It's Friday already?

This week has gone so fast!

This is the first morning of it that I wasn't up at the crack of dawn. The reason for that is standing on the chair behind me playing with my hair and babbling about Robots. She was up about ten times in the night, just for a moment, requiring one of us to go in and tuck her in again. It was enough to ensure neither of her parents got much sleep.

I've been thinking about how I normally spend March Break and I've realized there are some key differences this year. First, I did not read a single book. That means I was not in a position to do one of the other things I often do on March Break, which is start a book at one o'clock in the afternoon and finish it sometime before dawn. Haven't done that in about two years, actually. What changed in my life to prevent that? Oh, yeah. *kisses Elizabeth*

Also, I haven't spent an entire day playing computer games. I haven't stayed in my pj's all day in order to play those computer games or do other, equally unsociable things. In fact, I've been out of the house every single day this week, even Tuesday which was my big writing day.

So what have I done? Well, I'm within about a thousand words of the end of the book I'm writing. I've taken my daughter places, and I've helped my sister shop for and purchase a wedding dress. (It's actually a prom dress, it cost her less than $150, and it is absolutely stunning. Of course, she has the figure to make almost anything look stunning.) I've made a 24-Hour Fruit Salad for tonight. I've crocheted a foot or so on the lace for a certain wedding present. I've tried on dozens of prom dresses in an effort to find one style that will look good on my 5'7", size 6 sister, and me, at the same time. We've found one at Sears that might work. At least, it looked great on me. We've had pictures taken, a four-generation one of Elizabeth, me, my mom, and my grandmother, and we had more pictures taken just of Elizabeth. (They're so darn cute!!! She takes really good pictures. You never have to fight with her to get her to laugh.) We've dealt with some financial issues that should make life easier when they actually go through, and we've made some hard decisions about them. I've worked out twice, and plan to work out today if I can find someone to watch the sprout for forty-five minutes.

All in all, it's been a pretty good week.

I'm off to call my mom and ask her if she wants forty-five minutes of special time with her only granddaughter. :)

A cuppa tea!

I read with surprise that someone on my friends list, who shall remain nameless, was actually surprised to find that tea tasted better with milk than with cream. I asked myself: self, how is it possible to not know this? And my self answered: this poor unfortunate soul did not grow up with the benefit of a very-English grandmother to show her how to do it properly. My self pointed out that I was in a perfect position to enlighten this sad state of ignorance.

Accordingly, then, How To Make a Proper Cup of Tea (with variations)

1. Boil the water, preferably in an electric kettle. It must be actually bubbling when you go on to the next step.
2. Put tea bag into the teapot. (Note: teapot and kettle are two separate items. Do not simply insert tea bag into the kettle!)
3. Pour still-bubbling water over the tea bag. Number of tea bags varies according to taste, but the rule of thumb is one tea bag for two cups of tea.
4. Put the lid on the teapot and allow tea to steep for two to four minutes, again depending on taste. Any longer than four minutes and it will get bitter. Any less than two and you might as well just be pouring the water over a teabag in a cup. (Who on earth makes tea like that? Sheesh!!)
5. This is important enough to warrant its own step: do not squeeze the teabag or stir the tea to make it stronger. It will certainly make it stronger, but it will also make it bitter.
6. Pour steeped tea into a teacup. (Purists say the cup requires a saucer. My only requirement is that it be the right size. I often use coffee mugs for this. My grandmother would be spinning in her grave at that admission, but there you have it.)
7. Add sugar, milk, or lemon juice to taste. (Note: cream does not appear in that list, nor does whitener. Cream overpowers the flavour and brings out every last bitter note in the tea. It's just gross. Nothing heavier than 2% is acceptable for a good cuppa.) Certain flavours of tea require less of these items than others. I do not, for example, put milk in Earl Grey. I put extra milk in Chai.)
8. Drink when it is just cool enough not to burn your tongue.

Warning: do not use leftover tea by warming it up in the microwave. It will be black as tar and very bitter. The only acceptable uses for cold tea are watering African Violets and staining paper for history projects. It works very well for both of these, though.

So there you have it. Velvet's English Black Tea Method, from a second-gen British emmigrant.

Pooh meme

You always know what to do in a tricky situation
and by helping others you have a firm handle on
your own life.
You enjoy the finer things and are perfectly
content in quietly relaxing in your thoughts.


Which Pooh character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Momentarily. . .

rainwolf will arrive with falafel and pumpernickel.

nottheterritory and ruiskafleck will arrive with candy and pop.

The Friday evening Traveller-that-isn't game will commence.

I love my social life. It's so geektastically fun.