TheBanyanTree: productivity

[auntie sash]

Monday morning.
An office outside Troutdale Oregon.

So - I'm sitting at my desk trying to warm my hands with a cup of tea.
Unfortunately, that only warms my palms.  They get too warm, and my knuckles
are freezing, so my overall hand discomfort is not diminished significantly.

I try warming the palms and then clasping my hands, one over the other,
transferring some of the heat to the back of first one hand, and then the
other.  It helps some - taking the edge off the chill, but still so
unsatisfying.

I'm tempted to just dunk my hand in the cup, but that's just silly.  First -
the mug is too small,  I could only fit one hand in and just barely.
Besides, by time I clean up the spill, my damp hands would be cold again.

I wonder what the perfect hand-warming coffee mug would look like.  Could I
put a hole through the thing so you can just stick your hands through it?
Naw - that would be hard to hold.

Oh wait - I was picturing it like praying hands inserted from the front, and
then how would you pick it up?  It would be like wrist curls and I would
dump coffee on myself for sure.  But what if you I turned it and put one
hand in from each side?  Then your fingers would be warm.  It could be kinda
oval - wider side to side.  Then more of your hand would fit inside.  You'd
be basically holding the front half of the mug, with the other half beyond
your hands.

The two halves would have to connect somehow, or the back half would pour
out onto your nose when you drink.

So they'd have to connect under your hands.  Oh, that's gonna be a bear to
keep clean, with that little tunnel under there.  Same would happen if you
had little side cars to go across your hands and down on the outside - like
an outrigger canoe.  Or the flying nun's hat.  The liquid has to flow back
and forth to the main chamber somehow and that's either gonna make it messy
to drink or messy to clean.

So maybe I could knit a little holder thingy - like the sleeves you get at
Starbucks, but with pockets on either side.  You slip the cover on, it
absorbs the excess heat from the coffee, you slide your fingers into the
pockets and while you warm your palms, the outside part - maybe it's fleece
or quilted or something - cuddle up around the outside of your hands and
keeps them warm.

Of course, sliding in and out of the little pockets will take much longer
than just picking up a mug, so that might hurt office productivity.  I would
hate that.

I wonder if I can learn to knit online....
-sash