yay presents!

[cornerofmadness]

I got my holiday gifts from silvrethorn today. A book on making and enjoying green tea (which is funny since I either bought her a tea book or i bought it for someone else but i DID buy one this holiday). a pretty bamboo tea mug and some yummy sencha green tea in a pretty wrapper (which yes, I photographed, will share next time I'm on dial up)

I brewed up the sencha in the teavana tea maker Flippy got me. It's slicker than ice. It only makes one cup (which as ELD pointed out isn't good for guests. they do have a bigger one but i'mnot sure how it works). You put the tea leaves in the cup and pour in the water. set your timer (two minutes, three tops for greens) and then you put the cup atop your mug and it causes it to drain over the filter, leaving your mug tea leaf free.

I feel like i'm not doing anything today but in truth i helped out my neighbor since I had tom's phone number and got her help since the pipes burst in her apt. Then i went and did laundry and then went and picked up my meds. Poor pharm tech,she about died seeing the 300$+ price tag on one ofmy pills (well i'm nearly 1/4 the way to my deductible). Princess Cruise lines called me to ask if I was sure i wanted at 335$ purchase (yes, please)

Came home and cleaned the toilet and fit a draft stopper under my door but my door is so bad off i have to hold the stopper and pull the door shut since it actually passes OVER the damn stopper.

ETA - have been talking about crime lately so I did a check on my residence for the one sort of crime i could check online (that I know how to do).I'm happy to report there are no sex offenders in my area

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yay for prezzies!

...I got something for you today, something entirely too silly to pass up. Hee.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh boy! bounces

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, your birthday is BOUGHT. Now to put it all in one place so I remember to GET it to you.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

cool

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Tea, tea, wonderful tea!

Why is it that most teapots seem to hold only one or one-and-a-half cups at most? What's the point unless it can hold two cups or more? I don't get it...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

well my pots hold about three. THis thing holds one. You dont want the leaves to sit in the water at all past brewing. Maybe that's it. I dunno

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Cruise!!!! I loved mine so much I am now envious that you're going on one...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh I'm really not going on a cruise. I'm just pretending I will. I've never seen one that actually interested me. Maybe one of the mediterrean

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Well, it was absolutely AWESOME. An astounding luxury hotel that takes you to glorious locations, and all meals are provided (and every one of them are pretty much all you can eat); all the water, juice, tea, and coffee you can take, swimming, hot tubs, gym; all free -- the only thing that you pay extra for is the special amenities (spa treatments, etc.), soda and alcohol.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i'd only be interested if it parked me at historical sites that I could explore. I'm not all that interested in the other things to be honest. (which is why i usually book in at motel 6, I'm not into luxury hotels and spas and the such)

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Well, of course you can explore them. We only paid for approved shore excursions because I was with my Mom and it was my first cruise. But as long as you're back when the ship leaves (and they give you plenty of time, really), you can explore on your own all you want.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ah cool since all the cruises my cousins go on only make landfall where you can shop. Oh big deal.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

There was always plenty of shopping, of course, but Carnival seems to select sites where you can do a LOT of stuff -- either take shore excursions (like we did, to see ruins or play on beaches) or just wander on your own. The Western Caribbean gave us beaches, ruins, cities to look at (the only one they didn't really allow tourists to explore was Belize City... apparently it's dangerous, but they give nice guided tours).

The only place that really didn't spark much interest for me was Grand Bahama - the beach was pretty and all, but there wasn't a lot to do there.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah and I think that my exposure to cruises has been thru cousins whose idea of a good time is lying on a beach and/or shopping both of which bore me to tears (ditto with my brother and SiL, they are ultimate beach sitters. Snooze)

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear the tea cup made it in one piece. And now that you've seen the book, I can tell you that I can see why your parents had a problem with the Adagio genmaicha. It's an aggressive tea, but you can tame it into a very nice cuppa by preparing it using the directions for brewing sencha in that book. The book itself, by the way, says boil it, but the Adagio brand makes a much mellower brew at "fish eyes" for two minutes (and you might have noticed that there's a temperature chart that accompanies the fish eyes/string of pearls/turbulent water schtick. Invaluable for preparing tea according to the instructions on the Adagio tins). I first found that book in our library, and it really opened the doors for me to enjoying green tea. It tastes a lot different prepared properly, and I've learned to distinguish flavors since I started brewing green tea right. Be sure to try Dragon Well, if you can get hold of any. Even the health-food-store grade I get from Ward's is a wonderful tea, so I can only imagine what top-grade dragon well must be like.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

god my connection sucks tonight. it's ate my reply three times

www.adaigo.com, they have all grades of dragonwell how much do you want to spend.

I love that they have times and temps on their cans. so helpful.

i'm assuming the tea cup is more than just decorative

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

The tea cup is fully functional, plus green tea always looks best in a green, white or clear cup. It looks extremely unhealthy in a blue cup, as I've learned by unfortunate experience. Given the weight, you could also kill somebody with that cup in a pinch. Both the cup and the tea came from Gainesville, by the way, the cup from Kanapaha and the sencha from an Asian _supermarket_. Not a hole-in-the-wall little Asian market, but a Publix-sized store with automatic doors and shopping carts. On the downside, it was a Korean store, not Chinese or Japanese. Kimchee, anyone?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I've got a chinese one almost that size that I go to in Columbus. I like to play 'name that smell' (usually the live sea critters)

yes that IS a hefty bugger

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, once you get that cup warmed up, it's going to stay hot forever.

I think the freeze-dried sea life is stinkier than the live or the frozen. I got dashi-no-moto (fish bouillon powder in packets) to make tempura dip. The dip is fine, but the stench from the powder will knock you down. I also have recipes that call for kezuri-bushi, which is the shavings from a block of dried bonito. I'm almost glad I can't find this item.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that is also possible. god knows they have them. if you wanted to come to this place (maybe you'll grow a brain tumor or somethign) i'll drag you up there