We join the single-cup craze

My mother loved my first husband, and I know for sure she would love the new one, too. How do I know? The answer may as well begin with our Keurig . . .

Roy's wish for a single-cup coffeemaker has popped up regularly during the 2 and a half years I've known him. His desire for the gadget was tempered by needing other things first (engagement and weddings rings, etc.), but I knew it was going to surface sometime. There would be a decisive conjunction of store display, shopper, and debit card -- and there was, just last week. What loosened his stern resolve to postpone the purchase was another conjunction, our birthdays, which are just 5 days apart in early February.

He came home from grocery shopping at BJ's with that eager-to-please, tentative yet hopeful look husbands have when they have bought something that might be rated out-of-turn by the family bookkeeper. In this case, it was a big, colorful box containing a Keurig.

We worked together to unbox and mantle the new machine.

Setting the clock.

The reason for buying it at BJ's was the array of coffee and tea samples included. Soon, he made his choice and popped in the first cup. Voila:

Testing, testing . . .

The verdict?

A smile.  M-m-m, good.

But what does this have to do with Roy and my mother, two friends who have not yet met?

Just this:  After the first euphoric cuppa, Roy had to admit that the drink, though tasty, had not been hot enough. He had had to nuke it to get it right.

My long-deceased mother never enjoyed coffee from her friends' coffeemakers, because no home machine ever got it hot enough to suit her taste. In fact, and this is where their future friendship may have to accommodate a difference, her ultimate home brew was water BOILED in a kettle on the stove, to which she added a teaspoon of (hold the groan, Roy and fellow brewed-lovers) INSTANT COFFEE.

I wonder if Roy will take the tepid Keurig back to BJ's. You might stay tuned to see if he also takes me back where he found me, for the same afternoon we set up the Keurig, he discovered my $3 single-cup coffeemaker on our shelf -- a jar of INSTANT DECAFFEINATED COFFEE.