You may have met my Mr. Coffee some time ago. He’s become an indispensable member of the family. But once we moved, my relationship with him became a bit… well, strained.

See, our new house has two floors and my office is upstairs. Kitchen, coffeemaker, and coffee supplies? All downstairs. And where do I actually drink most of my coffee? Yep, in my office. Upstairs.

No problem, right? I can carry a mug of coffee up a flight of stairs as well as the next person. The first day I went up to work after breakfast, I poured a fresh cup and did just that.

Now, I always start my day with some time in the Bible, so I set the mug on the side table next to my armchair, settled in, picked up my Bible and journal, opened the journal to the next blank page, found my place in my Bible, jotted down what passage I was reading… and took a sip of coffee.

It was barely warm.

Yeah, I know… talk about your “first-world problems,” but… what could have gone wrong?

I put my stuff on the side table and retraced my path to investigate, reheating the coffee in the microwave while I was downstairs.

See, the coffee station and microwave are along the front wall of the house. The bottom of the staircase is toward the back (14 steps). You climb the stairs (18 of them–and no running with a full cup of coffee in hand!), ending up at the front of the house again. Then hang a U-turn, walk through the game room toward the back of the house (17 steps), and–poof!–there’s my office.

Waaay less than a mile from the microwave. But still….

What to do? I considered putting a microwave upstairs, but it would overwhelm the tiny counter space in the game room.

One day I tried loading the coffeemaker, taking it upstairs, and making the coffee there. Not too bad, but then I had all the paraphernalia, plus my hot-cocoa mix and sweetener, to take back downstairs and clean up. I couldn’t see doing that every day.

The spittin’ image of Daddy Coffee…
only shaped more like a bagel.

Well, allow me to introduce my long-awaited solution: Mr. Coffee, Jr., the mug warmer!

This cute little guy plugs in (no batteries to deal with), has an “On” indicator light, and does a very credible job of warming the mug (thus living up to the term “mug warmer”). As long as I turn Junior on first, then go pour the coffee and preheat it to scalding in the microwave, and hustle upstairs without dawdling… I’m golden.

He seems very content and easygoing so far.

Knowing my history with appliances, though, I’m kind of dreading the day Junior hits the “terrible twos.”

Thanks for reading,
Jan