1/27/08

To make coffee or not to make coffee - that is the question

I love my coffee. However, over the past 5 years I have become, what I call, a coffee snob. I only drink it from certain places and it has to be done just right. It really isn't that hard, I drink iced coffee black from Dunkin Donuts. That's it, that's all.

I have run into some problems, however. Number one, different Dunkin Donuts can taste differently. Even my home shop tastes awful if the right people aren't working.

Number two, a large iced coffee a day costs me $2.69!! Nearly three dollars for coffee? Is that reasonable?

Number three, if I go to Dunkin Donuts with Andrew that means he needs to get something as well. The women from DDs have fallen in love with him. They buy him Christmas presents, take him on trips (or attempt, we tried to do the Mt. Washington this year in a rain storm) and come to his Christmas concerts! So, now we are running about $4 per day.

And lastly, if I go without my coffee I get a migraine to kill all migraines. Seriously, I end up on the couch crying, pulling my hair out (literally, did you know that pulling on your hair when you have a headache feels good and releases pressure). I suppose I could cut down slowly and deal with the migraines for a few days...but who wants a life without coffee?

For Christmas Kirby bought me two pounds of DDs coffee. I don't know why, I don't make coffee at home. But these past few weeks I decided it was time to start. Mind you, iced coffee can be tough to perfect. You can't just make a cup of coffee and pour it over ice - it doesn't work that way.

So, I've worked my best to perfect a cup of iced coffee at home. I have had coffee too strong and coffee not nearly strong enough. Since no one else in my house drinks coffee I have a small coffee maker. To make iced coffee you need to double the grounds and sometimes they spill over out of the paper and into my coffee...yuck!

Three weeks strong and I have figured it out! I am so proud. I can't remember the last time I had to go to DDs to buy my coffee. This saves me, at least, $21 each week! $21 is a half a tank of gas!

So why did I decide to blog about this? Why is this important enough to share it with all of you, my faithful readers?

Well, because the second I figured out how to make the perfect cup of iced coffee Andrew decided he likes to dump the pitcher into the bathroom sink. Meaning I lose my iced coffee and this is starting to make less sense economically.

Sometimes I believe that Andrew spends more time in the refrigerator than he does in bed. He takes bologna and cheese from the deli bags and takes bites - not bites from one slice he takes a bite from the entire pound, one single bite through every slice. He takes handfuls of peas (cooked and cold) and shoves them in his mouth, leaving stray peas along the floor. He drinks from the milk jug and runs through the house with strawberry jelly. And the worst of it? Lately he has started dumping my perfect iced coffee down the bathroom sink. Ugh!

We have tried everything. When me moved in the fridge was new and we switched the way the door opened - that worked for a few days - he was so confused. We have put locks on the fridge (he figured them out within two weeks - they were some of the best two weeks of my life). We have placed barricades in front of the fridge, we have threatened...nothing works.

Alas, I have figured out the perfect cup of coffee and I can't even enjoy it. I worry that it may be dumped within hours of making it...

So now I must decide if the $21 each week is worth my sanity...to make coffee or to not make coffee...that is the question.

4 comments:

Jessi said...

I know exactly what you mean. I am such a coffee snob. I will only drink it if Aaron makes it, or Starbucks (or should I say Star$)although if we go out to eat, and the occasional D&D... oh and at Borders, and Panera, and the Bagelshop... wait, I just plain old love coffee. Maybe I'm just a snob ;)

Doesn't matter what the cost. You need your coffee and that's that.

Crazy Momma said...

Exactly! I need my coffee...I guess I will just keep making it and HOPE it stays in the fridge...

Cheryl said...

Gotta have my coffee. Anytime anywhere. Drives my dh nuts...lol

Wendy said...

I quit coffee the first day I went without and got that headache you wrote about. And yes, hair pulling absolutely helps.

As for Andrew, what about getting a mini-fridge to put somewhere else, like in your closet?