I Am Such a Klutz

Oh, I can empathise with what you've said. I'm normally not bad, but everytime I go on holiday, I develop what my other half describes as 'dropsy' and I break all sorts of things.

On the other hand, the affliction means I have a sound medical condition that means I can politely say 'no' when asomeone asks me to hold their baby...

i was in a store around christmas and while putting something back on a shelf, it fell and broke an item on the shelf below, where there was a very clear sign that said, if you break it, you buy it. i very quietly slipped out of the shop and didn't say a word--now i can never go back in there again!

anyway, it's good to know your limitations, i think. keeps babies and porcelain items safer. ;-)

Tipping over a filing cabinet? Wow, that's impressive!!

As for the broken coffee pot, get all Buddhist on that shite and figure out what it's trying to tell you, which is: dump the coffee percolator for an old-fashioned, manual French press. Your coffee will taste SOOO much better!! Well, that's what happened to us when our coffee machine fritzed out...

why, thank you sir. it actually fell on me, and the second time it happened i had a very hard time getting it upright. my boss was in with a patient and besides that i wasn't going to call her for help since i'd just done the same thing a week before. thankfully she's very understanding about such things. re: the coffee pot--if it were mine, i would consider going that route, but alas, i had to replicate, not upgrade. :)

OK, OK - clearly if a filing cabinet tips over twice, it must be unsafe. Those things are easy to load so that they're top heavy. And, I personally can't tell you how many times I've smacked our coffee pot against the sink. Each time I do it, I marvel at its not breaking; I should probably be careful what I think.

As for the French press, I'm inclined to agree. My personal preference, though, is the "mochi pot" (not to be confused with the neti pot). Stove top espresso-like coffee essence in a tiny little cup. I drank a pot of mochi-pot coffee once before going for a physical, and my punishment was reporting back to the doctor in 3 months with a record of my blood pressure, taken weekly, to prove I was actually not going to explode. Mmm.... Mochi pot....

well, see, it only became unsafe after i opened both drawers at once and this thing on the bottom broke off that generally kept it from tipping. it is a piece of crap sauder-type filing cabinet, though, not a sturdy metal one, but it sure was heavy with all the files that are in it.

i am so freaking lazy when it comes to making my coffee. i don't even grind my own beans *i can hear the gasps of disbelief!* ;-) in my defense, i do try to buy "good" ground coffee.

WHAT?!? I have been grinding my beans since 1994. I am shocked, I tell you, shocked! You might be legally banned from traveling to Seattle, you know, not that it matters a whole lot.

You don't grind?? I can understand not bumping, but no grinding?? Sigh...

Get one of <a href="http://www.target.com/Mr-Coffee-Grinder-White/dp/B00 005OTXN/sr=1-1/qid=1202760454/ref=sr_1_1/602-3678834-2847024?ie=UTF8&index= target&field-original-keywords=coffeee%20grinder&rh=k%3Acoffee%20grinder&pa ge=1">these</a> immediately and stop this travesty!!

Oops... Does blog city not do html refs in comments?

wre--i have been informed by the coffee grinders assoc. of america that yes, indeed, i am banned from all travel to seattle unless and until i start grinding my beans!

fil--unfortunately, it does not accept html. i will follow the link and check it out the old-fashioned way. :)

After many such coffee pot and other glass-breakage incidents in our house, I came to a sudden, startling philosophical realization:

It is the nature of glass to break.

That epiphany instantly freed me from years of glass breaking guilt and anguish.

Here are the unavoidable facts of life about coffee machines:

- replacement pots are almost impossible to find - if you find one, it will always be at least twice as expensive as the original machine - other than small details (e.g. whether or not the coffee maker has a clock), there is no difference in quality between the cheapest and most expensive coffee makers. The only difference in the quality of coffee taste comes from the shape of filter (No.4 cones are best) - in all likelihood, the coffee machines with more bells and whistles have become cheaper since the last coffee machine was purchased - just like there's nothing like new car smell, there's nothing like new coffee maker taste. No matter how well you clean a coffee maker, oils and sediments build up that eventually make even high quality coffees taste like mediocre mud. THEREFORE If you break a coffee pot, you should always just buy a new machine and be done with it. The coffee will taste better and everyone will be happy for a little while to play with a new toy.

Trust me, I've been through this at least a dozen times.

wow, you're a bigger klutz than i am! j/k!! :) i found that out about replacement pots without a doubt. i ended up buying a new machine. but when my boss found out about it they all started teasing me and she told me to bring in the receipt and that she would reimburse me. turns out they've all broken things at work--this was actually pretty minor! so i feel much better now. :) the only glass thing i've ever broken that i still regret was a one of a kind antique lead crystal candleholder--i did that when i was cleaning it, too. i think the real lesson to be learned here is never clean glass items!

I haven't yet broken anything irreplaceable, but I live in fear of doing so. As you know, I'm big into Batman collectibles. I have a complete set of Burger King Batman Forever glass coffee mugs that are beautiful, artistically crafted objects, made in France no less. I use them because I think it would be a travesty to keep them in a box but, every time I use them, I think "dear lord, what would I ever do if one of these broke?"

The lesson there, I suppose, is never own anything you can't live without, because things always break eventually.

Our aluminum mocha pot espresso maker could stop a bullet, I think - the espresso could surely stop your heart.

I'm with Mentok on using the good stuff, though - why have it othewise? My grandmother uses her china and silver to serve hot dogs to her great grandchildren.

you're both right. i think we could get all buddhist here and talk about attachment and all that, but maybe lyle should write a post about it instead. :)

Is that like "Don't make me get all Buddhist on your ass"? Probably involves incense, not coffee. ;)

Quiet, please. I'm meditating on the nature of coffee pots so as to develop compassion for their fragile frangibility...

frankly, i'd kind of like to see wre get all buddhist on fil's ass! lol!!