As printed in today’s Chicago Tribune, there is apparently a coffee fungus – roya – that is decimating the Central and South American Arabica coffee trees.  Fumigating the trees only works if every single grower sprays, as roya is wind-borne.  Basically, the leaves turn black and fall off, severely weakening the tree.  Farmers are pulling all the beans off the trees for this year’s crop, but next year?  Who knows how much you can pick from a blighted tree.  And apparently the roya-resistent tree isn’t as pleasing to the palate.

Goddess suggests hitting the stores hard and heavy when you see a fantastic deal on coffee.  I’ll keep my eyes open and post, but you have to do your part, too.  I repeated this to DH who said “We have enough coffee.”  Obviously his opinion won’t color our shopping habits…

Just a beautiful piece of music from YouTube, sent by MUM’s Dad (normally he just sends the rude stuff – which I very much appreciate)…

Been out all afternoon at Das Barbecü in Cicero (Goldstar freebie). Come back to the smell of…something.  So now for the “burning” question: Does this popcorn look torched or not.  DH insists it’s not – he likes the seasoning. The Goddess’ position is that he must be asking for a favor from the Gods ’cause it sure looks and smells like burnt offerings from where We sit.

The explanation for burned foods is obvious to me, but not to him.  But if it’s such a good idea to watch TV while cooking, he wouldn’t be covering up his cartoon now, would he?

Yet another bit of fluff from someone with – apparently – lots of free time.  and you all should know who she is …

Funny bit forwarded by a reader. Make sure your Kindle light is working and you’re good to go.

When you feel like you have just had enough…..

As I’ve mentioned, FirstBorn is completing a double major in Organic Chemistry and Math – the changling theory doesn’t hold because fairies aren’t into science.

He needs a couple of textbooks and the college bookstore has them priced as if they had gold leaf along the spine, so we go the Amazon route, where the price is about 30% lower.  Mind you, not low enough to raise eyebrows, just low by comparison.

One book comes in two days – the other is out of stock for weeks.  Turns out he can borrow a copy for a month from the school library and his professor has also offered to loan his personal copy.

Emails keep pushing the date up and up until “datataDA!” it arrives last Friday afternoon.  FirstBorn opens the package and says, “WTH?!”

Even I, a non-science-type person, see that there’s a slight problem here…so I call Amazon to report that they’re apparently now shipping counterfeit books.  First guy to answer the phone (and while I don’t know what country it was, I know it wasn’t this one) asks me what the problem is and I explain the wording, etc.  He listens to the entire story and then says, “So, there’s a problem with this book and you’d like to return it?  I can help you with that.”  I explain that it’s more than just a problem with the book and that it’s not a legitimate edition of the book.  “So, there’s a problem with this book and you’d like to return it?  I can help you with that.”  We do this linguistic tango one more time and when he says he can help me I say NO YOU CAN’T BECAUSE I’VE EXPLAINED IT THREE TIMES ALREADY.  and now i want to speak to a supervisor.  They must keep hot irons in the back for cs reps who fail to complete their calls, because this guy would not let go – kept insisting he could help me and I kept insisting that I wanted a supervisor.  Finally I get put on the dead zone hold –  the one where there’s no music, no advertisements and you know the “If you’d like to make a call, hang up and…” message will be coming on any minute.

Time passes … and passes … suddenly there he is – and I don’t know who was more surprised!  Capricorns don’t give up, bucky!  He makes one more half-hearted attempt to convince me that he’s my man, then sighs and says he’ll get the supervisor.  I hear hold music, but it might have been a choir of angels.

Woman picks up, identifies herself as the supervisor and asks what the problem is with my order.  I explain the entire thing ONE MORE TIME and she says that she will send out another copy with one day shipping and with a return label email attachment.  More importantly, she will flag this so that Amazon can open an investigation because “Amazon takes these things seriously.”  go team.  I ask that they make sure the replacement book is a legitimate one and she says they will inspect it before shipping it out.

Return home today from a funeral to find the gigantic box from Target containing PITA’s new bike and the Amazon box.  FirstBorn opens it up and sees:

So now we’re amassing quite a collection of counterfeit textbooks. Call Amazon once again and I’m on quite a long time, straightening it out. Rep gets permission to pull the listing until it’s been straightened out, but unfortunately, there are no other Sellers showing it.  FirstBorn says he’ll keep his professor’s copy until one comes in – they’re all dying to see what makes an Oogranic Compunds textbook so much cheaper than the Organic version.

and i’m calling the publisher tomorrow.

Because IKEA attracts some very strange shoppers…maybe it’s the new People of Walmart.

A monkey wearing a miniature shearling coat and diapers was collected by animal services on Sunday afternoon, after shoppers spotted the animal in the parking lot of a Toronto Ikea store.

The owners, who were shopping in the store at the time, have come forward to claim the monkey, Toronto Police Sgt. Ed Dzingala told CBC News.  Dzingala said that the animal was in a car in the parking lot and it somehow let itself out of its crate. “It’s a smart monkey,” he said.

An Ikea spokesperson told CBC News that the monkey was first spotted in the parking lot of the Ikea store located near Leslie Street and Highway 401.  Staff at the store quickly contacted animal control, and the monkey was kept confined until animal services arrived at around 3 p.m.

Shopper Stephanie Yim said she believes she was the first person to spot the escaped monkey.  After parking her car on the upper-level parking lot, she saw the animal peeking out from behind another vehicle.  “It was the weirdest thing.” she told CBC News. “I thought I was going insane.”  Read the entire article here.

Here are two YouTube videos.  The first one involves an “elevator” and a child “ghost.”  Let’s just say the perpetrators would have been sued into tomorrow in this country.  It’s one of those things that SCHADENFREUDE totally explains…you’ve been warned.

Second video is from the same twisted folks and involves that same “elevator” and a “corpse.”   Goddess advises taking a pee break between videos.