September 15th, 2023

About 15 years ago I did something a little out of the ordinary.  I bought myself a set of mugs.   We already had cups/mugs whatever you would like to call them.  In fact we had plenty of them.  And all of them were either conventional or oversized.  Which is great if you have big hands and/or drink your hot drinks very quickly.  

Neither of those things applies to me.  I have small hands and I sip my drinks.  In fact I am so goldarned pokey about how slowly I drink that by the time I'm reaching the bottom third of whatever hot drink I am working on, it's not longer hot.  Sometimes it's barely tepid.  Bleh.  As far as the small hands thing goes, those oversized cups mean I have to use two hands to safely use them and that's just not efficient.  I don't know about you, but I'm almost always doing at least two things at a time which means I need at least one of my hands free of mug holdery.

One day I just got a wild hair and happened to see this set of six mugs/cups that were smaller, more delicately proportioned and I liked them well enough to fork over the dough to buy them.  Yay!  That's them in the picture above.  Purple, Orange, Green, Blue and Red!  Oh wait, that's only five mugs.  Didn't I say the set had six mugs?  Yes I did!  Oh dear.

Yup, sad to say, earlier this week I broke one of them.  Of course it was my favourite mug, the yellow one.  Ain't that always the way?

I'm not even sure how it happened?  It was in my hand and the suddenly it wasn't and when it smashed onto the granite counter top it shattered into, roughly, a zillion pieces of all different sizes.  

The pieces were of every size possible from the largest, above, to almost microscopic and they were everywhere.  It wasn't enough to smash the cup to smithereens, no, the pieces had to be well distributed too.  They were everywhere on the countertop including under (how did that happen?) the coffee maker, they were in the sink and the debris field stretched the full length of the kitchen from the utility room door to the table,  a few pieces even, somehow, made their way into the living room.  Sigh.

It took quick awhile, but only one cut, to get it all cleaned up. It's over now, nothing but a memory.  I won't bother to replace it, I mean there are 5 other cups in the set.  It's not as if I was cupless after all. But I really loved that yellow one. 

There was just something about the sunshiney yellow colour that was happy. It was a great way to start my day.  Back when I was working, this was the mug I took to the office and it lived on the right hand back corner of my desk.  Sometimes it held hot water, sometimes cold, once in awhile I drank soup out of it and with fair frequency it was pressed into service as an M&M bowl.  And it survived all those years at the Audiology office with nary a chip.  But in my own home...smash-ola! Dang!

I guess they are right, most accidents do take place in the home.  Who knew?

Well I'm going to miss it ;(   I tried to switch to the blue, orange or green cup but it just doesn't feel the same.  Takes time to adapt to a new routine. I'll get there but it won't be as sunshiney.

Hmmm I  see that I am using the words "mug" and "cup" interchangeably.  I wonder what the difference is between them, really.  I'm going to bet it has to do with the saucer.  Cup and saucer, not mug and saucer.  Let's find out:

• "A cup is smaller and more narrow, while a mug is taller and more wide.
• A cup has a handle on one side, while a mug has a handle on the top.
• A cup sometimes rests on a saucer, while a mug does not.
• A mug is designed to hold more liquid than a cup.
• Cups are often used for serving tea or coffee, while mugs are suitable for various hot and cold beverages."

So it turns out I am partly right...the saucer thing wasn't wrong....it just  wasn't the only defining characteristic.  So if I ever replace the broken yellow one, I will now know to look for a cup rather than a mug even though I don't need or want a saucer, the saucer part seems to be optional.  Interesting.  

Well there, we both learned a something today, the difference between a mug and a cup!  My Dad always said you should learn one new thing every day.  Looks like we  are done now and can stop learning immediately.  For today anyway.  We still have to learn the one new thing for tomorrow too.

Have a great day, with nothing broken and an even better weekend!

Hugs all 'round