It’s Super Dirt Week here in Syracuse, and you know what that means. No? Well, neither do I. But it’s apparently a big deal, and it’s been going on for 39 years (based on all the Roman numerals they’ve got after the name). Something to do with stock cars going around in circles on a dirt track at the fairgrounds. Well, whatever it is, I think it means people will be coming here to spend money. And we need that money. Big time.

It’s also the first day of the Major League Baseball playoffs, from what I understand. I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to baseball, but was glad to see Boston will be watching the playoffs on TV. I’m pretty sick of Boston, whether it’s baseball or football (or basketball, for that matter; I’m still worked up over the rivalry we had with the Celtics back before I was born). My team, of course (to the extent that I have one), is Washington. Parent club to the Syracuse Chiefs, and last place team in the NL East (but not the worst record in baseball, which belongs to Pittsburgh). I always feel more comfortable rooting for a last place team. It just feels natural.

In other exciting news, we got a new coffee maker yesterday. We’d been using the trusty Mr Coffee with a thermal carafe that I’d gotten for my summer in exile in DC. The pot was fairly small, but I’d been limiting myself to one giant cup of coffee lately anyway (it was making me feel kinda crappy if I went over the one cup), so it was cool. Then Granny made a crappy little half pot one day, saying we’d been throwing out a lot of coffee. So, rather than make a half pot (I have the mix down for a full pot; a half pot doesn’t get it), I decided to up my caffeine intake a bit.

Surprisingly, two giant cups were no longer making me feel shitty (something about no longer drinking beer, I think – though you’d think it would have the opposite affect).

Anyhow, Now that I was drinking more coffee, we suddenly didn’t have enough. I guess it’s one thing to throw it away or make less, but if I drink it, then everybody wants more.

So, anyway, I bought the largest thermal carafe one I could get, and Granny took charge cleaning it and getting it ready for use – and she did a great job (much more than I’d have done; one time through with water only would have sufficed for me), other than setting it to Central Time (but I was up early enough to get it going before I took a shower, so that was OK).

Granny has an odd sort of way of measuring out the beans. Rather than putting all the beans in the measuring cup and then dumping the beans into the grinder, she kind puts some in, and then some more. Or something. Not sure what her technique is, but, what with us needing to get the bean proportions down (always a hassle with a new coffee maker), Granny made some high-grade, extra octane coffee this morning. So, I gotta go.

Big time.