RIP Coffee Maker

Sure, I knew this day was coming. I’ve been mentally preparing myself for it, while simultaneously ignoring the signs: the gasping sounds, the slow drip, the tinny taste. My coffee maker has been dying a slow, painful death and I’ve been turning a blind eye.

But now the day has come. It died honorably – simple refusing to brew another cup. And now I’m I’m forced to acknowledge the loss and move on.

My coffeemaker has been my morning pal for approximately five years. She helped me stumble to morning undergraduate classes at my Maine college. She was how I survived riding the B line (and all those BU students) on my way to graduate school, my part-time retail job in Fanueil Hall, my other part-time job at a South End non-profit, and all the other freelance/temporary/desperate jobs I held while living in Boston. She’s traveled with me to apartments in Beverly, Gloucester and Newburyport.

But now I’m at a loss. All my attempts to find a coffee maker have failed. When did Keurig become the only option for coffee? Why do people need to buy their coffee in little pods? Why doesn’t anyone make/carry a good, solid coffee maker with an enclosed brewing system that features a gentle keep-warm feature? (Yes, I’m picky). I don’t want conventional glass carafes, individual cup brewing, or any of this other stuff that Bed, Bath & Beyond is stocked to the ceiling with.

I guess I’ll scour the internet, keep my eyes open at my downtown shops, and ask friends for their advice. And until I find a respectable new coffee maker? Back to the good old French Press.

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S0 2011 was not my favorite year. I don’t know how it treated you, but it kicked my family’s collective ass.

It seemed that we were constantly being barraged with health issues, losses, unexpected disappointments, and plenty of other hurdles that Mother Nature felt she could toss at us.

Sure, there were highlights. The Stranded Dog scored a sweet new job. He also proposed to me (Yes, I said yes). Other friends moved back to New England, got engaged, tackled overwhelming physical challenges,  bought gorgeous houses, and more. I ran my first 5K, discovered standup paddling, and landed a beautiful apartment on the water in a coastal town.

But sometimes, you just cant help feeling like the bad overshadowed the good.

Not in 2012.

So I’m taking this opportunity to wave goodbye to 2011 (with just my middle finger, mind you) and I’m looking 2012 straight in the eye and saying, “Bring It On.”

PEM exhibit features ancient human footpaths and dinosaur tracks

“‘All pictures have an aesthetic quality, but that’s not enough,’ says photographer Mark Ruwedel.

Ruwedel is more interested in reading the landscape like an historical text, capturing the rhythmic stories of the land. His new Peabody Essex Museum show Imprints: Photographs by Mark Ruwedel is a collection of 41 images of dinosaur tracks and ancient human footpaths in the American West.”

…read more here.