It's all about the coffee, isn't it?

Even though I'm basically the only coffee drinker in our family I always make, at minimum, an eight-cup pot of coffee each morning. I do this for several reasons - such as I always seem to misplace my coffee cup or else I know where it is but it's too cold to drink. I have no qualms about microwaving my coffee to warm it up - but you can only microwave the same coffee so many times before it starts to get bitter. Trust me, I've done it. Repeatedly.

Most of my "stop over during the day friends" are big coffee drinkers too - so it pays to always keep the coffee on. But along with the moniker of "big coffee drinker" comes "picky coffee drinker" and trust me, my coffee is not anything to write home about. I can, at times, make an excellent cup - one that is strong and smooth and makes my day. Other days, well, let's just say, "Not so much."

I don't know what it is. I try to make it the same way every day. I've experimented with tap water, with filtered water and with all different kinds of coffee. But it just doesn't work. The first cup doesn't really matter to me - I think just about anything would taste good to me at that point. But by the time friends come over I'm way past that first cup, as are they.

Luckily for me I spent a few days in Cando over New Year's Eve and discovered the perfect solution had been under my nose hiding in Katie's Lazy Susan for the past few years. On each of the three mornings I was there I created my very own latte with her pot and frother from Williams Sonoma. But it wasn't until I took the kids to Kim and Pat's for coffee that I saw a single cup pod/K-cup setup could be useful. I always thought that the best way to serve company was via the pot - but I was oh-so-wrong. The coffee from her Keurig machine was perfectly perfect. And then again, the next day, at Heather and Paul's house - my cup of joe made from a Hazelnut K-cup was fabulous.

But still, I wasn't convinced. Wouldn't it be more expensive to only buy the K-cups? Did they have some of my favorite blends - such as Green Mountain Breakfast Blend? And what about when people brought me coffee for a gift - what would I do with those beans anyway? Heather, and the good people at Keurig, had the perfect solution: a filter assembly called, My K-Cup, where you put in your own freshly ground coffee.

So I'm converted - and I just got notice this afternoon that my very own Keurig coffee pot has been shipped. I'm sure you'll all be able to hear my shout of triumph in the wee hours of the morning sometime later this week... keep your ears open wide.