Fun Mondays, Coffee, and 200 Blog Posts

How timely. Gattina, our host for this week's Fun Monday over at Writer Cramps asks: What do we drink in the morning? Especially on the dreaded Monday mornings? And from what do we drink our beverage of choice? Well, most mornings you'll find me at the computer happily drinking a cup of hot, milky coffee and checking out blog and Facebook buddies. On Monday mornings I'm concentrating on my oldest blog friends, the Fun Monday group. And this post is special indeed--it's the 200th one I've written since starting Summit Musings in May 2007. If you knew me better, especially my track record for following through on projects, you'd realize what an achievement this is. Plain and simple, I'm really glad to be a part of a community of bloggers, sharing the ups and downs of everyday life with people from all over the U.S. and several other countries. Virtual friends rule!

Now Gattina, back to your assignment. My morning beverage of choice is always steaming hot coffee with a generous slurp of 1% milk. I use a cold water Coffee Toddy plastic container to make a syrupy rich coffee extract that I store in the fridge. To make a cup of coffee, just pour the extract in a mug, add milk and water (equal parts of the three) and nuke for about three minutes in the microwave. Perfect results every time.

I have several favorite mugs, many of them bought when traveling and carefully wrapped and tucked into my luggage to keep from breaking until I can get home. The mug in the above photo is from 2005 gardening tour of New Zealand. I bought the cup at Te Papa (Our Place) Museum in Wellington on the North Island. This amazing museum celebrates the Maori, New Zealand's native people. You can see the similarities in the mug etchings and the the carvings on the walls of this Maori meeting house that was set up in the museum.

Funny how drinking from this mug reminds me of that day in Wellington. Wellington is a harbor city and we were taking the inter-islander ferry across the Cook Strait from the North to South Islands. Luckily, I spent the day in Te Papa Museum learning about the Maoris and buying coffee mugs instead of touring gardens for there was fierce rain and winds--almost threatening our ferry ride the next day. Here's to many more blog posts and cups of coffee to bring back the good times!