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After being closed for over two months, Stomping Grounds reopened today in its remodled and expanded state. My anticipation of this day has been building for weeks, and I can say I was definitely satistified by the experience.

Stomping Grounds has a special place in my heart, and if I were forced to name a favorite coffee house in Ames, I think they would be my choice. It is the first coffee house I ever visited in Ames, and as far as I know, they are the oldest currently-existing coffee house in operation in our fine city.

My first visit there was in November or December of 1995 — my freshman year in college. I think Santa Fe Espresso opened in the spring of ‘96 and Gregory’s also opened sometime in ‘96…You could get a latte in the MU for the first time in the Fall of ‘96, and I think Taraccino opened in the summer or fall of ‘97, with the Burgie’s on Airport road appearing in about December of ‘98.

I became a semi-regular customer at Stomping Grounds in ‘99 while I was support raising to go on staff — I got hooked when I found out you could get double stamps on your card on Mondays…and they also used to have a “daily special” latte…which was a latte with a flavor combination of some sort for about the price of a latte with no flavors.

It’s been amazing to see Stomping Ground go from being a small, somewhat ugly coffee house when I first started going there (any one remember the blue-yellow-green splotch-painted walls with coffee bags on the ceiling?) to a small cool-looking place…to its current rendition as a spacious, even cooler place to hang out.

If you go on a Monday afternoon…I might just see you there!

Last night, I found out how truly important it is to comment on blogs. My dear friend, Paul Johnson, expressed sadness that more people don’t comment on his blogs. Figuring that Paul is not alone in wishing that regular readers would actually comment, I have devised a plan.

This afternoon, I’ve sworn to create the ultimate program for making people feel better. It’s a robot that will check all my friends blogs and post “Hi.” whenever there’s a new blog. That way, everyone will know I read their blog. To be timely though, I figure it should check everyone’s blog at least 1000 times per second, just in case. I’m not sure if I have that much processor power on my workstation at all times, so this blog posting robot will have to actually be a virus that infects every computer on campus and uses their spare cycles. That way, I’ll be sure that my friends know I like them.