Mugs

We have a set of 16-oz Anchor Hocking Cafe glass mugs that I love. They're appealing to the eye, they're huge, they're easy to wash, they don't stain, and they're fun to use because I've always liked the visual of adding milk to tea or coffee in a clear glass mug. (Given the popularity of glass mugs, I suspect I'm not alone in that last attribute.)

Over the years, our set of glass mugs has suffered a certain attrition rate. SOMEone who shall remain nameless (but it wasn't the cats nor I, hee hee) learned the hard way not to fill one with cold water, pour said cold water into teapot, boil water, and put boiling water into cold glass mug. (I think we were minus three mugs before I realized that was going on, but I digress.) Glass mugs making contact with the faucet while washing dishes don't tend to fare well, and we've both managed to nick one or two into unusability that way.

Anyway, last week I realized we were down to the last three mugs. I wasn't too happy with that prospect, so I looked them up online and placed an order with the place that had the best price.

The thing is, neither this place nor any other one that I found online sold mugs individually. You have to buy them in cases. I didn't really have a problem with that, since I liked the idea of having a fair supply of these mugs around.

So I told Mark that the mugs were ordered, and that if we couldn't fit them all in the cabinet, then we could store the extras in the basement as insurance against future mishaps.

He looked at me. "How many did you order, exactly?"

"Yeah."

"No, really, how many did you order?"

"Well, they only come in cases, so I sort of bought twelve mugs."

"TWELVE MUGS?"

"We DO use them, and we have gone through several over the years."

The order was already placed, so he just sighed.

Fast-forward to this afternoon. The knock at the door at 3 PM was UPS alerting me to a package on the doorstep.

When I brought the delivery in, I noticed two things. One, the box had slush on it and was thoroughly wet and two, there was an ominous tinkling noise reminiscent of bits of glass. I strongly suspected that either the delivery guy dropped it in snow or slush, or slipped while carrying it and it hit the ground.

I opened the box and started unwrapping mugs. Two of the twelve were broken. So I called the company from which I'd ordered the mugs.

They were very helpful, and since they don't ship individual mugs, they refunded me the price of the two broken mugs. Pretty square deal, all in all.

The remaining new mugs are returning to room temperature on the dining room table. They're ice-cold, so washing them in hot water right now would be a huge mistake. The two casualties are in the recycle bucket.

Doggoned force of gravity. Sometimes, it's more trouble than it's worth. ;)