damn you, french roast! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
Oct. 26th, 2004 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fearlesstempWhen last we left today's Totally Awesome Temp Moment, I was mid-sentence. To pick up the story: An attorney asked me to put together a coffee tray for him.
Defining Characteristics of Yours Truly:
-I am always late.
-I am very forgetful.
-I hate bringing people beverages at work.
Which is why though I smiled politely and said, "Of course!" in a chipper way, inwardly I was thinking mean thoughts full of expletives.
The coffeemaker in the kitchen is basically a Coffeemaker for Dummies, which is good because I'm quite dumb when it comes to coffee (as I am when it comes to higher math and poetry).
Complicated Coffee-Making Steps:
1. Pull out Thing Holding Filter and Grounds.
2. Dump out Thing Holding Filter and Grounds.
3. Put new filter and grounds (which are stored in convenient one-batch-bags) into Thing Holding Filter and Grounds.
4. Put Thing Holding Filter and Grounds back in its original location.
5. Press big orange button marked "BREW"
It's so easy. And I've totally mastered that part of the whole deal, so that the coffee itself was prepared to perfection. Not prepared to perfection? The carafe to hold it.
I will preface this by saying that this is TOTALLY not my fault, and in fact the fault of faulty labeling, to the point that if I could sue my coworkers or manufacturers for Embarrassment (the way one can tack on Pain and Suffering to lawsuits [which I do support]), I would be putting together paperwork right now.
Okay, so. The carafes are these tall cylindrical things with an indicator on the side showing how much coffee is left. One showed five cups, the other (marked Decaf) indicated it was bone-dry. I had a long lazy debate over whether I should just give the meeting people the five cups or go to the extraordinary trouble of making another batch (see details of proposed extraordinary trouble above).
And then I decided to go the extra mile and make them a new batch. Let this be a lesson to all of you: Never go the extra mile.
I switched the carafes, hit brew, and stepped back to start preparing the rest the tray. Halfway through the preparations (which involved, mainly, dumping some cream and sugar into a bowl and staring at the box of cookies in the middle of the table, wondering if they were the same cookies that were there last week, and if they were edible, and if they were edible, whether I should have one), I turned to see if enough coffee had been prepared for me to snag a cup, and saw COFFEE EVERYWHERE! OVERFLOWING! ON THE FLOOR! ALL OVER THE COUNTER!
COFFEE EVERYWHERE!
I realized immediately that the carafe had not been empty, and that the indicator was broken and either (a) it had just happened or (b)it has been broken for a while and no one had told me about it, which is unacceptable if I am going to be asked to make people beverages! Because an uninformed coffeemaker is a cofeemaker who ends up staring open-mouthed in horror at a volcano of French Roast in the office kitchen!
And then I went all Indiana Jones on the thing. Remember in Raiders of the Lost Ark, at the very beginning when he has to get the Random Priceless Artifact and switches it with a bag of coins? I felt very Harrison Ford today, standing there with a cheap paper coffee cup (company mugs are on order) and paper towels, preparing to put the cup under the flow while moving the overflowing carafe to a secure location, and then replacing it with the half-full carafe..
It was a totally excellent plan, except the part where the flow of the coffee was too powerful and sent the paper cup on its side, spraying cofee even more, creating a bigger mess. But it was a good plan!
The best part was spending five minutes wiping down everything, including parts of the floor, for renegade coffee. And then having to deliver the crap ten minutes later, to a group of people who were probably wondering what kind of idiot takes a half hour to make a pot of coffee.
Whatever! And now it's five, and I have to go, and I am posting without editing.
Defining Characteristics of Yours Truly:
-I am always late.
-I am very forgetful.
-I hate bringing people beverages at work.
Which is why though I smiled politely and said, "Of course!" in a chipper way, inwardly I was thinking mean thoughts full of expletives.
The coffeemaker in the kitchen is basically a Coffeemaker for Dummies, which is good because I'm quite dumb when it comes to coffee (as I am when it comes to higher math and poetry).
Complicated Coffee-Making Steps:
1. Pull out Thing Holding Filter and Grounds.
2. Dump out Thing Holding Filter and Grounds.
3. Put new filter and grounds (which are stored in convenient one-batch-bags) into Thing Holding Filter and Grounds.
4. Put Thing Holding Filter and Grounds back in its original location.
5. Press big orange button marked "BREW"
It's so easy. And I've totally mastered that part of the whole deal, so that the coffee itself was prepared to perfection. Not prepared to perfection? The carafe to hold it.
I will preface this by saying that this is TOTALLY not my fault, and in fact the fault of faulty labeling, to the point that if I could sue my coworkers or manufacturers for Embarrassment (the way one can tack on Pain and Suffering to lawsuits [which I do support]), I would be putting together paperwork right now.
Okay, so. The carafes are these tall cylindrical things with an indicator on the side showing how much coffee is left. One showed five cups, the other (marked Decaf) indicated it was bone-dry. I had a long lazy debate over whether I should just give the meeting people the five cups or go to the extraordinary trouble of making another batch (see details of proposed extraordinary trouble above).
And then I decided to go the extra mile and make them a new batch. Let this be a lesson to all of you: Never go the extra mile.
I switched the carafes, hit brew, and stepped back to start preparing the rest the tray. Halfway through the preparations (which involved, mainly, dumping some cream and sugar into a bowl and staring at the box of cookies in the middle of the table, wondering if they were the same cookies that were there last week, and if they were edible, and if they were edible, whether I should have one), I turned to see if enough coffee had been prepared for me to snag a cup, and saw COFFEE EVERYWHERE! OVERFLOWING! ON THE FLOOR! ALL OVER THE COUNTER!
COFFEE EVERYWHERE!
I realized immediately that the carafe had not been empty, and that the indicator was broken and either (a) it had just happened or (b)it has been broken for a while and no one had told me about it, which is unacceptable if I am going to be asked to make people beverages! Because an uninformed coffeemaker is a cofeemaker who ends up staring open-mouthed in horror at a volcano of French Roast in the office kitchen!
And then I went all Indiana Jones on the thing. Remember in Raiders of the Lost Ark, at the very beginning when he has to get the Random Priceless Artifact and switches it with a bag of coins? I felt very Harrison Ford today, standing there with a cheap paper coffee cup (company mugs are on order) and paper towels, preparing to put the cup under the flow while moving the overflowing carafe to a secure location, and then replacing it with the half-full carafe..
It was a totally excellent plan, except the part where the flow of the coffee was too powerful and sent the paper cup on its side, spraying cofee even more, creating a bigger mess. But it was a good plan!
The best part was spending five minutes wiping down everything, including parts of the floor, for renegade coffee. And then having to deliver the crap ten minutes later, to a group of people who were probably wondering what kind of idiot takes a half hour to make a pot of coffee.
Whatever! And now it's five, and I have to go, and I am posting without editing.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 02:29 pm (UTC)Remind me to tell you about the time I worked in a firm with a giagantor industrial copy machine and tried to change the toner. A hint: you really shouldn't pull the tape off the toner cartridge until after you've attached it to the right slot. We're talking the Mt. Vesuvius of toner incidents.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 03:58 pm (UTC)Our receptionist and baby associate put their heads together one day and decided that the new toner cartridge should go not in the recepticle that says TONER, but in the toner *waste* container, the one that says WASTE.
They had to make a funnel out of 11x17 paper to accomplish this. It took them a good half hour.
Of course it was out last toner cartridge for the biggest and fastest copy machine, and of course it was on the Friday before a weekend when the whole litigation department was on deck to do massive copying for a big deposition for Monday.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 12:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 06:24 pm (UTC)It's been three hours since I read this entry and I'm still giggling madly about it.
You know what I discovered today because of your entry? It's possible to have a hysterical fit of laughter and force a huge gulp of water down my throat at the same time. It did take throat muscle coordination and both hands covering my mouth (hard!) so I didn't spew the water out but I did it. ;)
You make the simple (ha!) task of making coffee sound so damn funny.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 12:33 pm (UTC)And thanks for the comment! I'm glad it made you laugh. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 08:16 pm (UTC)I have no clue how to make coffee. They looked at me like I was weird (and it's a new job, so they don't know that I AM weird yet), and then sent me to buy creamer instead.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-27 12:35 pm (UTC)Resist! Do not learn how to make coffee! That way lies indignity and annoyance! Buying creamer is much better.
Also, that's a great icon. Firefly!