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I pretty much gave up on Starbucks years ago. I didn’t like that they wouldn’t support fair trade and organic coffee and their baked goods, to put it mildly, sucked. So I’ve continually stuck with my local coffee shops and only hit a Starbucks when we were traveling and it was the only option for coffee.

But then Starbucks decided that they were buddies with Target and planted themselves in ever store. Target is my unfortunate necessary evil. Toilet paper, swimsuits, underwear (what do my kids do with all their underwear? They always need more underwear!!) require that I venture there at least once a month, twice since I usually forget something.

And then I had a third kid. Trips to Target seemed to be non stop, because with three kids I always forget something. And my timing is bad. And then they are hungry, and I didn’t get enough coffee that morning and suddenly…there is that Starbucks. And I notice the ads: “Fair trade!” “Real food!” I take a look and yes, they do now offer fair trade organic coffee and cookies made with the same ingredients that I’d use at home. Still not as good as my local haunts but it’s right here, and I don’t need to drag all three people back in and out of the car one more time.

So I give in to Starbucks, and it’s not bad. They do make a mean iced coffee and the baked goods actually taste good. Until last Friday.

The five of us had ventured out to the way outer ‘burbs to pick up our mini van (yes, we finally got one!). On the way back we passed a Target and stopped to pick up a few things. And of course there was Starbucks beckoning to us on the way out, “You need an iced coffee!” The Skeptic ran out the the van, brought in our mugs and took the boys back to the car while I placed our order. And then had the most frustrating conversation I’ve had in a long time.

You see, I’ve been hardcore this year about not wasting disposable cups. I’ve been planning ahead and 90% I’ve got a mug with me. So like I usually do at any coffee shop, I hand over my mugs and order iced coffees. The girl takes my cups over to the counter and I hear her mumble a “Hmmm…” as I proceed to check out their free mp3 of the week.

Then I notice she’s mixing them up in plastic cups. That’s weird, I thought. And then my jaw dropped as she then proceeded to dump whatever she mixed into our reusable mugs and then (yous see this coming, don’t you?) she dumped the plastic cups into the garbage.

“Did I just see that right?”

“I made you iced coffees with milk. That’s what you ordered, right?”

“Yeah, but I mean that I gave you reusable mugs specifically to avoid putting two more plastic cups in the landfill.You just made my drinks in two plastic cups, dumped them into my mugs in threw the cups out.”

“Umm….we’ll, we have specific measurements we need to use.”

“You couldn’t have washed out those cups and used them again?”

“Umm…”

“Or maybe get a measuring cup? This is just really disappointing, because the whole point of a reusable mug is to NOT make more garbage, you see?”

“Ohhh….” A light started to flicker. I think she got it. “You should write to Starbucks.” She had this terrified but strangely chipper look to her. Obviously this conversation had not come up before.

“Yeah, I will, do you think maybe you could mention to your manager that you guys might need a measuring cup, or something?”

“Ummm, we’ll you can write to Starbucks about it.”

“Yeah, I will. Maybe next time you can just rinse out the cups, right?”

“Yeah, I see what you’re saying…”

But I wasn’t convinced that she did. At this point, I left, dumbfounded and headed back to my car. “It’s hopeless. We’re all going to die.” And I relayed what took place in the store.

I need to stop this saga now as I have two small boys hanging on my legs. So, I urge you to try it out. Take a reusable mug to Starbucks. Order some sort of iced beverage and see what they do. Report back, because I’m hoping that this was just a case of a girl who just doesn’t think that much. Although, if Starbucks was smart, they’d know they have employees like this and provide them with a measuring cup. And a 20 cent discount for a reusable mug, like my local coffee shop does. So yeah, they’re trying. I appreciate that. But they’re still dumb.

This is an excellent idea. I need to save some cash and in reality I have a ton of food around the house. Having our CSA box each week, which includes cheese, will make it easier. And I’ll still buy milk too.

Report to come…

Can I take two of your knitting needles and weld them together?

Ummm….no.

…should be illegal. Seriously.

We went to Shepherd’s Harvest yesterday, my annual Mother’s Day splurge. I may have overdone it on Spinner a wee bit with the knits, but seriously, how could I not?

Debbie Bliss garter stitch sweater, Picky Pants, Norwegian Baby hat, and Pebble vest. He was very much adored as we walked around the festival.

When we got home, I did another photo shoot in his vest and that tam he was meant to be wearing, which was vetoed by the Skeptic since “it doesn’t cover his ears” and it was windy.

The sweater, the vest and tam are all recent additions to the collection, finished up this spring. I’ll get my details up in Ravelry later, but my thoughts for now….

Debbie Bliss garter stitch sweater: I think I’m pretty much close to gauge (I should check) but it is HUGE. I knit the 3-6 month size, took six stitches off the length of the sleeve and and the sleeves are still way too long. They are designed to be rolled up but still….

The Pebble vest? Knit one now, that’s all I need to say about that. I used Mission Falls cotton.

The tam was from a ball of Rowan Calmer I’ve had sitting around. I used Ann Budd’s pattern book to figure it out. Could e a bit longer and I should block it, although I do like how it’s sort of puffy right now.

Oh, and the purchases? Since we now have a gajillion $$$ in medical bills, I kept it to a minimum.

Susan Hensel had some killer batts, and she had a build your own batt station set up. I bought the black one, the blue one I put together myself. What an awesome idea!

From Winterwind and Crosby Hill I bought 8 ounces of CMV roving, a bag of mohair locks (I’m determined to figure them out) and two CMN/mohair batts.

Bottom line, a great Mother’s Day!

Oh, and readers? Lastly I just want to say thanks again for sticking around…your kind words have meant more than you know!

I just want to pop in to say how much I appreciate all of your kind words about the death of my father-in-law. Thank you for taking the time. I’m sorry for not being able to respond but they do mean a great deal.

I’ve been feeling like I’m just holding it all together with a thread these days, but that thread is getting a bit thicker and I’m hoping that somewhat soon things will feel a bit more normal. As normal as they can be, at least.

I’ll probably get a new post up here soon. I’m feeling the need to start writing again. I’ve got a huge backlog of stuff to show off and things I want to share, so well see….