Oops!

I have a section that I teach on Fridays at 9:00 am. This means I have to get up at about 7:00, which is about half an hour earlier than usual. My sleep pattern is such that it is pretty routine. It is rare for me to wake up more than half an hour before or after my usual wake up time, regardless of the time I go to bed. This is also partly an indication that for the past year or so, I have not really had to go anywhere on a regular basis in the morning. I have had to get up earlier to drive Sara to the train station once or twice a week for her commute to Boston. But I am digressing here...

Knowing that I had an earlier start than usual for this morning, I tried to set up things so that the morning routine would be easier. One of these was setting up the timer on the coffee machine so that coffee would be ready when I got up. When I went to wash the decanter, Sara was in the shower. Experience has told me, that it is not a pleasant experience for the showeree, if someone turns on the sink faucet. So I put off the washing of the decanter. And set up the rest: programmed the timer, filled the resevoir with water (from our water pitcher), ground the coffee beans and put them in the filter. Since Sara was still in the shower, I wandered off.

I have mentioned that I have been quite out of it since I turned in the draft, so it should come as no surprise that I never returned to the kitchen before I went to bed. This morning, after I got up, I noticed the dog was more eager than usual to make his way to the kitchen. As I approached the kitchen, I heard something dripping. Even before I saw the lake of coffee in the middle of the kitchen floor, it dawned on me what had happened. I had never gotten back to the kitchen to wash the decanter and place it in the coffee machine. The machine has one of those convenient plugs that lets you pour a cup of coffee while it is still brewing. It only works for a minute or so. Eventually the coffee backs up and oozes out of the top. This was, in fact, what it was doing, and a nice little brown stream was flowing across the counter, down the drawers, and onto the kitchen floor. I looked across the kitchen and there was the dirty decanter sitting by the sink. Rats!

I quickly washed it out, and placed it in the coffee machine. I guess I got it half way through the brewing, because I still got half a decanter of coffee. That was good because I needed some coffee while I cleaned up the mess on the counter and the floor.

The surprises were not over, however. At lunch time, when we went to get some chopsticks out of our silverware drawer, we noticed that there was a nice pool of tepid coffee inside. That was the extent of the damage. Enough for one day.

Sara was extatic that this happened. You ee, the same thing happened to her when we first met. Except that she set up the coffee in her morning stuppor (she is NOT a morning person), and forgot put the decanter in the machine and ended up with a coffee lake of her own. So one of the first gifts I got her was a coffee machine with a timer so she could set it up the night before when she was more awake (and her heart has been mine ever since). She claims that I tell everyone this story (which I don't think is true, although I am writing it here, so she is probably right) and now that it has happened to me, she thinks I will refrain from bringing it up.

Probably not.

By the way, while our dog likes a little bit of coffee in his dish and he loves to clean up spilled food on the kitchen floor, he did not seem all that interested in coffee lake. He was probably wondering what was keeping me from helping him complete his morning routine: go outside for his morning business and then get his breakfast.

Just thought about the date and put it together with this coffee incident. Well, if that's the worst thing than can happen, I will definitely take it.

Happy weekend everyone!