Christmas in November (or, Look,Ma! I Organized!) Posted at 21 Nov 2009 10:34:19 PM

This evening the internet kept dropping. We decided to take that as a sign, and went out for dinner. With no place in particular in mind, we explored the Central West End and ended up at Duff's restaurant. It turned out to be a fantastic choice; they had some really great food in the smaller portions that we're trying to look for, and a hole-in-the-wall atmosphere which I happen to love. Later we took a walk down to my new favorite coffee shop - Coffee Cartel - and walked by the St Louis Chess Club.

Once home, we got impatient, and decided to open Christmas presents tonight! Most of them, anyway... there's one each that we're holding back until actual Christmas.

We each got some pretty awesome stuff, if I say so myself. He received a bunch of parts for his car, some shirts & a hat he's been wanting, which seemed to make him pretty happy :-) He got me an awesome loose tea infuser, amazing polarized sunglasses (no more crappy $10 sunglasses!) and A SWIFT. A real swift! No more draping the yarn around my knees and trying to keep it tensioned while winding!

And to keep my promise of moving the desk out of the main living/dining room once my dress was finished (which it has been for at least a month now...), I cleaned out the drawers and organized all of my fabric, bias tape, elastic and what not into my various bins. Once it was empty, we moved it temporarily into the spare bedroom, where I continued the organization to the yarn stash. My very overstuffed underbed container now has room again, and there's actually a method to my madness now!

Evidence:

Posted in: knitting, life the universe and everything, slavish consumerism, tea

20 comments

	Teavana Posted at 11 Mar 2009 05:32:28 PM

I appear to have neglected to upload the "tea, damnit!" icon which is a staple on livejournal. Ah, well.

After several trips to Teavana, that mecca of disturbingly fruit-flavored loose teas, I have tried the following and come to several conclusions.

The first conclusion is that everything can be likened to baseball if I try really hard (why yes, it is spring training season already!):

1. Lemon Apple Pomegranate (Rooibos). Smell: Ground-rule double. Taste: Slow grounder to first. What smelled like real lemon turned out to be lemongrass, which is bitter and disagrees with me. Darn.

2. Dragonwell (Green). Smell: Safe at third. Taste: Lives up to expectations. A slightly salty aftertaste which lingers. This surprises me, but I quite like it.

3. Peppermint (Herbal). Smell: Home run. Taste: Grand slam. I have about 4oz of it in a Richelieu Tea container which I bought off eBay in a fit of Three Musketeers nostalgia, and I love it dearly. Fun fact: peppermint settles the stomach and makes the lips tingle.

4. Strawberry Kiwi (Rooibos, from a local shop). Smell: Home run. Taste: Also a home run, but a very sweet one. Strawberry Kiwi is a sometimes food, as Cookie Monster would have it.

5. Rose Marzipan Delight (Black). Smell: Grand Slam. Oh my heavens, this smells amazing. Taste: Fly ball to center field. It still smells good, don't get me wrong, but the rose tastes like I'm eating flowers. Rose never did agree with me. I wonder if there exists tea swaps?

6. Sweetened Black Cherry (Black). Smell: Grand Slam. Taste: Jury is still out. I'll get back to you.

7. Ginger Peach (from a local shop). Smell: Safe at third. Taste: Quite good. The ginger is a bit much for me, but then ginger usually is. I like this one. It shall be given a proper tea tin.

8. tbc.

There's always the old standbys, Celestial Seasonings Peach tea among them, which I have been drinking unrepentantly for years despite knowing that it's probably peach-flavored floor sweepings. It tastes good and has sentimental value, so hush :P

Posted in: tea

7 comments