Tag: weekendcoffeeshare

#WeekendCoffeeShare: Insane Idiosyncrasies Edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Stories3 Comments

coffee2

If we were having coffee, I’d be in a better mood than I am right now, because I’m not drinking coffee.  (Note that it is probably best to interpret this post less as whining and more as look what an idiot I am.  Calibrate your expectations accordingly.)

Our coffee maker took a shit a couple of weeks ago, developing a leak toward the base somewhere that necessitated its immediate replacement.  The new hotness was a more expensive & more technologically complicated edition.  It had a timer on it!  My wife was super happy, as you could set everything up before bed and have hot coffee already brewed when you get out of the shower in the morning.

Sounds great, right?  It also has an auto shutoff, meaning that there’s no more early-afternoon trips that feature one of us saying Did you shut the coffee maker off? because it automatically shuts itself off after some predetermined amount of time.  And for whatever reason I haven’t taken the time to figure out how the timer works and how it can be adjusted, which means that there have been several times since we got the new coffee maker where I’ve wanted coffee and not had any, because for some reason the idea of reheated coffee creeps me out.  Once that shit gets cold, it’s permanently undrinkable.

Note that I drink iced coffee every now and again.  If it’s cold on purpose, that’s fine.  If it’s cold because it got cold, it cannot be made hot again.

Yes.  I know.

That doesn’t make any sense at all.  I am aware of the problem and I have top people working on it.

I just wandered into the kitchen– yes, I know, it’s a quarter to twelve, shut up— ready for a hot cup of coffee only to be greeted with what was best lukewarm liquid that wouldn’t have been hot at all once I added milk to it.  Turning the pot back on or putting the cup in the microwave is existentially impossible, and making a new pot seems wasteful.  So no coffee for me this morning, again, because I’m too damn dumb/lazy to figure out how to extend that auto shutoff feature by another hour or two or, better, just disable it altogether.

I am not very bright, is what I’m saying here.  On the plus side, I discovered cold pizza in the fridge that I didn’t know was there, so the morning isn’t a complete loss.

How’re you?

#WeekendCoffeeShare: WTFNovember Edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Stories5 Comments

coffee2

If we were having coffee, I’d ask you how the election went.  Well, actually, I’d just look outside and see if the sky was raining fire, and check to see if I was wearing clothing or sackcloth, and that would answer the question for me.  Because apparently when I went to bed last night I slept for seven months.  It was gorgeous outside yesterday, or at least it was until the cold front blew through.  Now it’s 40 goddamn degrees outside.  I bought shorts this week and it’s 40 degrees outside.

Gotta love Indiana.

We– yes, we— have a bridal shower to attend in Illinois tomorrow, so we’re going to be out of touch all day.  I may post some fiction; I have a story in mind that I wrote in a single burst a couple of months ago and put aside thinking “try to sell this to someone.”   I never did, so I may as well give it to you guys.  Hopefully it’s warmer in Illinois; we’ll see.

Let’s see.  Anything else?  It’s been a pretty quiet week, actually, other than the job interview on Monday.  I’d kvetch about that some more but I already did it and I’m leery of jinxing myself at this point.  I should know in a few days.  We’ll worry about it after that.

Have you seen Captain America: Civil War yet?  If not, what the hell are you waiting for?  No more coffee for you until you’ve seen that movie.  It’s awesome.

Hmm.  Yeah.  That’s what I’ve got.  Let’s listen to Prince again for a while.  Let’s Go Crazy has been running through my head for a couple of days; there are worse ways to spend a cold Saturday morning than listening to good music.

#WeekendCoffeeShare: Words on Paper Edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Stories5 Comments

coffee2

If we were having coffee, I’d want to talk mostly about what you’ve been reading and watching lately.  I went to see Captain America: Civil War yesterday, and while I haven’t had time to review it yet the short version is “best Marvel movie yet,” which may already tell you everything you need to know.  I didn’t get to it yesterday because the afternoon turned out busier than I thought, but it’s coming, believe me.

What good books have you read lately?  I’ve mentioned this, but not a lot: I’m doing a project with my reading this year where I’m trying to limit my books by white men to 25% of the books I’m reading.  This has meant a lot of books by new authors, which means that competition is fierce as hell already for my top 10 list at the end of the year– because it turns out that when you say “I’ve never read anything by that person.  What’s their best book?” a lot, you read a hell of a lot of good books.  I’ve got some reviews to write there as well, most especially for Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, which is flat-out the best short story collection I’ve ever read.  I’m mostly a sci-fi/fantasy person, as I think almost all of you know, but I’ll read literally anything in English that gets a recommendation from people I like regardless of the genre.  So what’s good out there?

(I started Claudia Gray’s Bloodline last night.  Her Lost Stars ranks among the best Star Wars books I’ve ever read, so I’m super excited to get into this one.)

So, yeah.  What’s good out there?  I’m still unemployed, so I’ve got nothing but time right now.  Gimme some recommendations!

 

#Weekendcoffeeshare: companionship edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Stories1 Comment

weekend-coffee-share

If we were having coffee, it would be in near-silence, Prince playing in the background, enjoying this lovely spring Sunday morning.

Some days it’s okay not to talk too much.

#WeekendCoffeeShare: travel mug edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Stories6 Comments

newcoffee

If we were having coffee, I’d… yeah.  Coffee would probably be good, 1:30 in the afternoon be damned.  I’ve kinda got a headache.  Caffeine may well be helpful.

I slept in an empty house last night for the first time in over four and a half years; since the night after the boy was born, I think.  My wife is in Boston on bidness, and because she left so late last night the boy spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  So once I got home after dropping her off, I was alone in the house.  She’ll be back on Wednesday; this will be the first time I’ve been a single parent for more than a few hours at a time since the boy was born.  I’ve left home a bunch of times, but she doesn’t travel often.  I’m not griping– I’m a grown-ass man and I’m perfectly capable of taking care of my son for three whole days while my wife is gone– but it was still weird to be alone in the house last night.  I’ve officially survived the boy’s Spring Break, and have to manage to get him up and off to school on time tomorrow.  Now, that’s usually my job, so it’s not like it’s a new thing, but it’ll be interesting to see how much of a coma he’ll be in when I get him up at “go to school” time and not “Spring Break” time.

I might ask you if you’ve ever had jury duty before.  That’s on the agenda for Tuesday, and who knows how many days after that depending on when the trial is, whether I’m selected, and how long it goes.  I’ve gotten the letter before but I’ve never actually made it into the courtroom.  I’m actually looking forward to the opportunity since I’ve never done it before, but it could have had slightly better timing– in addition to my wife needing to be picked up on Wednesday, we’re having a new washer and dryer delivered, so I’m going to have to do some fancy footwork to schedule everything if I’m going to be in court all day without access to my phone.

Hoping to have some good news on the job front this week too.  I’ve applied for several positions in the last several days that are in the “You have no reason not to call me about this” category, so hopefully at least one or two of them will actually come through.  And that’s not counting the “work for the devil” job that I mentioned earlier this week, which I think I’m going to have to decline for a variety of reasons, some of which are better than others.  Hopefully it won’t turn out to be a mistake.  I’m tired of saying no to jobs; I know I’m not actually being a prima donna about what I do next but I’m starting to feel like one anyway.

But yeah.  More coffee; let’s make this headache go away.  How’re you?

#WeekendCoffeeShare: Spring Break Edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Stories7 Comments

coffee2

If– if— we were having coffee, I would be ever so glad to be having coffee with you.  So.  Very.  Glad.  Because, presumably, having a weekend cup of coffee would mean that I was out in public and having a Conversation with an Adult, which is a thing that has been incredibly rare lately.  Don’t get me wrong– I love my wife and my parents, but other than the three of them I think the last time I had a conversation with another grown-up who wasn’t some sort of employee at a place where I was buying something was last Saturday.  If I restrict it to specifically social settings, I might have to go back to C2E2, which was, what, two weeks ago?

In other news, I’ve survived the first week of my son’s Spring Break, and there’s another week to go, and then a four-day period where my wife is in Boston for work stuff and I don’t even have her around.  I’ve never been to Boston, and I’m insanely jealous.  If I’m still remotely human come April 13, I want some sort of award.  Also, I have jury duty on the 12th.  So … yeah.

Anyway.  Have you been watching Daredevil?  I’ve liked the second season a hell of a lot more than the first, mostly because replacing the show’s terrible rendition of the Kingpin with Elektra and the Punisher has been an impressive upgrade.  I won’t spoil anything just yet, but I am very much in the minority in that I think D’Onofrio’s portrayal of the Kingpin was/is awful, and the less of him around the better.  We’ve watched through to the final episode, which we’ll watch tonight, and then I somehow have to spend the next 24 hours avoiding Walking Dead spoilers until we can watch the finale of that Monday night.

I’m showing signs of finally moving out of the Lexapro haze, too, which is good; I’m currently about six days ahead on the A to Z Challenge, and I hope to get much farther ahead today.  It’s been about a month since I started taking it, which is supposedly about as long as you need to get used to the side effects.  I’m very ready to be done with being unmotivated and exhausted all the time, so that’s all sorts of good news.

So, yeah.  That’s me.  How’re you?

#WeekendCoffeeShare: COB edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Stories4 Comments

IMG_3266

If we were having coffee, I’d

SHUT UP AND GIVE ME COFFEE

We’d probably end up

SUGAR DAMMIT SUGAR TOO

And eventually the subject would probably turn to

MOAR GODDAMMIT JUST INJECT THE SHIT INTO MY VEINS FUCK A SYRINGE GET ME A BIC PEN AND A KNIFE

I mean, it’s neat that we

MILK WHAT THE FUCK IS MILK COFFEE IS BLACK I ONLY DRINK BLACK COFFEE NOW

And maybe it would be neat if we would

BLACK LIKE THE BONES OF THE EARTH I WANT THIS COFFEE TO CRAWL OUT OF THE CUP AND SLAP ME

And it’s really nice to see that you’re

I HAD BETTER BE ABLE TO SEE THROUGH TIME WHEN I’M DONE WITH THIS SHIT

I’m happy to announce that

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Let’s do this again next week; it was

1c96f3844

giphy copy

#Weekendcoffeeshare: Anniversary Edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Stories7 Comments

newcoffee

If we were having coffee…

Shit, what are we doing having coffee?  I’ve got packing to do!

This weekend (well, tonight, specifically) my lovely wife and I are celebrating our 8th year of marriage and our 2nd anniversary.  (Think about what year and month it is.)  We are generally homebodies and so we decided when we got married that, February already being crowded with other gifty holidays that we were ignoring, we were going to make our anniversary not a big thing other than every 4th year when the actual date of our marriage rolled around.  So today we’re dropping the boy off to spend the night at his grandparents’ for the first time and heading off for an insanely expensive meal and a night at a casino.

I don’t gamble.  This ought to be interesting.  I have perused the menu of the place where we’re having dinner, as the meal is far more significant to me than the gambling, and have discovered that there is a $120 steak on the menu.

I may not be able to pass up the opportunity to pay a hundred and twenty dollars for a chunk of cow.  And, conveniently, our tax refund showed up this morning.

But: point is, there’s a lot to be done before then, plus the actual driving, which isn’t obscenely far but the weather’s been crappy lately.  So let’s slurp the coffee down; I gotta bounce.  I’ll post a hotel room picture tonight, I promise.