"2007:_______?"

You know it's bad when your mother wants to know why you're not blogging. And you have no good excuse since "the holidays" and are now so last year. It feels like the entire month of December happened over the course of a weekend, and I was still recovering from Thanksgiving. 2006 in general moved briskly, and I think that if there were one stand-out event for me, it would be the inception of this blog. My recent habits would suggest otherwise, but I've been yearning for an excuse to write since I gave over my life to a cafe six years ago, and I am eternally grateful to Urban Honking for giving me the push and the platform.

2006 was memorable for many reasons. Our staff grew to seven people, including Jeff and myself. We changed our coffee service and could not be happier with Courier Coffee Roasters. We decieded to open up another cafe. Wait! What?

Yes, it's true. Half & Half will soon have a new little sister, The Acorn Cafe. It is located at 539 NW 13th Ave, between Hoyt and Glisan. It's smack dab in the middle of The Pearl (district), which will be an interesting cultural study. It's an itty bitty space, smaller than the Half & Half (which seems impossible). It is not going to be a mini Half & Half but rather a micro deli with it's very own identity, and we're very excited to see what kind of place it grows up to be. Right now, however, we are in "business opening mode" which means we're crazed with an overwhelming amount of work to get done in a very short period of time. As in two weeks. I haven't mentioned The Acorn on the blog until now because 1) it actually happened suddenly and 2) I've been in denial that it is actually happening in real time. But now that it's officially 2007, we're officially under the gun.

Every year, I try to come up with a motto for the next 365 days. It started a while back with "No Rules 1999" and I've enjoyed others like 2002's "Are You Fucking My Face?" (that year, we can all remember, started out kind of rough), but honestly I can't even recall last year's, because I didn't live it. This year, my one resolution is to live my annual motto. Over Christmas weekend I came up with "2007: Best Year Ever!" and I thought I liked it until I discussed it with a friend last night at a New Year's Party. His goal is to shore up some larger unfinished projects, the kind that you can keep open for so long they eventually become a joke to you. He needs to Wrap It Up. It suddenly spoke to me: a couple finger snaps, a move-along hand signal, "Wrap It Up." Get it done. Move on to what's important. I think "2007: Wrap it Up (with hand gestures)" is what I need on repeat in my head through the next year. I guess I have to decide on this soon.