It hope the tech award of the morning goes to me

I heard the coffee grinder go off at 7:30 am, right when debgeisler told me she'd set it. Came downstairs 11 minutes later and poured myself a cup of very dry coffee. AKA air.


Hmmm. Hadn't really noticed, but I thought there'd been a light on when I removed the insulated carafe. No light when I put in back. It's a high-tech coffee maker, one I haven't used before except to pour coffee from. I push the "On" button. The grinder starts up. I hit "Off" -- I know it already ground the coffee. I pushed a likely button on the side; out popped the filter basket. It was full of warm, freshly ground coffee. Dry coffee.

It took a few moments longer to push the button on top correctly, so the water hatch opened. Empty, as I expected. Fill carafe, pour into likely receptacle, replace top...peer at it a bunch to figure out how the coffee gets in. Look at buttons on front -- push "Grind Off." Then push "On."

A few moments later, I am rewarded with the sound of water gurgling through the innards of the machine. Deb emerges from her and Mike's bedroom a few moments after that. Soon we are drinking coffee, doing the morning thing, and getting ready to go to Gloucester in time for the day's whale watch expedition.

Tech before coffee...sometimes that trick works. Like today.

(no subject)

Went on my first whale watch today. Watched whales. Watches whales eat. Watched two whales fluking. Felt whale's breath on face. Listened to whales breathing. Took most of 100 pictures; I'm pleased with the results given the limitations of my camera. Enjoyed being out to sea.

While adventuring through one corn maze may well have been sufficient for this lifetime, a single whale watch clearly isn't...even though we saw far more than a single whale. At least four humpbacks, and maybe five, plus one minke. And one of the humpbacks was right there! As in, look straight down off the back port side. There! At a time when there were only four or five of us standing at the back of the boat.

Saw the Hood dairy blimp as we were heading back to shore. It was bigger than the whales, but not nearly as close.