Recycle...your underwear!

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robot tofu has moved.

wanna read about more robots? then look here no more. go to....



our new blog home!

Aaron vs. Aaron ...FIGHT!!!

Well well well....

Here's the news! Let's see if I can organize it so I make some sense of the whole WHA-BANG! that took place.

1) Mary & I went up to Charleston last Wed to do some cart/apartment searching and to hang out with Walter.

2) Walter showed us a good time filled with yummy food, bluegrass music, and Charleston education (driving tour). He also showed us a coffee cart that has been in operation for about 10 years, and a possible location for us to put our roasting company.

3) We found a kickin' 2 bedroom apartment that was the top story of a Charleston single (very cool traditional sideways house) that was actually affordable (by cookeville standards) and was about 4 houses down from Alison & Walters house on Rutledge Ave. We actually got as far as meeting the landlord to sign the lease and dish out our deposit.

4) By Friday morning (we planned on meeting the landlord at 10:15am), I learned that there was more going on in my head than I thought...I FREAKED OUT! In a very healthy way of course....no breaking walls or tables...just me sobbing while talking to Mary. I realized that I did not want to move to Charleston...all I wanted to do was go home...NOW! (poor Walter...we left him a "dear john" letter when he was away at an anti-walmart photo shoot for the paper). So, we packed up and left.

This has been a very interesting week for me & Mary. I can not say enough good things about Mary. She really wanted to move to Charleston, learn how to surf, hang out with Alison, Walter, & Shannon (her bro who lives in Charleston), and live in a hip historic town with zillions of indy restaurants to explore. Yet, we're not moving there because of me. She's choosing me...again. For those of you who have been in/ are in long term relationships you understand what a big deal that is.

Mary is a super strong adventurous woman who could live with E.V. in an igloo in Alaska, and be happy about the adventure. She'd be up for hoppin' on a plane RIGHT NOW to fly to Portland to visit Kevin, Katie, & Jennifer. But, she's stickin' with me... I have really realized, again, just how lucky I am to have found her.

5) We ARE moving away from cookville. No amount of home-sickening tear fests can make me refuse the fact that moving is a good step to take to grow the business and ourselves. So, after days of talking we've decided that Nashville is our next adventure (read this as Nashville is as far as AARON is willing to go). It's close enough that we can visit our friends & family very easily, allow us to have those extra night/weekend activities, restaurants, and business opportunities that cookeville doesn't offer, and lets us remain active in a Taekwondo class (the main branch of our TKD school is located in Nashville).

We're planning our move around the same schedule as the old Charleston move. Around mid-august to early September we'll be livin' in Nashville. We've got 1 lead on an apartment, and we've got Aunt Susie on the lookout for possible renters (we also have a buddy/ex-employee who just became a real estate agent in Nashville). We're going up on Thursday to get the ball rolling.

I know! I've said that Bongo has the Nashville market covered and that there's no room for little old gridge's...But, Mary & I are gonna give it one hell of a try! We're gonna get our national award winning roasting co. out in the town, we're gonna find a kickin' place for our cart to live, and we're gonna take on Bongo, Portland Brew, & Summit Roasters! I'm actually feeling very optimistic. I mean...I've tasted coffee from almost every roaster in Nashville (never tasted Portland Brew) and I know that we're doing a better job. It's just a matter of convincing a bunch of Nashvillians (as easy as that).

So, in a nutshell... Not moving to Charleston, gonna move to Nashville.

We'll keep you posted

we are moving!

YAY! aaron & I will be packing up gridge's and our furry family to move to charleston, sc in late august/early september. (pick up your jaw.)
we have 2 different categories of reasons...1. personal and 2. business. let me address #2 first.
we want to grow gridge's in a different way than it is currently growing. aaron & I would like to have a larger wholesale/roasting company and want to start a coffee cart. more people (customers retail & wholesale) are one of the main things we need to do this. there are more locally owned restaurants in charleston which will help with the wholesale. let me back up...cookeville is chain restaurant crazy. those guys get super cheap deals on crappy coffee and equipment if they go through their food supplier. so, most of them aren't going to search out the little guy and help the community. we could try to get more nashville business (we have some and tried for more) but bongo java has pretty much got the place covered. anyway, the cart for those of you who don't know, is a cafe on wheels. it's like a hot dog stand but is much more attractive and serves something not made of meat parts. we could put our cart just about anywhere (with permission) and gain business from students, hospital employees, tourists, and locals. charleston has all of those people...a bunch of em. plus aaron & I can run the roasting co. and the cart ourselves, which gives us loads of freedom.
now for #1.
charleston is cool! actually, it's really really hot. we went up to visit alison & walter last october and had a blast! they live on the peninsula which is about 10 minutes from everything. the beach, the beautiful college & campus, great restaurants, bike rentals, wonderful gelatto...ahhhh. there is really a lot to do. I want to go crabbing at some point and learn how to surf. there are festivals like spoleto, lots of local theatre & music from what I understand & an aquarium. (correct me if I am wrong on any of this) I love the beach and haven't been able to go much since I was little so I plan on spending a lot of time (with sunscreen) there. one of the perks about living in charleston is that it is only a 7 hour drive from home...so we could leave at noon and make it to ma & pa's for dinner.
we are going down this wednesday to start looking at health regulations for carts, places to live, people to wholesale to, and roasting co. locations. (i bet we will accidentally fall into the gelatto shop too.) it's very exciting!
speaking of moving...i am probably going to switch our blog over to wordpress soon so look out for the new web address!

new & green

I think I am going to get a book that is titled something like "blog templates for dummies." as you can obviously see, we got a new color/layout...yea. but I want to do stuff like add photos up in the title area and get rid of the pixely arrows. I am getting bored with the template choices on blogger. there are about 5 different designs that you can get in a few colors. give me interesting formats and wacky color combinations! I am officially demanding more from these nice folks who let me have a blog for free.

Headache

6:30 am...watch pee and poo come from E.V.
feelin' pretty good
7:00 a.m. wake up for work...
headache
12:pm headache! boom boom boom..... I could actually see the tiny veins in my head wriggle with the pounding...thhat didn't help.
12:30pm...mary doctors up some mac & chesse with bacon, gralic, and onion...& 3 tylenol...
12:50pm...5 min nap
1:00pm feelin' better.

woot! headaches suck the monkey!

Mandible Vs. Fisticuffs -OR- The Cookeville Real Estate Mafia

OOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
lookin' for a house but one there not be
wants a place for 3 tanky tanks me & mary
a place for a grill and a yard for dog pee
not to be found oh woe is me!

Called Brad Sells for a place to live
He said "sorry pops. I gots none to give."
"but, I knows some house folks who do gets around...
they might have a place for you & yo lady to get down."

So a callin' I went. I called 14 X 4
so, real estate Mafia comes a knockin'' on my door
"yo no a ga ga! ma fa fa! Ma ROOMP!"
"STAFA ma GRAFTA me stoofta pa poompf."

I said "my brova...no need to be mean!"
then I promptly kicked them with both fists in between.
when I pulled out my elbows, the keys the plopped out
now my dabbo & I have a place to hang out.

Oh...this is me before & after the war