NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

No no no no no no no no no no....!!!!!!!

That's what I said this morning while I was making my coffee. I've been an

at-home-espresso-freak now for at least fifteen years...if not more. Since 1995 I've had two of these little Krups machines, they make great coffee - no fancy shmancy yuppie gadgets for me. Good coffee is about the right beans roasted the right way and ground fresh - the right way, these facts are not negotiable for me. I buy my beans in small quantities and keep them in the fridge. Sound obsessive? Probably...I'll own that. But I make a mighty fine cuppa and have fellow java lovers who will back that up. I like making a good strong brew for the folks that enjoy it, I love watching them grab the big mug with both hands and say, "oh ho ho ho...that's gooooood". That ranks high on "stuff I dig list".

Soooooo.....this morning when I was really sleepy/groggy/foggy ....that's another story, let's just say that the doggie that is visiting is a little sore today and won't ever be procreating. Anywhooo......every day when I make my coffee I put the perfect amount of water in the machine and due to the fact that I was not working with all of my faculties, I doubled up on the water....whoops. I went to dump the water out and start over again and yiiiiikes....spare parts came out of the reservoir. Those little parts you can see on the counter in the photo above, there's a spring thingy, a couple of washers and a little metal plug looking thing. Acckkkkkkk! No way! Please, NO! Not today! Ok...any day would have been bad, this would be a bad bad thing even on the most sunny perfect all-is-right-with-the-world kind of day.

My first thought was "there is no stinkin'way I'm driving to Starbucks"...that's not something I ever do in my own town, if I'm in another town I'll hit a "Bucks" but it never tastes as good as my own stuff..... although I do use their beans these days.

Well...since I didn't see any other options I filled the reservior and loaded the grounds, tamped them down, crossed my fingers and hit the "on" button". I got my triple shot out of the deal but something was definitely missing, there just wasn't the depth of flavor that I demand.

This situation must be addressed immediately. The only solution I can see is that when "The Husband" comes home from his meeting today I'll leave the doggie with him and drive the ten-plus miles it's going to take to locate a decent espresso machine.

Yuk, I hate to shop, yuk yuk yuk. Hmmm....maybe I'll buy one of those fancy shmancy machines. Ya right.

Hey...I just might.