8am! Here are some great pics from their trip.

I'm just about ready to start crawling!

I am biased but this picture belongs in every picture frame that is for sale worldwide

Trade you my sifter for your bottle...playing on the beach with Cousin Kingston

Hammin' it up with Mom 

Playing with my big cuz's Gunnar and Jansen...

For a strong, balanced tan, make sure the undersides of your arms 

get sun also

The way to relax when you only get 3 naps a day, is a dip in the pool

And just for the fun of it here is a couple funny video links of Liam.  

This one is him doing an impression of a Richard Simmons workout 

video.  And this one is a valiant effort at crawling.  Enjoy!

Ugly Mugs Update

We get asked a lot of questions about our coffeehouse on a daily basis.  

Sometimes, you can tell people are sincerely concerned, other times 

you can tell people are thinking 'what the heck are you doing?', and still 

others ask with a sympathetic tone as if they are thinking 'oh, were so 

sorry, did you know that 80% (or whatever) of businesses fail.  I do have 

to say we have had overwhelming support of our concept and for pursuing 

our dream.  So here we have decided we would take a few minutes and 

answer some of our most frequently asked questions.  And we mean it

when we say frequently. If we answered it here it  means that at least ONE 

person has asked us this question.  

When did you decided to do this?

For the five years that we have been together, we have always talked 

about the idea of opening a coffeehouse and standing there together 

watching people talk, read, write or do whatever they do at one. Then 

we lived in Charlotte together and learned (at least I did) from our friends 

there what real love and community meant. When we had the opportunity

to come back and live in Nashville, we were torn actually because we loved 

Charlotte. But we prayed and talked and decided that we would attempt to 

come back to Nashville and see if we could apply what we had learned in 

Charlotte back 'home'. We did not expect to do it this quickly upon returning,

but who are we to decide when 'right' time is. This feels right, so here we go.

Why a coffeehouse?

We love coffee! And Courtney has taught me to love tea...and people. Life 

goes by really fast and coffeehouses just seem like a place to slow down for 

a while. I also found thatthe business world seemed to be full of superficial 

relationships. Most relationships are based on some sort of agenda (this 

person is a client, that person can help me advance my career, etc.).  Not that 

opening the coffeehouse will change anything for me, but it will be one more 

place in the world where, we hope, other people will develop true relationships.

Are you worried about opening during a weak economic period?

NPR called and asked about this. No, not really. But this is probably the 

question I have received the most. It is a great question too. Early on, I had

a touchy-feely answer about coffeehouses being a place to get away from 

feeling like the economy is weak. "You know, we're selling $2 cups of coffee, 

not $20,000 cars, " I would say. But I've been asked that so many times, I

actually did some research on it and it turns out that historically speaking, 

coffeehouses are recession proof. Coffee is an 'affordable luxury' that has 

allowed the industry to grow even in times of a slow economy. You will actually 

see companies like Starbucks and McDonald's increase their marketing/advertising 

budgets during weak economies to compete more for those dollars that are spent. 

What does happen though is that consumers scrutinize the value they got

for every dollar spent. You had better make that $4 spend at the coffeehouse feel 

like an good spend of their dollars or they won't come back again.

What is your location like?

We are in a brand new mixed-use building that will eventually be one of several 

buildings in a development. Our building will include a restaurant, smoothie/juice 

shop and a couple of office type spaces. The second floor of our building is eight 

apartments/flats. There are two popular restaurants across the street. It is a 

walker-friendly neighborhood with a school close and plenty of houses, and it's 

on a bus route. All in all it's very good.

What is your decor going to be like?

Clean, contemporary, a little brighter than a lot of coffeehouses are. We strayed 

away from the browns, blacks and dark reds you see in many coffeehouses for a

more modern feel. Leather(ish) furniture, booths, bar seating, lots of natural light 

coming through our vast windows. Stainless countertops...get the picture?

Will you...

Have free Wi-Fi?

Yes - I don't understand how you couldn't these days.

Have live music?

Yes - this is Nashville. Know someone who wants to play, email us at 

music@uglymugsnashville.com. We will support local singers, songwriters, 

artists, writers, etc is as many ways as we can within reason.

Have food?

Yes - but not tons. We are only a restaurant as classified by the government. 

We are a coffeehouse. But we will have options that go well with coffee and tea.  

Most will be prepared outside of our walls so that we can focus on our coffees, teas 

and atmosphere. More to come on that...

Roast your own coffee?

No - that is a whole other business that many coffeehouses have in addition 

to running a coffeehouse. We love the process. It is artistic, scientific, detailed 

and many other things. But like I said before we want to focus on one thing and 

we will leave the processing of coffee and tea up to people who are the best 

available so that we can bring the best quality to our place.

Can I get free coffee when I come in if I know you?

Jarod: No

Courtney: Yes

Liam: Goo ga bhlue

Sorry these pics aren't very exciting. You can see the drywall is going up.

The hope is that this week the space will be painted, we'll get pics.

Then the flooring should be done and equipment moved in!

Next week, the floor should be completed.  You can

see the front door on the left, then a set of windows 

that will have bar seating overlooking the sidewalk, 

some landscaping and the parking lot.

We're trying leave as much original character of 

the building as we can, like leaving as much exposed

concrete ceiling and these columns raw.

Picture this, a warm summer evening and the garage

door on the right is open, there's someone performing

music in front of the opening and your sitting with friends

having coffee and a chocolate cupcake with fluffy mint icing 

(provided by The Sugar Bar).  Doesn't sound so bad does it.

See you soon.  Peace and love, 

TDT

No Politics, Just Updates (finally)

Well April blew by without us updating this blog at all. Thus breaking my goal of posting once per month. I have no idea where the month went. But I can't remember doing much critical thinking during April, so I can spare you some random deep thoughts about nothing and just provide some general updates. 

The Trio

Growing Up

Liam has been doing great! He's sitting up now and playing with his toys by himself for a few minutes at a time. He's laughing a lot, sleeping well at night and will pretty much hang out with anyone. We were pretty sure he was allergic to everything including oxygen for a while, but after a visit to the allergist where they pricked him with 13 potential allergens it turns out he's not allergic to much. He also made his first big trip back to my 'hometown' of Joplin, Missouri. He got to meet his great G-G-Ma, great grandpa, uncle Jamie and aunt Staci, and one of his great aunts and uncles and a cousin who has the same name as him. It was a good time, but you can't help but feel like a bad parent when you're strapping your kid in a carseat for 8-9 hours straight. 

Having fun with dad.

Sitting up all by myself and playing with huge blocks.

Not sure what is going on here actually.

Sportin the new hat mom picked up for me.  I prefer to have it in my mouth.

Cracking up with my cousin Lanie.

How sweet is that?

Growing Old

Courtney and I have both had birthdays since we last wrote. She's now only a year away from 30! Luckily, I have one more year to prepare for that. We gave each other great weekends of fun. Mine included dinner at one of Nashville's best steakhouses and tickets to RENT. Courtney's included dinner at a great local restaurant, a manicure, pedicure and barbeque with her family. I also managed to survive having all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out. I'm not going to lie, it pretty much sucks. But the part I thought would be the worst, being artificially put to sleep, ended up being the best part.

Saying 'Goodbye' to remembering 50 passwords

We are both about to be finished (for now) with corporate America. Courtney's last day at Tractor Supply Company is May 30 and my last day with my agency is May 29. We are looking forward to starting our "work all the time, $0/year salary with no benefits" job. Actually, there are many benefits to being with Liam more and feeling like were going to be doing something that we are meant to do. Somehow going against the grain of what society seems to 'expect' from you is appealing too. Although something we would not do if we weren't sure that we were asked to do it.

Ugly Mugs

Construction

Lots of people have been asking about the status of the coffeshop and looking for pictures. For a while we have been waiting for things to happen on the construction side that were triggering many more things. They are starting to happen. Just this past week we got a floor. Our expectation is to be opening around the first of July. Here is a few pics of the space. Just wait until you see the 'after' pictures.

That is our space.  The big opening on the right is where a garage door has gone in, and the small opening in the middle is where our front door is.  The windows on the left will have bar seating at them looking out the window.

A pretty good shot of the inside of the space.  You can see the garage door on the left and front door right in the middle.  

Courtney making me an espresso.  She is standing pretty much right where she will be when she is really making it!

The Doves

We had the opportunity to cater the green room at the Dove awards a couple of weeks ago. We served coffee and tea to to the crew and talent for two days.  This was very cool. It was our first public appearance as a business and I think we made a good first impression. We met some very cool people and were very fortunate to have the opportunity. I hope we have more of them!

Our setup at the Dove Awards.  We served regular and decaf coffee and 3 kinds of loose leaf tea.

Our first day serving people together.  We were excited.

The banner we hung at the Doves trying to get our name out there. 

That is our logo scrolling across the TV during the telecast of the Doves.  No one probably saw it, but I don't care you who are that is cool.

Contact

We now have the beginnings of a website and myspace page up for Ugly mugs. Here are the links:

www.uglymugsnashville.com

www.myspace.com/uglymugsmusic - if you're into the myspace thing, hook up with us on there.  It will be a great place to see what's going on at the shop once we're open.

We'll be back soon with updates on life and the continued progress on the shop. And hopefully, when Courtney will be home more, she can blog again. At least then we can all read something worth while.

A Family of the People, by the People and for the People

This week, the Supreme Court will determine whether banning the ownership of a handgun in Washington D.C. is a violation of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, which states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The issue that the court will decide is whether that the right to bear arms is an individual’s right, or the right of a ‘well regulated militia’ or in other words a collective right of the American people. That’s a big decision that is being amplified by the fact that the Supreme Court does not have a history of touching the 2nd Amendment with a 10 foot pole. This will also not only affect Washington D.C. but many other places that will follow suit of their ruling. Many accuse me of being a Democrat, although I make no allegiences to any parties of a system that has a maturity level below that of Liam. But if that is the bucket that I get poured into because I tend to think that more laws and regulations, if they are for the better of a society as a whole, and can be reasonably enforced can be a good thing, then so be it. So the issue in my mind on this topic is whether not allowing individuals to bear arms will be better for all people in our country or not. In 2004, there were 29,569 people murdered using guns in the US (as a comparison there were 56 in Australia, 184 in Canada, 73 in England and Wales, 37 in Sweden, and 5 in New Zealand). Additionally, the presence of a firearm in the home increases the chances of homicide in the home threefold, and suicide fivefold. And as a taxpayer, I've learned that 80% of the costs of treating firearm injuries are paid by taxpayer dollars. And just this week, about an hour before Courtney, Liam and I were walking through a parking lot at Babies R Us, a man was shot several times in the connecting parking lot over a ‘drug deal gone bad’. First of all I’m thankful no one else was shot in the crossfire (including my family) and my heart goes out to the shooter and victim in that situation. Drugs lead to bad things, but who wakes up in the morning thinking it may be their last time. So all that seems like compelling arguments against individuals having guns. It is worth noting however that gun ownership has been on the decline for over three decades and the enactment of the Brady Bill in 1994 requiring that licensed firearms dealers check with law enforcement before selling anyone a gun. This has been helpful in keeping over a half million guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous criminals. The statistics above came from the Brady Campaign website, who is obviously all for more strict gun laws and would like to see the high court rule that the right to bear arms is a collective right among American people who would be protected by a highly regulated ‘militia’. I think it only reasonable to see what the other side might have to say about it. According to the National Rifle Association, the self proclaimed leading protector of 2nd Amendment rights of individuals to carry firearms, there are no statistics that contradict what is above which would make sense I suppose, numbers don’t lie. But the NRA’s mission is one of education, safety and marksmanship when it comes to firearms. I have no problem with that. And I happen to know several people I love dearly own guns to for hunting or range shooting that are of the highest class of character and integrity. So I’m not sure I think they should have to suffer because of a few (thousand) bad apples out there. So questions remain. Should the people that are responsible have to pay for the disobedience of those that are not? Would not allowing individuals who are not ‘society’s protectors’ reduce our gun and/or overall crime statistics to a less mind blowing level? Is there a realistic way to enforce such rules? I don’t know the answers to those questions. All I do know that is that I am for the people, all people. Not just myself, or my family or my community or country. Even if it means I have to sacrifice more of myself for the betterment of others in the world, then I will. And in this case, I hope the decision made makes that impact. Peace, love and a little bit of ‘laid back’ to you. TDT PS – The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the right to bear arms that of an individual’s right, thus effectively overturning the Washington DC ban on ownership of hand guns.

And here is a fun link of Liam doing his first interview.  You will probably have to copy and paste the URL into your browser. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8068035502229762010&hl=en Also, Check out what our friends, the Morgans have going on by clicking on "The Morgan 4" link in the our favorite blogs section. It's amazing!

525,600 Minutes

The Broadway musical “RENT” is a story about a group of young artists in New York City’s East Village struggling with life’s issues.  They are all poor. Some are infected with AIDS and dying, others are gay or have drug problems.  They are pretty much screwed up.  Despite all of this at the end of the movie version I found myself actually wanting to be one of them!  Why?  That would be a fair question.  The answer is that because in spite of all of their issues, illnesses, vices and differences they have one thing in common.  They understand love.  They love one another unconditionally as friends and more importantly as human beings.  What a novel idea.

One of the songs in the musical asks this question: of the 525,600 minutes that pass in a year, how do you measure the year? Do you measure it in daylights, moonlights, midnights, cups of coffee?  How about measuring it in love. So how about love?  I would be embarrassed to break my year down and compare how many minutes I openly spend loving other people against how many I spend talking about other people or groups of people.  How many times do we talk about the ‘other political party’, the ‘other countries that can’t get their crap together’, the ‘other religions’, the ‘other basically anyone who doesn’t have the same beliefs and philosophies of our own’?  But do we ever really stop and think that those other groups are actually made up of PEOPLE; people with feelings, thoughts and desires of their own.  We think of these groups as objects and not as people.  An example, you hear often of the genocide that is going on in Darfur.  “Man, they just can’t get it together over there.”  Really?  Those that ‘just can’t get it together’ are forced out of their homes, beaten, raped, brainwashed and if they are lucky land in a refugee camp where they get barely enough food and water to live.  There is no choice in it for them.  I would venture to guess that many of the people there don’t actually want to live that way.  But to us they are just people who can’t get their crap together.  Shouldn’t it be up to us that can help, to help instead of just talking about how messed up they are?  After all, it wasn’t that long ago we were a country that couldn’t get it together.  Over half a million Americans died during a four year war…with ourselves.  Less than that have died in Darfur in almost five years. 

 I think its time we stopped categorizing ourselves into groups and think of ourselves and one another as people.  Not Democrats or Republicans (or Independents), not East Nashvillians or suburbanites, not Americans or people from other countries, not law abiding citizens or criminals, not Christians or Muslims.   People, just people.  The world is made up of people.  Some end up being presidents, some drug addicts, some end up kidnapped and forced into the sex trafficking rings, and some never have to work a day in their lives.  It doesn’t matter who, what or where, all of us deserve respect and more importantly love.

 PS – the touring production of “RENT” will be coming through Nashville in March and after 12 years will be performing their last show on Broadway this summer.

PS2 - if you haven't already seen it here is a video of Liam rolling over for the first time last weekend.  You will probably have to copy and paste it into your browser.  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1059191198446673972&pr=goog-sl