as you may know, eileen — my lovely wife and partner in crime — moonlights as a barista at starbucks in athens. (or “daybreaks” as a barista, more like. she’s an opener, which means we’re up every morning at 4:30 am.) despite the early mornings, she loves the job. and the coffee shop has turned out to be a great place to network, too. funny, then, that when we walked into our consultation with cristina and kevin — fellow baristas at another starbucks whom eileen already had connections to — we were all pleasantly surprised to see each other! even through all of our e-mail correspondence, we just never put 2 and 2 together.

rather than finding out about our work through starbucks, cristina and kevin actually heard about us through their church — 12 stone, whose film ministry i worked with on the short film “awake, o sleeper.” very cool video! (here are my photos from the set.) and a very cool bunch of believers! i’ve really enjoyed getting to know some of the genuine, servant-minded folks from 12 stone.

continuing with coffee theme, this highly caffeinated couple actually met each other at a starbucks. go figure! so we had some fun reenacting their first encounter — well, a fictionalized version of their first encounter. kevin has never actually written his digits on anyone’s grande vanilla latte (or so he says). and cristina would never actually consider a guy who did (unless, perhaps, he were kevin). anyway, this is our homage to the kind of love that can only be found at that grand corporate coffee culture in the sky. (eileen and i are happy to find good friends can be found there, too.)

in other news, as soon as i get this blog posted, eileen and i are off to savannah for our babymoon (and to scout some locations for upcoming weddings). we haven’t had a free weekend in a month, and we won’t get another until mid june. and after that, we basically won’t have another free weekend for 18 years. that’s right, baby blume should arrive some time near independence day — just about the time we lose ours. but we can’t wait to meet him… or her. (it’s a surprise!) one thing we already know about this kid, though — she’s likely to be an amazing break dancer. she practices all the time! we better prepare ourselves. and how better than by strolling along river street with a bag full of pralines? wish us luck!

and all the best to you two, cristina and kevin! enjoy your engagement! we can’t wait till your wedding. and take our word for it — after that, it just keeps getting better! 🙂