back in the U S of A

Now posting from Washington Dulles airport after 15 hours of traveling. I have no idea what time my body actually thinks it is. I'm ready to be home!

The results of the World Barista Championship:

6th place Iceland
5th place United Kingdom
4th place Sweden
3rd place Matt Riddle... USA
2nd place Sammy Piccolo Canada
1st place Klaus Thomsen, Denmark

All the competitors were amazing. The young lady from Iceland was particularly sweet and earnest... wait till you see the pictures of her and her coach.
Sammy Piccolo is the Greg Norman (golfer) of the WBC. This is his third time coming in second! That must be so frustrating.

I got to time the competitors during their 15 minutes of prep time directly preceding their performance time. I looked very official standing on stage with my stopwatch. Klaus Thomsen had me tell him his time remaining for every minute during the last five minutes of his prep, as did Matt Riddle. All of the competitors were completely ready when I told them to step away from the machine. Champions, all of them.

More later; time to catch the last leg of my journey into Cleveland and reconnect with my cell phone and my laptop as well as family and Phoenixers. I missed the latter two but not the former two!