Here's Ken selling books at the counter. This view is from the front door. The first floor seating is there on the left with the book shelves extending to the back, with the door into the espresso bar at the back.
This is the upstairs seating. There is a couch facing two wing back chairs between windows looking out over the street. there are three tables up here, along with the mystery section, (my favorite) westerns, the children's section and several non-fiction sections.

The door through to another bookstore, a new bookstore, called The Second Story owned by the owners of the building, is at the back of this room and leads to the commercial kitchen where Ken and Melodie's baker bakes the pastries and soups they serve.

Here's Melodie, soooooooo happy, that they made some money after all their efforts and expense trying to get this espresso business up and running. Look at the wads of money she's clutching in her sweaty little paws! What a crazy girl! That's their new used commercial espresso machine sitting beside her, that she, or for that matter, none of us, knew how to run just yesterday! It didn't seem to matter to all the people who came in to get a latte and pastry. They did a really good business their first day so we can only hope it keeps up so they can pay their bills that they have piled up with this expansion.

A new espresso bar for Laramie, Wyoming!!!

So Melodie and Ken finally bit the bullet and went for it! They suffered weeks of disruption and mess in their bookstore to put in an espresso bar in the back of their bookstore, plus expanding said bookstore into the upstairs of the building. They have doubled the size of the bookstore (the space upstairs is the same size as the original space downstairs.), doubled the size of their employees, (EEEKKK!!! How are they going to pay them!!!) that's Ken, awake and worrying, in the middle of the night. And, now, they have no family life because they are open 7 days a week from 8 in the morning till 6 at night, theoretically. But they CAN'T close at 6, because people are just getting their second wind and want some more cappuccino so they're knocking on the door!!

I tried to get pictures of CocoWalk styles, but only got a few in the Starbucks that I've been going to there. Women wear tall boots, high, high heels, tight pants and carry big purses. The men, not so much.

Here's Rhonwyn's water exercise class. There are a few regulars that come every time, but different ones each time too. The pool isn't deep. These people are standing on the bottom. Rhonwyn doesn't get wet, unless inadvertently! Though no one TRIES to get her wet, at least, that I ever saw. She's not feeling too hot today. She had a bridge taken out and some kind of post put into her gums to attach future teeth onto. The dentist drilled right up into her sinuses, she said. It's hard to believe, I know. What was he thinking!!! That can't be good!

That's me in the first water picture in the blue suit with the pink tube.

I need to make a correction to my earlier blog about the Jersey Boys concert. It wasn't The Four Tops... it was The Four Seasons. Rhonwyn wanted to make sure I mentioned that SHE said it was Seasons... while STEVE said it was Tops. He knew better, he was just being obstructive.

Last night Rhonwyn and I went to a place called Prana Yoga. We took a class called Kundalini Yoga. A lot of the poses I had done before, but found that I couldn't do anymore. It was kind of upsetting. When did that happen?

Wednesday in Coconut Grove

This morning, Rhonwyn and I met Bryan at Starbucks down the street from where Rhonwyn and Steve live. It's the one that Jay and I always went to when we were down here a couple years ago. I didn't know how to get to it, but going there with Rhonwyn, I got it straight in my head. See Bryan's notepad and book under his hat? He writes a lot and has several journals. Hopefully, he can get his writing into a good organization and readable for others on his computer. That's what I thought when I saw all of them, anyway. He says he's thought of that too.

Rhonwyn and I went for a belly dancing lesson last night. The woman with the blue top and spangles on her bottom is the instructor. She was good at it. And it's not as easy to shake and shimmy various parts of your body as you'ld think. For instance, bending your knees a little, really fast. That was the hardest for me. It was all pretty crazy, but it was like my brain couldn't process what it wanted my body to do.

In about an hour we're going to see The Jersey Boys at the Arsht Center-Ziff Ballet Opera House. I'm excited about this because I liked The Four Tops back when, and I've seen them advertised and they sound pretty good. So that's what we're going to be doing in a little while.

warm weather

Rhonwyn had a REALLY large water yoga class yesterday afternoon. twenty people in the pool. they were a happy bunch... and Rhonwyn does a really good stand-up schtick. Like she was born to it... Oh right!!! She was!!! Since this blog goes out to mostly Edwardses, you all know what I mean. I never met an Edwards that wasn't an entertainer in some way or other, and being around some of them that are far away from the others it's not hard to figure out that it's innate. This goes for Bryan too. Bryan's last name may be Newman but he's as Edwards as any of them. Since I haven't taken any pictures lately, I downloaded a picture of some Adams. One of these children is Alice Adams' father. And the adults are her grandfather and grandmother Adams.

Well, Rhonwyn is picking me up to go get a belly-dancing lesson in about 10 minutes, so I need to go outside to waitl

my saturday

I'm trying to upload a picture and write under it, but I don't think that's happening here.

Anyway, here's one of Rhonwyn and Steve's outdoor cats. She's really old and getting scraggly looking. I don't think you can see it here, but her eyes are so intensely communicative through that back door. She's the only outdoor cat that seems to like human company. When I sit at the table there in the back yard, she lies under the table while I'm there. Rhonwyn said this cat was here when they bought the house.

They are having coon problems. They used to have really big fish in their outdoor fish pond, I can't remember what they were called, but the coons have eaten them all. Rhonwyn went outside and actually caught one coon with a big fish in its mouth, eating it. She has a big stick out the side door and tries to run them off but they just hiss at her and actually fight back. Not a good situation.

Here's a better picture of Rhonwyn's bike that I'm getting around on. I get a lot of comments and compliments on it. It's good for me for when I start wobbling I can, hopefully, just drop my feet and stand up. that's not necessarily what happens, but that's what I hope will happen. Yesterday I looked behind me once for traffic and went down, thankfully onto the grass, and today a woman jogging with a stroller stopped suddenly in front of me and I whacked my arm on a metal parking ticket machine stopping myself from hitting the sidewalk.

I met Bryan in downtown Coconut Grove for coffee at Starbucks this morning. He's so funny. We went to a Farmer's Market there and he wanted to lie down under a big old spreading Banyon, or whatever, tree for a nap. I asked him why he was so tired, it was only noon or thereabouts, and he told me he'd been worrying so about getting up in time to catch the two buses and the train to make it out to Coconut Grove to meet me at Starbucks at the agreed upon time of 10 am that he was awake at 4. I've got to figure out how to get to his house so I can go there to pick him up.

Rhonwyn and Steve are in Key West today. They left yesterday and will be back tomorrow.

Coconut Grove, Florida

I ate lunch here at Scotty's Landing. Jay and I ate here when we visited before. It was cool so close to the water and fun to look out and see all the boats. Crowded tho. REALLY crowded! I was hot from riding the bike all around so I kind of cooled out while I waited. I could have ordered conch soup, or a conch sandwich, or conch appetizers, or conch fritters; but, I don't know, I didn't.

I rode Rhonwyn's bike to this Starbucks in downtown Coconut Grove. People were lined up practically out the door to get their coffee, including me. It was cool in there, so I sat awhile and read my book, one of Lawrence Block's burglar books that I borrowed from Ken and Melodie for this trip.

Rhonwyn's bike is the silver low-rider there with the high back rest. It's really easy to ride without that high cross bar. It's been a long time since I've ridden a bike so I was kind of wobbly. There are bike racks all over the place so it was really convenient to go into the town part of Coconut Grove that way. Also, there are bike trails along the roads, and one across the hwy from Park Ave., Rhonwyn and Steve's street, clear into Coconut Grove main street so it's easy to do. I just got off the phone with Bryan and we're meeting at Starbucks tomorrow morning. I should go pick him up, but I'm still leary about driving around here too much if I don't know the roads. I need to get a map of Miami.