Coffee was ready. The mugs were like ice.
I'd started the process before I fed my cats and cleaned up after them: water in the kettle, kettle on, hot water in the carafe, Chemex waiting on its hot pad.
The water had boiled while Tam was seeing to Random Numbers, so she'd loaded filter and coffee into the Chemex and poured the water, then headed back to The Computer Room here at Roseholme Cottage to start up the main snarkifier.
On my next sweep through, the coffee was about brewed, so I pulled out a couple of mugs, my big orange "red" (!!!) Fiestaware[1] one and another, anonymous dark-green mug. Interestingly enough, the gentlemen who redid the kitchen here at Roseholme -- the previous owner and his father -- seem to have been of the opinion that insulation in the walls behind kitchen cabinets was nothing but a folly or indulgence and Not To Be Done. This means in Winter, we don't have to refrigerate beverages unless we want them ice-cold; when it's 10º F outside, the coldest cabinet is nearly 40º! Where mugs and plates live isn't the coldest but the two I picked were still very chilly, so I filled them with warm water and ran them in the Radarange[2] for a quarter-minute.
The "bing!" of the 'wave timing out fetched Tam; I handed her the green mug and proceeded to pick up the Chemex, only to hear a muttered, "That's not one of my mugs." I turned around and there she was, rummaging though the dishwasher (which ran overnight) for a mug from her preferred set and turning back with "aha!!" in her eyes and a dark BMW-logo mug in one hand. "What?" she asked.
I grinned and poured my coffee, opining that the green mug had nothing wrong with it.
"But it's not one of mine," Tam replied. After a short silence, she offered, "And I'm an excellent driver. Dad lets me drive on Tuesdays."
We both started giggling.
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1. Of recent vintage, it's not going to kick the meter on your Geiger counter. OTOH, it's the only piece of Fiestaware I have and you can be sure I chose the color deliberately. Heh.
2. Sadly, not an Amana with the extravagant RR9 chassis, all chrome and sweeping, smooth curves. I've always enjoyed Raytheon's term for the devices, though, which followed the technology to Amana.
That's no coffee mug. THIS is a coffee mug.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.greatbigstuff.com/mug.html
Of all the neurally divergent gun nerds I know, I think you two may be my favorites.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. Definitely.
Of, course, Squeaky looks more like Agatha Heterodyne, and The Donovan has more cats. Besides, he lets my virtual self hide under the workbench and disassemble his Degtyarev.
ReplyDeleteI'm flattered!
ReplyDelete...I never have posted a photo of me in round eyeglasses, have I?
As a fellow scrawny ectomorph, I must say that round lenses would be insufficient to complete the similitude. Squeaky and Agatha both seem to be women of substance, by nature. We'll prolly outlive them, barring a famine (which seems more and more likely these days, don't it?).
ReplyDeleteAll the best from Jtg, all skin and bones and nerves.
WV: expla. That's my nation!