what am i doing up so late again? it's 12:53am! i was supposed to go to sleep early; i got a flu shot yesterday, and i'm feeling a little bit under the weather.

here's the story, sad but true.

i went outside at approx. 11:40pm yesterday to move my car.i got home yesterday at about 4:00pm. i parked right outside my building and my tail was just a wee bit over the curb. since the car in front had NJ plates, i figured that he would move eventually and that i would move up to his spot. i went outside and there was that empty parking spot right in front of my car. feeling very lucky and smug, and saying a quick prayer to the parking goddess, i moved into my rightful spot.

i went back inside and went into the kitchen to take my medications. i noticed that John had started the dishwasher on a rinse cycle. i was drawn to my Cuisinart Grind and Brew. i looked under it's lid and saw that one of the removable pieces was still stuck under the lid.

suddenly, i was seized by a determination to get that piece off and properly rinsed in the dishwasher.

first, i tried to pry it off with my hands. no luck. then, i tried to pry it off with a knife. still no luck. then i turned the coffepot upside down and tried to pry it off. still no luck, and a dirty counter from old coffe grounds.

then i got the bright idea to run a cycle with hot water to try to steam it off. so, i poured the existing coffee in a thermos, poured ten cups of water into the water compartment, and turned the coffeepot on with the filter basket in the dishwasher, rinsing.

after cleaning up the seven cups of dirty brown water off of my counter, i decided that the coffemaker was dirty and it really needed to be cleaned with vinegar. so, i went down to the basement to get the vinegar, poured the three cups of brown water off of my coffeepot, ported the vinegar and some water in (i didn't have 10 cups of white vinegar), got the filter basket from the dishwasher and put in on the coffeepot, and ran another cycle.

i now had a clean coffeepot with a removable piece stuck under it's lid.

two knives later, i finally removed the removable piece. some brown nasty gunk had created a vacuum which kept the piece stuck to the coffeepot. i quickly put it in the diswasher, ran another rinse cycle, cleaned the gunk out of that area, and started another coffee cycle with clear water.

then i looked at the time. 12:37am.

31. i i ever say that i'm not obsessive, don't believe me.