Read His Lips

what time is it? time for another coffee quote challenge! if you're the first customer to tell a barista who said what, you get a free drink today! everybody else who tries to put words in someone else's mouth still gets a double drink card punch! ok, here we go, the quoters: bob geldof, bill gates, and napoleon. the quotes: 1) "coffee gives me warmth, waking, an unusual force and a pain that is not without very great pleasure" 2) "rock n roll is instant coffee" 3) "television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs"

And the Winner Is... Liam!

liam atchison was the big winner at homer's today! he correctly named otis redding, elvis presley, harry belafonte, the ramones, and simple minds as the recording artists in today's memorial day song collage. liam received a small mocha, a thomas edison experiment, and a pineapple.

Do You Remember?

happy memorial day! next monday will be the season's first night of pickin' on the patio, a regular monday night event that continues until labor day. how many recording artists you can remember and identify from the track below? if you're the first customer to walk into homer's and correctly identify all of the artists, you get a free drink today! everybody else gets double drink card punches for naming one or more of the songs.
Remember Me by various artists

The Other TGIF

with memorial day weekend coming up like a car in the fast lane, i know ALOT of people who are thanking God that it's friday. there's even a TGIF facebook page with over 1500 members. have you ever wondered if TGIF stands for something besides "thank God it's friday?" well... it does. if you are the first customer after 11am to tell a barista what TGIF stands for in the military, you get a free drink today! everybody else who comes up with their own TGIF can get double drink card punches. if you need help with your own TGIF, go here.

Ten Year Anniversary

i have worked at homer's since 2004. over the years many customers have asked me 'how long has homer's been here?' or 'what was here before homer's?' or 'i left a pair of sunglasses here yesterday, have you seen them?' homer's is actually approaching it's ten year anniversary! if you're the first person (after 11:00am) to tell a barista what month homer's opened it's doors in 2001, you get a free drink today! everybody else who shares a story about their first time at homer's gets double drink card punches.

Three Cheers for Ben!

hip hip hooray! ben hodge was the lucky winner of a 20 oz. chocolate shake after he correctly identified today's mystery band as jars of clay. of course this means that ben will now advance to the second round where his gardening and cooking skills will go up against our current reigning champion, drew ryan. may the best man dig!

Mystery Band

years ago i worked at a radio station. my boss showed me all kinds of switches and buttons that needed to be on, tape reels that had to keep rolling, and other equipment details that i have forgotten. "the most important piece of machinery," he said "is this." he was pointing to the coffeemaker. some people cannot operate without coffee. if you're the first person (after 11:00 today) to tell a barista the name the band below, you get a free drink! everybody else who confesses a need for caffeine gets double drink card punches. cheers!
mystery coffee band by ???

Congratulations Drew!

congratulations to drew ryan for being the first customer to correctly guess that 7 million tons of green coffee beans are produced worldwide each year! additional congratulations and/or sarcastic remarks can be made in the comment box. drew appreciates your kind words and warm wishes. he also extends an invitation to his house to view a slide show presentation of all his accomplishments.

Factoid for Free

ok... it's late... the bags in the pic above make me think i'm probably gonna have bags under my eyes in the morning. sleepless in old OP. might as well give someone a chance to win a free cup of... well... anything! here's the trivia question: how many pounds of tons of green coffee beans are produced worldwide each year? 7 million? 10 million? 16 million? come up to the register today and make your guess, if you're right you get a free drink! everyone else who reads the blog gets double drink card punches. it's that simple.

Who Covered The Big O?

anyone who watches this video before 9am may think it's too early to be awake on a saturday, but otis redding has been up since "a quarter to three" smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. this song reappeared in 1995, on a movie soundtrack, almost 30 years after the original. it was covered by another recording artist from the 1960's. if you're the first customer to tell a barista who the other recording artist is (after 9am) you get a free drink today! everybody else who knows the name of the 1995 movie, gets double drink card punches.

Congrats Nicole and Robert!

they had some help from google but nicole and robert got the right answers for today's coffee quote trivia: Martha Quinn-A, Ronald Reagan-B, Steven Wright-C (see the quotes in the blog entry below). they received a free drink coupon, and double punches on a drink card! you can be the next winner just by reading the blog!

Rainy Day Coffee Quotes

yesterday was super busy at homer's. i think it was a result of the sun's absence. and today doesn't look any different. gray rainy days like these trigger something inside most of us to drink coffee, or at least something warm. see if you can guess who made these coffee quotes:

a)"I don't know how people live without coffee, I really don't."
b)"I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon."
c) "I put instant coffee in a microwave and almost went back in time"

if you're the first customer to match up steven wright, martha quinn, and ronald reagan with the right quotes and tell a barista, you get a free drink today! all other customers who know facts about any of these celebs get double drink card punches.

What's That Sound?

the folks who come to homer's are used to the sounds we make when we're steaming milk or pounding old grounds out of a portafilter. genene, one of the baristas, thought it would be cool to see how many sounds customers can identify. fortunately, we have a few recordings. if you're the first person to tell a barista one of the sounds below, you get a FREE drink today! everybody else who reads the blog gets double drink card punches.
sounds by david cedillo jr

The Doot Doot Doo Doo Girl

it's amazing how many bands' hit songs had sounds for titles. examples: de do do do de da da da by the police, da doo ron ron by the crystals, da da da by trio... you get the idea. today's mystery song has alot of "doot doot doo doo-ing," but it's not the song's actual title. if you're the first person to tell a barista at homer's the actual song title after 8:00 this morning you get a free drink! everybody else gets double drink card punches just for 'doo doo-ing' or 'da da-ing' a song.
guess by ???

Me & Grayson in the Morning

i've been working tuesday mornings at homer's for over a year now, and today was my last morning shift with grayson leweke... for awhile anyway. he's gonna work another gig for the summer, and is planning to come back to homer's when school starts in the fall. we're gonna miss him. if you want to drop by to say "hi" and "bye," grayson is working thursday and saturday morning.

More Coffee Trivia

happy monday! if you need a caffeine buzz to start the week, homer's has it! but we wouldn't have it, if it weren't for the coffee bean grinder. do you know when the manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens in america? was it 1793? 1850? 1936? if you're the first person with the right answer, you get a drink on the house today! everyone else who reads the blog gets double drink card punches!

300 Years of Coffee

according to a website that's full (to the point of spilling over) of coffee trivia, 90% of all people living in the western world have switched from tea to coffee in the last three centuries. thankfully homer's has both options for those who might be waiting another 300 years to switch over.

What Happened to the Blog?

earlier today i tried to make a blog post so someone could get a free drink, and others could get double drink card punches, but blogspot prevented that from happening. every time i tried to log on, something popped up about web maintenance and 'please pardon our mess'... wait, that second part was from price chopper. they are painting everything green right now. anyway, back to the blog. i don't pretend to know what goes on during 'website maintenance' but it makes more sense to think the whole thing was the result of an employee spilling coffee at his/her workstation, a friday the 13th prank, or it slipped into a virtual black hole for a few hours.

There's No Place Like Homer's

today's blog post was inspired by l. frank baum and lois wetzel. yesterday lois asked if i could edit the mantra that judy garland used in 1939 to get home from oz. i altered the video, and the warner bros. legal department promptly stopped me from posting it here... but we still have the audio. if you're the first person who knows how many times the word "home" is replaced by "homer's" after listening to the remix, you get a free drink today after 11:00! everybody else who clicks their heels together three times can get a double drink card punch. we're off to see the wizard!

there's no place like homers by the wiz

How Many Cups Per Fin?

Finland... home of the kalevala, sauteed reindeer, air guitar world championship finals, AND the highest coffee consumption per capita title. this means that every year each man, woman, and child in finland drinks more coffee than you do. so here's the challenge: according to recent studies, how many cups of coffee does an average fin drink every day? 7? 15? 35? hint: it's one of those numbers if you guess the right one, you get a free drink after 11:00am today! double drink card punches for everyone else who can display their air guitar skills. if you need help finding your air guitar, check out this thing we recorded a couple of years ago (skip to 3:34 in the video if you're on a tight schedule).

Afternoons & Coffeespoons

ross polete gave me the 'heads up' on this song from 1994. does anyone recognize it? does anyone know ANOTHER song this group sang 20 years ago about the isolation and commitment of a legendary comic book hero? if you're the first person (after 8:30) to identify that song (or its subject matter) you get a drink on the house! double drink card punches for everyone else who reads the blog.

The Zoomies

rob told me recently that when pets are racing around the house like they want you to chase them, there's a name for that: the zoomies. i looked it up, and he's right. i can't believe humans haven't borrowed this word for drinking too much coffee. we just get the shakes. i can just imagine a conversation between the pet's owner and a neighbor:

neighbor: what's with your dog?
owner: oh, she's ok... it's just the zoomies

Cinco de Mayo

'5th of may' is the english translation for cinco de mayo. i didn't know the historical significance behind the date for a long time. did native mexicans declare freedom from spain? were snakes driven out of the country? is it zorro's birthday? i eventually found out, and it's none of the above. if you are the first person to share the history behind cinco de mayo today, you get a drink on the house (after 1:30). everybody else who makes up a fake history gets double drink card punches. if you need some help faking history, go to my blog. olé!

That First Cup

this morning i was remembering my first EVER cup of coffee. jenny & i were in college, and studying at a 24 hr. place which shall remain perkins. that's when i discovered the bottomless pot of coffee. i don't remember what we ate, but we drank that entire pot. i drank it black and never looked back. do you remember your first cup? the first person who can tell me their story (after 11:00) gets a free drink today. all the storytellers afterward can get double drink card punches.

Who Drinks 40 Cups of Coffee?

today's trivia isn't about knowledge of actual coffee consumption, it's about identifying one particular artist who sang "40 Cups of Coffee." just in case you're googling the song, the artist in question isn't ella mae morse or sid phillips... the man we're looking for had MUCH success with another song that wasn't about coffee, but that other song DID involve staying awake all night. the first person who can name the artist sampled below gets a free beverage. everybody else can get double drink card punches for bringing up today's blog entry... or mentioning 40 cups of coffee. cheers.
40 cups of coffee by ???

Way to Go Jennifer!

the correct answer to today's coffee trivia was "no, cowboy coffee is NOT good to the last drop." and today's big winner was jennifer! she was the first person to step up, make eye contact, and get a free drink! the state plaque of florida was just something we threw in for good measure... we had some extra ones laying around.

Cowboy Coffee

even though it was chilly yesterday and last night, camping weather is right around the corner! has anyone ever made cowboy coffee by a campfire? after 11:00 today, we'll make a free drink for the first person knows if cowboy coffee is good to the last drop (yes? no? maybe?) double drink card punches for everyone else who reads this. giddyup.