While emptying the dishwasher this morning I was struck by our collection of coffee mugs. Not struck as in: “Wow what a beautiful selection of artistic dishware!”, but rather: “Damn, that’s an extremely weird mix!”. I’m not sure whether I’m proud, or a little disturbed about the comments we have made about ourselves in choosing and keeping this motley collection.

In our mug cupboard we have the standard collection of hot beverage containers with decorations ranging from the extremely straightforward to the eclectic to the bizarre. In addition, so far as we can recall, we have actually purchased only one of the close to 30 mugs.
When future archeologists sift through the strata that will have once been our kitchen a fairly clear picture of Margaret and Andrew will come forth. And so I wonder….. in the personal spaces that we call our homes, is there some other collection of objects that can, all at once, so well define the personalities, preferences, senses of humor, and political leanings of us as individuals?

So I’m setting up a (very) informal poll of you, the dedicated readers of UADN, regarding your dishware.
What mugs are in your mug cupboard?
How many, and which ones, did you actually purchase?
Which one(s) do you use most often? Why?

In the interests of full disclosure, our cupboard contains:
–two KUOW/Morning Edition mugs that were premiums for donations to our local NPR station
–one Kona mug (gift)
–one Kalapawai Market mug (purchased)
–one U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 mug (gift)
–one Dr. Science “I know more than you do” mug (gift)
–one Far Side mug (gift)
–one Stonehenge mug (gift)
–one molecular structure of caffeine mug (gift)
–one Valve Software mug (gift)
–one Oregon Shakespeare Festival mug (gift)
–one “I’m not deaf, I’m ignoring you” mug (gift)
–one “Teamwork, Attitude, Excellence” mug (a premium from my former employer)
–four blue glass mugs, two with snowflakes and two without (gifts)
–one two pint Mason Ball jar mug (adopted as a foundling when it was left in the kitchen of my unit room at Camp Sealth in 1987 I think)
–and, I believe, six insulated travel mugs of which three were NPR premiums and we’re not sure of the genesis of the other three.

But just looking at this list you can put together a pretty decent picture of us can’t you? Kind of a hard question to answer, actually, since the assumption is that the people that read this blog are ones that know us well.

I use the Mason Ball jar mug almost exclusively. I’m not sure why I use it outside of the fact that it fits my hand well (as do many others in the cupboard) and it holds a holy hell of a lot of tea. I’m not much of a dainty cup of tea drinker, I want my tea in good quantities. During the cold months of the year when my tea consumption doubles or more I tend to have one mug in the dining room, one in my study and if it’s very cold I’ll have a third in the bedroom. When I branch out I’ll use the blue glass mugs because they’re bigger than a standard mug.
Andrew tends to favor one or more of the insulated travel mugs, but will take fits of using the Kalapawai mug, the U.S.S. Enterprise mug and the Valve mug.

The world wants to know! (Okay, I want to know!)