Random Recordings of Mental Meanderings

I bought a Cuisinart Grind and Brew™ 10-Cup Automatic Coffeemaker. It’s a nice coffeemaker. It makes the coffee piping hot, grinds the coffee fresh, and a pot lasts me a day. I like it. Last Sunday, however, I was washing it, and as I was rinsing out the carafe it hit a coffee mug handle and it got a crack in it right near the bottom. So, I had to toss it in the garbage. I embarked on a trip this morning to get a new one. What an adventure that turned out to be.

First, I stopped at Walgreen’s, since it is on the way and sometimes they stock silly things like carafes. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any carafes of any kind. They did have a coffeemaker for twenty bucks, though, but I did not want to replace my perfectly good coffeemaker. So, I moved on to the Boulevard Mall.

When I got to the mall, I went to Sears, as that was the store that I bought the coffeemaker at. I figured that would be a logical place to start. No dice. I was asked if I wanted to buy a new coffeemaker when I asked if they had any carafes, and politely explained that no, I just needed a new carafe because the coffeemaker I have is perfectly good, and the carafe just cracked and had to be discarded. I left for other environs.

I then went to (soon to be Macy’s) Kaufman’s. There, some kid was watching cartoons on six TVs turned up very loud, but again, I could not find any carafes for my coffeemaker. I didn’t stick around too long, as the TVs were just way too annoying. Cartoons with fish should not have explosions in them, anyway, and you shouldn’t feel the sound of a TV in the floor of a store some 75 feet from the TV set in question.

The next stop was JCPenney’s. First of all, this store is just too small for the amount of products it had in it. Not only that, it was very confusing trying to navigate the upstairs to find the cooking section. There, I found that they also did not stock carafes for my coffeemaker. I was rapidly becoming aggravated.

So here I am in the mall, a bit peeved, carafe-less, and hungry. I decided to go to the food court, where it was a choice between bad food and worse food. I got some kung pao and sweet and sour chicken on a 2-entree platter from Panda Express. I ordered a medium Dr. Pepper, and the freaking thing was a 32 oz. cup. It was more food than I wanted, and more soda than I have drank in the last month. Although the food was bad, I ate most of it, but I tossed half of the soda because I couldn’t drink it all.

The next stop was Wegman’s, simply because it was near the mall. No dice. Just lots of people shopping at a time when I hate going into grocery stores. One o’clock on a rainy Saturday afternoon is not a good time to be in a grocery store.

So then I get on my way to Bed, Bath and Beyond because I figure that if anyone would have it, they would. While I was on my way, a buddy called, and we were talking about a lot of different things. He checked on ebay for me to see if he could find something. Including shipping and handling, there was nothing under twenty bucks, as far as he could tell, anyway. I couldn’t remember the model number for the carafe, I just knew what it looked like and the size.

As an aside, there was this extremely fat, smelly, unshaven, pimply bubblehead who was eavesdropping on what I was saying to my buddy while I talked on my cell. I’m not one of those loud talkers, not by a long shot, but this corpulent piece of rotting whalemeat kept trying to get in on my conversation. The only thing more annoying than someone who is talking way the fuck too loud on their cellphone is someone I do not know and do not care to know trying to interject themselves into MY conversation. After I got off the cell, I said to him, “Hey Buddy, do I know you?” He said, “No . . .” to which I replied, “KEEP IT THAT WAY AND DON’T NOSE IN ON MY LIFE.” Fucking meddling, adipose, snotfaced pud-puncher.

So I get to Bed, Bath and Beyond, and they do have Cuisinart Carafes, but the wrong models. They didn’t even have the kind of coffemaker that I own. I jetted out quickly and stopped at Tops for a last-gasp try to see if I could get one there. After all, stranger things have happened. It was to no avail because they didn’t have one, either.

So after two hours of mall and bigbox store-hopping, I was right back where I started. Seven stores and not one of them had my carafe in stock. I was aggravated because instead of going to the farmer’s market, I wasted the morning and early afternoon looking for something I wasn’t going to find.

I stopped off at the Chinese spot on Main Street downtown, the one with the cute chick behind the counter. I like it there, not just because she’s cute, but because they have great Chinese food there. Wonton soup, Crab Rangoon, Singapore Mei Fun and some small talk, and I was on my way. I don’t know what it is about wonton soup, but it always makes me feel better if I am in a shitty mood or hung over or whatever. The Singapore Mei Fun was very spicy. Really really really spicy. Lots of curry. But then, that’s why I like it. The Crab Rangoon was an excellent appetizer, as usual.

Ultimately, I went online to see if I could find a carafe. I went to Cuisinart’s website, and they still sell them, at $18 a pop plus shipping. On ebay, I found two, one for $14.99 plus shipping, and another for $15 with no immediate info on shipping. THe calculator gave $7.40 plus 1.35 insurance. At Cooking.com, it’s $24 plus shipping, at DoItYourself.com, it’s $18.60 plus, Amazon $15.00 with free shipping if the order is over $25, NY Living $17.99, KitchenUniverse.net $16.95, and TotalVac.com $17.95.

So I made coffee in the carafe I saved from an old Mr. Coffee maker that died, even though it didn’t exactly fit. I’m thinking Amazon.com will be the best deal, especially if I can get away with free shipping. Maybe I can get a couple of books on sausage making. Now there’s an idea. . . this might not turn out to be a bad day after all.