I figured cucumber mint would need a steep, so that's all good. I should have enough to tide me over now. The build your own stuff I haven't given up on, just that one mix. The
reviews for green tea both functionally and taste wise were some of the worst
reviews I've ever seen of anything and the mix LOOKS like toxic sludge monster which means...it's not going near my
tank anytime soon. I'm afraid it'll do something mean to my poor PTII Mini and right now that is my only tank so it has a BIG job to do all by itself
Don't feel bad, I've ordered from MBV about 4 times now (er, possibly 5, counting just now - yay, payday!) and they've all been large monthly orders, since the entire family only gets paid once a month (I get a little here and there from editing jobs, but most of that goes on gas and groceries... the enough-to-pay-the-bills money all comes in monthly)... anyway, in all that time, I have not once been brave enough to venture into build-your-own. I'm planning to next order (gotta try opal's buttermint mix, keep forgetting I have the recipe now!), but so far, all my mixing is *in* my tanks... that way when I mess it up, I've only wasted 3 ml. I'll probably get pretty into it in the next few months, now that I've been mixing stuff on my own for a while, but I'm still a little skeered.
In other news, my christmas shopping is finally *done* (and almost all in one whack, no applause please!) Freddie Mercury stuff for the sibling, check. (Along with some awesome Queen/Freddie stuff courtesy of Sam - thanks, Sam!) Genesis DVD she lost in the traumatic move, check. (It's now a collector's item and going for $100 *used*... that, I don't have, nowhere near, so I found someone who didn't care about actual value and bargained/bartered them down to shipping + some copies of some rare Beatles stuff. whew.) Jewelry box, jewelry, and nail polish for Mom, plus a gift card for shoe shopping cause I don't know from shoes. (I dunno from jewelry boxes, jewelry, or nail polish, either, but "celtic" is always safe for the first two and god knows I know what nail polish she likes cause we knock it over every time we need something in the bathroom. She has a nail polish stand... and three drawers full... but that's how much she likes her nail polish. It's how she and her friends used to break the school dress code when she was a kid - big scarves and wild nail polish.) Oh, and an Elmo DVD and a Vatican DVD for the sibling. Yeah, Queen, Genesis, Elmo and Catholicism... that's my sister for you, but she'll love it. And a TARDIS-and-Dalek salt and pepper set for Mom, cause what else was going to go next to the TARDIS cookie jar from last year? Best part is, I came in way under budget cause I managed to find almost everything used or on sale. All that will go with the stocking stuffer type stuff I try to pick up throughout the year (TARDIS socks for mom, Sesame and Disney Viewmaster stuff for the sibling, stuff like that), so they'll have a nice Christmas, now.
And a game for me, cause mom texted me this morning with "order that game you wanted and act surprised." So, solo boardgame with petri dishes! That and juice is all I wanted, and as far as I know, all I'm getting, which is fine by me. It's the finally being able to give things to others again that's the fun part of Christmas for me. That and the food... man, didn't I just wrestle a turkey? Time to suit up again soon.
We'll still be doing our Christmas late cause most of it isn't going to be here till around the 28th-30th, but I promised the sibling movies, popcorn, hot chocolate and a "campout" in the living room for Christmas night and something fun for that day. Christmas Eve will be midnight mass at our favorite priest's parish, which'll be fun, and we probably won't get home from that till incredibly late, so we'll probably sleep through most of Christmas Day anyway... which'll probably be better than the usual plan of trying to cook a turkey on about 3 hours sleep with the sibling asking if I'm done yet so she can tear into her gifts like a wild animal.
I just realized saying "Mass will be fun" probably strikes most people as odd... there's a reason we're going to the other side of Atlanta just to go to Mass celebrated by this *particular* priest. This is a conversation he had in the rectory with our senior priest back when the cool priest was our parochial vicar:
Father T (very satisfied after giving yet another rambling, endless homily): How many truly great homilies do you think there are in the world?
Father A: I don't know... but I know there's one less than you think there is.
Father A also crashed his car into a tree trying to get home to watch Melrose Place. Two weeks in a row. And then admitted it to the entire parish. The same cop came to the scene both times, which rather hurt his credibility with the "I had an emergency" excuse the second time around... when she raised an eyebrow, he replied, "I do have an emergency. It is an *emergency* I see Melrose Place tonight."
So yeah, he's a fun priest.
