Well, as of Monday dozens if not hundreds of people are showing up here in Portland for this years USBC. The competition starts tomorrow and goes thru this weekend. Monday night we met up with Scott Lucey and the Alterra gang as well as Sarah Allen, Rita K and some other Portlanders for beers at the Deschutes Brewery ... followed by some Horse Brass action to meet others. Yesterday was a great day at the American Barista & Coffee School where it has been a revolving door for competitors getting in some last minute practice and pulling test shots on the Aurelia. Sam Purvis and Alex Pond have been practicing non-stop and I could not be happier to have them representing Portland this weekend (along with others, BW, etc.). The Intelligentsia crew also came by for some sig drink prep and practice time which was a blast.

Stephen Morrisey, Brent Fortune, Ben Kaminsky, Michael Yung and others also dropped in to hang out, drink some coffees, listen to some tunes and to be some of the first to sign the bX Traveling Darth Vader Journal! :)

I am so excited for this week and will try to keep you all who could not make it informed of what's happening. For those of you who ar ein town, I'll see you soon.

Don't forget to come to the Thursday night "Welcome to Portland" party at the American Barista & Coffee School, 6-9pm!

- Matt