This Is The End, Desktop Espresso, The End

The office is getting an espresso machine.

"You're up to something, Chartreuse Mug!"

This all started last week when the QA manager acquired a Nespresso machine for his office. Everyone flocked to his office to taste the fruits of those convenient little capsules. I had an allongé instead of my usual Starbucks VIA Xmas Bleuch and it was so much better. My espresso cup, though, seemed to know that something was up. It regarded my chartreuse mug suspiciously.

A day or so after the Nespresso arrived in the office, an email went out asking for suggestions for espresso machines.

And today we got word that a new espresso machine would be arriving fortwith.

This may be the end of my Desktop Espresso and the end of my barrista services to the office. No more will I share an afternoon espresso with the guy in the cube next to me.

Desktop Espresso and I go way back.  I received it as a gift from the guy who would later become my Spousal Unit.  He got it for me after I complained about the coffee in the café in our building at the University.  We were promised a Starbucks (not ideal), but what we got was a "We Proudly Serve Starbucks Coffee".  The nice ladies who manned the place had no idea how to make an espresso as this isn't a skill Sodexo teaches its employees.

Family Portrait, 2011

I left academia and started a job downtown, where there was plenty of good coffee.  But then I switched jobs and ended up in a business park in the 'burbs.  Our building had a cafeteria that was owned by a family of bitchy people.  The son was OK and when he was there he made a decent espresso, but his mother and father couldn't brew an espresso to save their lives.   After several months of enduring their barely-edible swill, I violated safety policies and brought in Desktop Espresso.  Soon I was brewing espresso for a group of about 10 people, including some of the nice folks on the Health and Safety Committee.

Then I changed to my current job and brought Desktop Espresso with me.  For the past year, Desktop Espresso has been providing tasty espresso for me and the guy in the cube next to mine.  Now it's all over.

This is the end.

...ride the snake...