Our Current Excitement

I (finally) got my order in from Le Palais des Thés, which means big excitement all around! I got new teas and the kitties got a new box.

What a thrilling life we all lead!

(Also, I feel the need to state that I did not, in fact, order so much tea that they needed to send me such a large box. I ordered a total of 400g of tea - less than a pound. Yet while I did not need such a large box, who am I to reject something that gives Cocoa such entertainment?)

Productivity Has Occurred!

My porch has had a rather difficult winter. Once fall truly hit, Dan and I pulled all the pool stuff in and put the plastic up around the porch... and then kind of forgot about it. I had intended to clean it up and get it neat all winter, but injuries, illness and cold weather all conspired against me. Last weekend I had plans to clean the porch but came down with some sinus issues and the weather was super cold so I let myself be lazy instead. This weekend, however, all the factors converged nicely and I was able to not only clean the porch, but repot a massive number of plants and clean off the super-messy plant stand in our bedroom. How exciting!

Okay, maybe not exciting for the world at large, but Dan and I find it pretty nifty. The porch is a useable room again!

And I repotted a lot of plants. Before the massive clean, I had one lonely plant on the outside plant stand. Now I have lots!

Some of these plants will move back inside once they've had a chance to root nicely (specifically the spider plants since the kitties like to snack on them) but until then, our inside plant stand is pretty naked.

I'm hoping (and aiming) for the inside plant stand to stay on the more spartan side of things even when I bring a few actual plants since before it managed to get pretty overrun. I should have taken some before pictures, but at the same time I'm kind of glad there is no actual proof about how bad it looked.

In other organizational news, I also managed to straighten up my tea pantry. Which is nice because it means I can find things easier, at least for a little bit. Want to see what just under one hundred teas looks like?

It's three and four tins deep in most sections. Also, I have it ordered by tea type because I'm a big giant nerd.

But I'm a big giant nerd with a lot of awesome (and accessible!) tea, a clean plant stand and a homey, comfortable porch so I'm happy!

33% Accomplished

I've got two goals for this year: read 24 books (not doing so well on that - I'm on number three) and

... try new tea vendors. Specifically TeaSpring but also Sugimoto and American Tea Room. Nothing too ambitious, just three new vendors spread over twelve months. (Of course, if I can fit Ito-en and Ippodo in there, it wouldn't upset me in the slightest.)

And done! Well, not totally done. Only about a third done. Because yesterday, I got this:

Yes, I finally ordered from TeaSpring. So happy. And even happier, I didn't spend a ton. I mean, it wasn't like a tiny purchase, but I could have gone much crazier. Much. I got 10 different tea, 9 of which I got 25g. One, the delightful Tan Yang Te Ji, I ordered in a larger amount. But only 50g. I really should have gotten something larger. (But I stuck with the 50g because I was trying to keep my order under $100. Next time, screw the budget, I'm going for 100g.) But anyway, tea!

Right now I'm sipping on some Zhu Hai Jin Ming to start my day and it is lovely. Lovely, I say! (Mostly Keemun-y with rye and faint toasted-smoke but with a nice Golden Monkey-like roundness and hint of creaminess.)

Anyway, huzzah for me! I tried a new tea vendor (one I've been meaning to order from for ages)! I think next up will be Sugimoto since I've had their Temomi Shincha recommended to me (which is a shincha that comes out in April, apparently). Until then, I'm going to work on my TeaSpring teas... and maybe finishing off some of my other teas. Because I currently have 96 teas in my pantry (not including a few one-cup samples from friends, of which I have about a dozen). I'm trying very hard to keep the "official" number of teas down under 100. I'm cutting it a bit close now that this new order has come in.

Oh, and one fun thing about this order - US Customs in New York was kind enough to open the box for me so I didn't even have to struggle with the tape. How nice of them! I suppose that's what happens when one is shipped a box of poorly labeled something or other (poorly labeled, you see) from Hong Kong. (Fortunately they just looked at the packages of tea and didn't actually open any of those. Which means if you want to send something less than legal through the mail, perhaps you just need to put a tea vendor label on it.)

And now I'm off to have another steep!

Healing, But...

Okay, officially, I'm still sick. But I'm starting to feel a little better. Not good, just better. But now I'm at that dangerous point in my healing that I feel cruddy enough that I can't really do anything but I feel non-miserable enough that I get bored. For instance, I tried ironing some of Dan's work shirts (because I really don't want him to have to go to work naked) but I had to stop after the fourth shirt when I noticed I was ironing wrinkles into the shirt. Oops.

But I got some goodies in the mail today, and that's occupied me for a good while now. Because I took pictures and now I'm blogging. See, occupied! (And occupied without wrinkling!) So what goodies did I get in the mail today?

Tea!

I got some flavored black teas from Lupicia that I ordered earlier this week. I have tried one of them (the Chocolate Strawberry Pu-erh) but the Budoh and Grapefruit I've only had as a green tea, not as a black. But I really liked the flavoring in the green so I thought I'd like them in a black tea (which I tend to prefer when it comes to flavored teas). We shall see!

But that's the normal tea that I got in today. I also got another, slightly more special tea (if only because it is a limited edition).

I actually ordered this tea when I was posting this blog entry, so yay for speedy shipping! Honestly, reviews on Steepster haven't been overwhelmingly outstanding (though they've been in the low 80s (out of 100)) but I can't find it within myself to care because the tin is just too cool. Last year's Christmas blend tin was pretty nifty (see right) but I think the Thirsty Elf tin is just super awesome. I'm definitely going to be keeping both tins intact and use them to store... something. Most tins I take the labels off and reuse for more tea, but these are too fun to do that to. Hopefully, the Thirsty Elf will taste at least as good as last year's Damn Fine Holiday Blend, because I did enjoy that and only have about one or two cup's worth of leaves left.

So yay for (slowish but still present) healing and fun tea!

Next up due to boredom: an overdue Dan beer update. (Though that might wait until tomorrow.)

Happy New Year!

Well, Happy 2012, y'all! I can't believe it got here so fast. I still have to think about whether I should write 2010 or 2011. Adding 2012 into the mix has me totally stumped.

Last year's goal was to read more "real" books. I failed at 19 of 24 books. It was a totally achievable goal so it was my own fault for not meeting it. I just kind of lost my motivation around September and picked a bad book to try to get re-motivated. (I'm still trying to read that book, by the way. It's going to be Book One of 2012 come hell or high water.) So this year, I'm going to do it again. But this time, I'm actually going to get my full 24 books in.

I have a secondary goal, too. This one isn't as structured as the "real" book goal. This one is tea related. I want to try out new tea vendors.

This is something I need help with because I'm kind of stuck on a handful of vendors (Chicago Tea Garden, Lupicia, Adagio, Andrews & Dunham's Damn Fine Tea (Ack! I just noticed they have a new tea out! Must order now!), O-cha) and I don't really deviate from them. In 2011, I did order from a couple of other vendors (TeaCuppa and SerendipiTea) which weren't exactly new to me but I hadn't ordered from them in a couple of years and one new vendor (Yuuki-cha), which I will totally have to add into my regular rotation because they've got some really neat offerings (Japanese black and oolong teas!).

But really, one new vendor and two neglected vendors? Not good enough. Especially since, after all this time, I have yet to order something from TeaSpring. It's supposed to be one of the best places around for Chinese teas and I've been lucky enough to get to try some of their teas through swaps with a friend so I know that their Tan Yang Te Ji is a sample of divinity in a teacup. I need to order that tea.

Which leads me to my secondary goal for 2012: try new tea vendors. Specifically TeaSpring but also Sugimoto and American Tea Room. Nothing too ambitious, just three new vendors spread over twelve months. (Of course, if I can fit Ito-en and Ippodo in there, it wouldn't upset me in the slightest.)

So there we go, my goals. Read 24 "real" books in 12 months and buy tea from some specific new-to-me vendors. I can totally do that!