This is the first cup from my new coffee maker. The old coffee maker dripped coffee when the decanter wasn’t in place, and I decided to spend part of my Target gift card on a new, cleaner machine. This first pot isn’t as strong as I would like, but perhaps in time the coffee maker will get worn in, not unlike how burgers taste better from older grills instead of new ones.

I have not yet started work on my manuscripts. I spent the afternoon watching the coverage of Congresswoman Gifford’s shooting. (Is it too soon to call it an assassination attempt?) A few thoughts about the coverage:

1. Not one of the big three networks interrupted their coverage of sporting events to report on the shooting. To use the vernacular of my students, that was a total fail. One of our elected federal servants was tragically attacked today, but decisions were made not to interrupt the football and basketball broadcasts. Unacceptable.

2. Since I couldn’t get coverage from the TV networks, I checked cnn.com, msnbc.com, and foxnews.com for updates. I clicked between all three to see if the pages would reload with new information, and kept getting discouraged when they would not update fast enough. All three of those sites failed in comparison to huffingpost.com’s live blog. I hope we don’t have another national tragedy anytime soon, but if we do my first stop online will be to The Huffington Post.

3. NPR reported Congresswoman Gifford’s death during the 2:00 ET news break. It seems they got that information from the sheriff’s office. (CNN, msnbc.com, and Reuters also reported her death shortly thereafter.) Typically, the sheriff’s office is a solid source for information in crime stories, so it was not unacceptable to run with that information. Still, I am curious if NPR will modify its standards for reporting the deaths of political figures.

When I worked for CNN in the late 1990s, we had a list of prominent persons whose deaths were basically imminent, such as President Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, Billy Graham and Pope John Paul II. There were specific instructions laid out for the producers on who to verify for the deaths of each person. For instance, there was a particular office or representative from The Vatican who had to be contact to affirm that the Pope had died, and a specific representative from either President Reagan or Nancy Reagan’s staff who would verify his death. If those persons had not verified the death, despite rumors to the contrary, CNN would not report that they had died.

I have to be careful when I have a day of leisure that I don’t waste it sleeping. I have an opportunity to get some research completed this afternoon, but my body is telling me a nap would do me good. But my body is wrong: what would do me good is to review research into sacred spaces and consumption.

I’m pretty sure I’m one of those “elites” that conservatives rail against. This morning I’m drinking two cups of coffee, watching the snow land on my Jetta while I listen to NPR on my iMac. Plus, I’m planning on reading a book later.

I’m at my worst when Anne Marie and Cooper go to Charlotte for the weekend. I sleep too much, eat too much, and work too little. When the family is gone, this respectable, dependable man turns into a sloth.

Tonight, I am a sloth with coffee.

I’m enjoying this cup after having had lunch at the Emerywood Cafe, which is a remarkably feminine restaurant. Easily 80% of the patrons there were women.

I wonder if coffee is inherently a masculine or a feminine drink. Does drinking two cups a day make me more manly?

My three-week sabbatical ends today.

Cooper wants some attention. In the past ten minutes he’s wanted to draw, teach me how to play with trucks, and dumped out his toys so that he can look for a Thomas toy.

Anne wants to lie down. She is feeling sick.

I want to drink my coffee.

I’m trying to figure out what to do this morning. I know I’ll drink this cup of coffee, but after that . . .?

I am in a peaceful state. I’d like to be this peaceful all of the time, but I know it is only temporary. I will soon face something that will test my peace. I don’t know what that will be just yet, and it will probably creep up on me instead of hit me all at once. But until it comes, I’ll sit here, listening to jazz, typing on my iPad, drinking my coffee, and enjoying my temporary reprieve from anxiety.