with his great-grandfather and sister 1956

1968 Fort Dix

1974 (love the pants)

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I met my birthfather (and birthmother) when I was 20. In so many ways I was fortunate to find them at such a young age, the most important being that I knew three of my grandparents who all passed away by the time I was 25. I had a detailed account of the search and meeting on my old blog, which I still have and need to re-post here some day soon. In the beginning (and before I married and started having children) we were pretty close, in fact it was on a vacation with them in Florida that my older son was conceived. Things began to go down hill after that, and I haven't spoken to my birthfather in probably 6 years. My birthmother I do speak to a couple times a year but its very sporadic and I haven't seen her since the summer of 2003. What is even more odd is that a couple months ago she moved into the apartments right across the street from my condo, yet for some reason, neither of us make the call to see one another. It's a difficult situation.

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Ok now to something that really pisses me off. It's um 2006 right? Wouldn't you think that a company such as Mr. Coffee would make it a standard function on their machines to turn off after a reasonable period of time? Not with this piece of garbage....

Yesterday I forgot to turn it off as I was running out the door. I go in for 8AM. Sometime around 12 or so while sitting at my desk I remembered this and rushed home. The piece of crap was STILL on, the coffee boiled away and the pot about ready to shatter. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had waited until 4 when I got home.

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When I moved here my Gram gave me the most amazing Coffee Machine which had a very cool clock, timer, essentially every special feature you could imagine. Well a week ago I was making a pot and as I poured in the water, it emptied out the back and all over the counter. I unplugged it and then left it in the sink for a while. I tried again with the same result. I need coffee in the morning (and occasionally in the evening) and well I had little funds this past week (for a number of reasons, bill time, upcoming beach trip, etc) so I ran to Wallmart and picked up the beauty pictured above. It was like $18 and the cheapest model, which was fine for the moment.

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I just assumed it had the "power off after 2 hours" function every coffee maker I have ever owned had. Evidently not, I went online yesterday and it does not (which was further proven when I ran home yesterday). Wasn't there a problem with Mr.Coffee and self-combusting machines a few years ago? Evidently the law suits that occurred had no impact because the bastards still make a unit that will burn down your house/condo should you be in a rush and forget to turn it off. Now I'm paranoid and shut the damn thing off after it finishes brewing.

Ok end.of.rant.

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