Double Entendre Mug

One of the developers who used to be in my org chain (I hate saying that - let's say one of the developers I used to work with) and really liked left me this mug when he took off to Amazon.  It's a good size and, with an office and satellite cube closer to my team, I left it in the cube so I have a coffee cup in each location.  It wasn't until last week, probably while zoning from being less caffeinated since December 1, that I realized the decoration along the bottom is a bit dubious.  I'm not saying it's decorated with erect phalli and testes, the other side looks a little more noses with mustaches, but it would be hard not to see it once someone pointed it out to you.

This hasn't stopped me from using it.  I'm perfectly comfortable being the manager with the Tardis mug and that weird phallus mug.  It's not the most controversial manager characteristic I'm aware of over the last 17 years.

You Can't Take This Mug From Me

That's what I thought about putting on this mug.  But I went with the tried and true.  My art skills leave a bit to be desired, but you can tell it's Serenity without too much imagination.  I was helping Stephanie at work with a product issue at her machine and noticed her wallpaper was Serenity.  I also noticed that she had one of the many second-hand mugs I had distributed around the company, which was peculiar because I hadn't left her one during my primary mug-dispersal period.  I asked her about it and she didn't know where it had come from, which led me to posit that one of the other product owners had moved it to Stephanie's office during an office cleaning.  No one should have a second-hand, second-hand, second-hand, second-hand (I think there's actually one more in there) mug.  So I bought some Pebeo porcelain chalkboard black ink off Amazon, painted up a mug from a local training company, leaving enough of the lip unpainted to allow chalk-free drinking, and after 24 hours of paint drying baked her a mug at 300 degrees for 35 minutes.

Honestly, even I felt a little geeky walking around with this thing at work and riding the elevator, but in part because I wasn't going to drink out of it myself.  You have to own your geek mugs, and this one wasn't mine to own.

I gave Stephanie the warning about not using the chalk nubs I left her on the mug while it was hot, and that it could be safely wiped down, but that it tended to leave chalk on one's hands and clothes, which might not be safe for work.

There's enough paint for another mug, and Eryn is certain she gets to make the next one.

Father's Day

I had a great Father's Day.  Most of it was spent reading.  But the family got me out to dinner with my sister's family (she's freshly back from Grandma's Marathon in Duluth) and my folks at Christo's in Minneapolis.  I was hoping to see the revamped St. Paul Christo's at the depot, but that will just have to wait for next time, as long as next time isn't on a Sunday.

My wife and daughter gave me two gifts for Father's Day.  I had a hand in giving them a rather detailed list of things I wanted, most of them related to bicycling and science fiction, but they did pick their preferred items.

My new coffee cup!  Keep Calm and Ride On!


My new iPhone case.  Not as bullet proof as that monstrous thing I had before, but I like the smaller case, and the fact that it looks like the Tardis is definitely a benefit.  I can store more inside the phone than on the outside.

Caffeine in the Hat

I haven't posted for a week because I've been on family vacation. We took Eryn down to Orlando, Florida, as she's been asking to go to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios for a year now and Halloween seemed like the perfect time. We had a great trip. I didn't bring back much in the way of touristy swag. Only one item if you don't include the autographed picture of an astronaut I had signed for a coworker who used to work for NASA. Here is my Cat in the Hat (tm) coffee cup for work so that I can switch between it and my Dr. Who Tardis mug. I'm dangerously close to being "the manager with all the stupid coffee cups."