Blade Coffee Grinder - what am I missing

[venator260]

I ask this here, because I see this as the greatest concentration of coffee snobs (in a good way) that I know of.

So, I wanted to start drinking better coffee. Three months ago my girlfriend and I were drinking Starbucks through a drip maker that had a burner that was much too hot. By the time the pot was done brewing, the coffee was already burnt.

So I got a Bodum French press, her parents got us a nice looking carafe that will keep coffee warm for hours, and I have a couple half pound bags of coffee beans that were roasted two days ago. The potential problem is that we also have a Black and Decker blade grinder that her parents also got us.

My question is, how different is this making my coffee taste? Am I wasting my time with the French press and my glass kettle only to get crappy coffee because my grinder is really just pulverizing my freshly roasted beans?