Thursday's Thirteen: How I like my tea

Thursday’s thirteen: How I like my tea (Yup, I really fussy about my tea)

1. A really good cup of tea. That should be easy; set microwave to two minutes thirty seconds and the presto the water is at the perfect temp. To throw a bag in. a few minutes later take bag out and add sugar done. Right?

2. Well yes and no. First of all it’s got to be good water, bottled is the best if you got a good water source, i.e. the water can’t taste funny.

3. Then you got to have good tea. I favor Roasted green tea; if it’s not roasted I don’t want it. I also like jasmine, oolong and good old fashioned Lipton. It’s got to be fresh too, if it’s been opened and sitting on a shelf for a year throw it out. I wouldn’t want to drink that.

4. Next after I heat my water, and I don’t forget it. Okay, sometimes I do forget if I’m writing an interesting part of my MS. My attention span isn’t so good when I’m writing.

5. Don’t squeeze the tea bag. Not even a little bit. I have trained my hubby and daughter really well on this point. I suppose I’m a real b***h about it, but I’ve gone around and around with my hubby.

Me: “Don’t squeeze the tea bag.”

Hubby: “Why, it’s all drippy.”

Me: “I know but don’t squeeze it.”

Hubby: “Then what I am I suppose to do with it?”

Me: “Throw it in the garbage but just don’t squeeze the bag.”

Hubby: “Not even a little bit?”

Me: “God no! Even a little squeeze will bruise the delicate tea leaves and leave the tea bitter and unfit to drink.”

Hubby: “Well I’m going to squeeze it any way.”

Me: “AHHHH!”

6. Now that the tea is the perfect temperature to drink, the tea has been removed un-squeeze and un-bruised next is to sweeten it. I use honest to God real sugar and none of that artificial crap either, that stuff hurts my stomach and makes it burn. And forget about honey, I don’t use it to sweeten my tea. Oh I like honey alright, but it has a weird after taste that doesn’t set well with the pure taste of my tea.

7. Stirring. There is an art to stirring the sugar in your tea cup. Too fast and you risk slopping over the edge, too slow or not enough and you have sugar residue at the bottom of your cup that give me a shiver when I drink the dregs, yuck. I do a clock wise then reverse method and stir for at least one minute to make sure it’s all mixed together.

8. Now to drink your tea. The perfect time to drink tea is first thing in the morning.

9. Now on to ice tea. I’ve tried various methods of achieving the perfect glass of ice tea. I’ve heated the water and made tea with the above mention method but added four spoons of sugar, stirring and poured it over ice.

10. Then there method two.

11. Get an ice cold bottle of water out of the fridge.

12. Get one of those huge ass bags of tea that Lipton sells for ice tea.

13. Stick it in the glass for five minutes or until water is a nice reddish brown, add sugar stir a lot and enjoy.

The thought I like to leave you with is this; don’t squeeze the tea bag or the tea police (me) will get you.

Happy Thursday thirteen.

Thurday's Thirteen: winter time blues

1. We ran out of propane before we ran out of winter. I told hubby that I smelled propane and we must have a leak. He didn't believe me. Than over the weekend he made this big annoucement that he couldn't light the propane heater because there was no propane. Well duh!
2. We had to buy an electric heater. It would be a couple of days before we could call any body to fix it, because Monday was a holiday. Yeah, more good news.
3. We had to hire a certified repair man to come out to fix it, because that is all that is allowed by law to touch it. Great!
4. It turned out we had not one leak but two, the second leak was some where under my daugher's bedroom which explained the smell of propane fumes in her room. Do you know what propane smells like? Garlic and gas.
5. It's fixed now and we bought a hundered gals of propane, so cross your fingers, it may last the rest of the winter. Yay.
6. It cost us three hundred dollars to fix it and add the new propane. I feel like we got off light, because he had to do two pressure checks and didn't charge us for them, and he didn't charge us for the labor either. Nice guy, I could have kissed him.
7. I'm still pissed because of the leak though. We had to get a loan to pay for the propane that should have lasted us all winter. Now we still have to pay off the loan and the repair job along with the new propane. Great more bills. *sigh*
8. The only saving grace is only 65 degrees the last few day. Hell, Sunday I was running around in a polo shirt and sweating. There is should be a law some where that you can't sweat in the winter time.
9. It's been too cool for t-shirts and too hot for sweaters. I tell my daughter "you can't wear that to school you'll catch a cold." She says "yeah right mom, I'm sweating and we just barely got into the car."
10. It's raining today at least there's been no fog. I can see.
11. That means the grass will again, and I'll have to mow it again. There is just something wrong with mowing in the winter time.
12. The worse time for me is when I have to drive in the fog, when it's so thick I can't see anything. Am I still one the road? Can't tell.
13. Guess what? daughter is having to stay home from school with a cold caught . . . you guessed it when we had no heat.

That's winter time blues here in Sunny, no make that foggy California.

Honest Heart Wednesday

I got this award from Merle, thank you Merle for believing in my honesty which I value highly.

.

I'm suppose to name five honest things about myself:

1. I'm a terrible liar so I don't lie.
2. I'm blunt. I always tell the truth even if it hurts the other person. Of course it doesn't always go over well, but since I'm older I am learning tact and than means some times I don't say so much when I don't like something, lol.
3. I'm not a natural red head, it's Feria No. 74 copper red.
4. I'm overweight, but I'm say by how much because even I don't know, I refuse to step on the scales.
5. I have a learning disability and English was my worst subject in school. Yet today I proudly proclaiming myself to be a writer, because I want you all to know that with due diligence you can over come almost any obstacle. I know because I have.

I pass this award on to Gledwood for his honesty in posting about his drug addiction. It's hard for me to read his post some times because of his candor, but I think that he needs to be commended for his posts about such a painful subject and his continued efforts to go clean.
Way to go Gledwood, keep up the hard work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Courageous Monday

This was actually someones Horoscope, but I liked it so I took it for today post.

~*~
"Forget about the things you don't like about your life -- focus on the hopes and dreams you have for the future.

The more you think about your problems or worries, the more power you are giving them over your life.

So today, put a smile on your face and be confident about where you are headed. And if you can't feel confident, then just fake it until you do!

If you can convince yourself of your value, then other people will be convinced of it, too."
~*~

I believe this to be true, so for today and the rest of the week believe in yourself and your own value.

Be courageous!

Thursday's thirteen: Fuel

Today's Thursday's thirteen, was suggested by my daughter; who thought thirteen names of fuel would be a good idea.

Thanks Sarah.

1. Fuel
2. Petrol
3. Gas
4. Gasoline
5. Charcoal
6. Coal
7. Combustible
8. Kerosene
9. Energy
10. Ethane
11. Ethanol
12. Ignite
13. Petroleum

New Years Resolution

I've been thinking of a New Years Resolution since New Years.

I know, I know your suppose to have it before the big day, but I don't usually make them anymore.

You see usually mine were about loosing weight, and unfortunately I couldn't manage to lose the ten or twenty pound, and later fifty pounds

. . . . or the hundrend pounds that my sister suggested I loose.

Because I wasn't succeding I relised that having a resolution was depressing, and I decided enough of that!

SO my next resolution was not to have a resolution ever again . . .

Until now.

My New Years resolution for 2009 is . . . . *drum roll* . . . .

To polish up some of my manuscripts and send them in to a publisher.

See *gulp* that was . . . painless.

There, that's what I'm going to do and I'm resolute on that.

What's your New Years Resolution?