Excerpted, dated 03-11-06

It's that stage in the morning wherein one approaches all complex systems warily. The world is blurry, confusingly not due to a lack of glasses. I'd been passing the coffee maker on my way to feed the cat and other basic tasks and shooting it looks. One of these days I'll start leaving it set so all I have to do is hit "on" and not worry about pouring and measuring and complicated early morning actions.

That said, I think maybe there is coffee now. (There is.)

This is what happens when I let Le Mai go home. I have to fend for myself, as opposed to painstakingly filling my mug with coffee and waiting impatiently for it to kick in and functionality to begin.