Shaken, Not Stirred

Not much tea today. I am too lazy to make it. I thought about having some at the new Thai restaurant we went to, but at $4 a cup, I decided that was silly. It was $5.00 for Thai ice tea, which I really like!

A few days ago I had ice tea at a Barnes and Noble Bookstore, courtesy of Starbucks, and I who am not too fussy about my ice tea, thought the only thing that brew had going for it was it was cold and it was wet. Otherwise it really wasn't that good – too tannic for me, even with the fancy shaking it got before being poured into my glass.

We did discover something nice at the very local farmers' market – fresh ripe tomatoes. Unheard of here in the North before the end of July. These tomatoes are the result of grafting new tomato slips onto existing root stock and then putting them in bottom heated plastic tunnels, the tops of which are removed when it is warm enough. They are expensive - $4 a pound, so I bought just one. Gotta say it was delish! Like a summer tomato. But I don't think I'd better come home too often with them.We also got some blackberries for blackberry shortcake. Hmm, I do love summer berries.

We have had a string of small critters in the house, courtesy of the mighty hunters, aka Bert and Ernie. However, yesterday's offering was a very angry, very alive chipmunk, whom I finally rescued and put out. I see we need to have a lecture on “You are a pet. You do not have pets, you have toys.” They will probably listen as well as other cats I have known.

Have you seen the new shot glasses you make out of ice? Sounds cute until you think about it – cold wet hands. I suppose you could use them to sink something in your glass of ice tea or a tea cocktail, but still, wet, cold hands. Certain adolescent males could become a problem with these. Reminds me of the time I decided to put food coloring in the ice cubes. They were pretty, but no one wanted them in their glasses. For a more tea-related gathering of gadgets, hop on over to http://www.teaguyspeaks.com/ for a review of some new doodads.