Hey, Wife! Leave my routine alone!

Every morning, I stumble out of bed, pour myself a huge mug (we bought in Joseph, Ore) of coffee, and go down to my office.

I turn up the heat, wrap myself in a cosy blanket, and lean back in my chair, and turn on the computer.

I check the headlines, then some local blogs, then my business oriented blogs, and then the economic blogs (not the same as business), and so on.

Every morning, my cat or my Linda barge into my office at least once each, meow at me or kiss me on the forehead. (Yes, the wife will meow if Panga is in the room, and Panga more like licks the end of my nose -- but same thing. I know, I know, ewww...I swore I'd never treat my cat like kid, but...there it is...)

Thing is, they really Barge into the room, throwing open the door.

Then they leave the room, leaving the door wide open, which kicks the heater into high gear.

Every morning.

They are doing it on purpose.

Anyway, the point of this, is that I love my routines. I don't like change. I was at my sister Tina's the other night, and she was talking about how she likes change, revels in change, change doesn't bother her a bit.

Well, not me.

At home, at least, I'd rather nothing ever changes. And Linda insists on making changes -- she calls them 'improvements'.... Like getting new headboards for our beds a few days ago. I've been banging my head against them ever since, stubbing my toe against the foot of the bed every since.

Hey, I was perfectly content with the old simple bed.

Meanwhile, Linda also goes on these cost savings benders -- buying house brands from the grocery stores. Some things should never be bought as a house brand; mayonnaise, Parmesan, and coffee.

Oh, quite definitely coffee.

Once a quarter, Linda will buy some slop. I mean, it's black like coffee, it has caffeine in it, but other than that...

After a day or two, I'll turn to her and say, "Did you change the coffee?" Or even more ironically, she'll turn to me and say, "This coffee really tastes bad."

Costco is a great company. But I never like the Kirkland brand. The last block of Kirkland cheese was completely tasteless, and we never finished it. (Cheese doesn't last in our house, either....) My stomach has a violent reaction to MSG, but it hasn't been a problem for the last 10 years or so, except some fish sticks from Kirkland. I mean, who still put MSG in foods?

So this last batch of coffee is Kirkland, and it sucks....