Journals I read.

So we're driving around this afternoon, looking for a place to have lunch, and all the places we try are closed. Our final stop was our favorite Italian place. Closed. But the Thai place next door was open, so we went there. They had something on their menu I have never seen before in any restaurant, bacon fried rice. We ordered it. It was your basic Thai fried rice, but with curls of thick, crispy, delicious bacon...OMG.

I can't imagine how bad for you that has to be, but holy shit was it ever tasty.

I have whatever weird shit Al brought back from the airplane/Shanghai/Singapore, in spades. It's the headcold from Hell, I have never had a headcold this bad before. Jesus Tapdancing Christ! My skull is a fucking snot factory. My eyes haven't stopped watering since Saturday, and are so swollen I can barely see. My sinuses are so bad that I woke up this morning with sore teeth and jaws, the roof of my mouth was swollen. My senses of smell and taste? Utterly gone. Seriously. I have had searing, ripping, scorching farts all day, the kind that burn your labia when you let 'em rip (and don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about here, ladies) that I can't even fucking smell.

Oh yeah.

I'm sick.

Heh...it's actually been rather theraputic telling you all this!

Frost doth gleam and wind doth blow
To join the Wild Hunt we shall go
To honor Lord of Ice and Snow
This cold December morning.



With solstice here we'll celebrate,
this sacred time and have much cheer.
We will bring warmth, we will bring light
unto the darkest time of year.

The mistletoe will be cut down
with sickle from the sacred tree.
A kiss i'll give to you, my love,
a pledge of friendship made to thee.

For greater than the will of man,
or want of that which can be done,
it falls and shines on where we stand,
beneath the great unconquered sun.

For this is now our turning point,
the shortest day, the longest night.
We'll look unto the months to come,
when the sun will grow both strong and bright.

A versèd crown all decked with green
that tells of winter's tales and mirth
will bring great gladness and much joy
to all who walk upon this earth.

And greater than the will of man
or want of that which can be done,
it falls and shines on where we stand,
beneath the great unconquered sun.


---Steeleye Span


Ave Sol Invictus!

The lovely folks at our regular sushi restaurant gave us a two-pound bag of genmaicha tea as a Christmas gift this evening. Genmaicha is green tea with brown rice, the "people's tea" of Japan. Never having had this tea before but wanting to enjoy it at its fullest potential, I thought I would ask here, if any of you good people know how best to prepare it. Would a tea ball (one of those perforated metal balls with a little chain on it; you put the tea inside the ball and let it soak in the pot) be okay to use, or should you just put the tea in the water and then strain it? And should the water be boiling, or just at a simmer? Any help would be greatly appreciated.