Thursday, April 26, 2007

A tale of loss and redemption






Ok, so I have a teamaker, that my dear dear friend Dori demanded that I get. I think her exact words were "time to get into the 21st century Ger!!" It's not a fancy shmancy thing, but I love it. I use it daily, or even twice daily. It's a part of my daily happy dance. Really, only tea lovers know what a fabulous thing this might be.

After months of use, it's glugged up. It's steeping badly...making 16 oz of tea with 28 oz of water. The rest just disappears...sad but true. It's dripping...not brewing. Literally. drip.drip. drip. That poor baby is working so hard, but so inefficiently. All for me...my happiness...my little cup of sunshine. Yep. There's mutual loyalty here.

So, off to MOPS I go, inquiring of the all knowing coffee women how to clean a brewer; it's gotta be the same as a coffemaker, right? Essentially? The answer comes from on high, from the ladies hovered near the coffee table. Clean it with vinegar and then run water through it a few more times to clean out the vinegar smell.

So, I do it. I use my last vinegar to clean it. No use. Run water through...maybe the vinegar needs to be rinsed out...well, 6 pots of steaming water later, all of my cupboards are steam cleaned on that side of the kitchen, but still no efficiency regained. Sigh. Waiting for the Calvary to come home, sporting a blue mechanic uniform.

I'm totally sick to my stomach from what I'm sure is my last trip to Shanghai Bistro. My body just isn't used to high fat food anymore. It is revolting against my beloved Portillo's, Shanghai and even Burrito king. Sigh...now you are probably thinking I'm off point, but OH NO SISTA!! I am not.. It's all on point...here's why!!

As Paul was leaving for P. Rick's class (doggone it!! Another goodie I missed!!), he says "is there anything I can do?" and my response is: either fix my tea maker or get me a new one by morning.

Well, that's all it takes for him...He comes home, tears into it: takes it apart in ways I never imagined. He blows out the tubes. He checks the connection inside. He cleans out each filter. After each step, he rebrews water. Now my entire kitchen has been steam cleaned. But still, not more than a drip at a time is coughed forth from the beloved machine. I'm thinking...this is it. It's death is imminent.

Then Paul finds a pull out 2nd filter. It's DISGUSTINGLY CLOGGED UP....uh, Houston I think I found the problem...and so he scrapes it out (I TOLD you it was disgusting) and blows it out and rinses it.

Lo and behold, there my little teamaker that could can once again!! Sometimes it's the littlest things that clog up the machine. This piece was about an inch square. But it stopped the whole darn thing. So keep that in mind...do not let little things clog up your happymaking machines. Don't let a little sludge slow you to a drip when you could be steaming and producing yummy things!! Keep your mind and your filter clean...and come over for a cuppa tea!!

Good new Meliss...I was thinking I"d have to take back my teavana thing...but UP saved the day again...as he put it: It's the thrill of the fix. He for doing it and me for getting me TEA!!!

3 comments:

~Lana B.~ said...

Yay!!! Well at least if the vinegar didn't fix your main clog, it steam cleaned your kitchen for ya (and probably cleaned out the insides of all the other "pipe works" as well)!!!! That puppy should be good as new! LOL
So, when are we having tea? ;)
~Lana~

Coffee_Cassie said...

YAY DAD... that would be an exclamation point if our keyboard was freakin fixed. chris was home all day yesterday with nothing to do, and it's still broken. glad dad could fix your teamaker. i know how i get when my coffee maker makes a mess instead of coffee, so i completely sympathize.

Unknown said...

LOL!!! SUCH A FUNNY BLOG!! I was reading this with like bated (sp) breath. I was soo worried for the poor little machine. I really don't think people understand how much you really love that thing. And how you really were in the stone age w/ the whistle blower one you had before. I was laughing out loud at work today as I read this though. You are just so funny. Glad UP could save the day, and lord knows if he can battle that "snake" in the basement, a little sludge in a tea maker is NOTHING he can't take down. And your always complaining about how gross your cabinets are and get dirty, so the steam clean was probably an amazing thing!!! Love you loads!