Hah! This is awesome. I cut my finger (with scissors, yeah, I dunno) while making my garlands, so there was blood on the evergreen. There`s got to be some sort of pagan significance to that, right? And anyway, I got clear skies for the eclipse, so maybe blood sacrifice is effective!
 
My grandmother`s tea service is china. Black, with gold cranes on it. It`s gorgeous, actually. I have two of her sets, the "good" set and the "everyday" set which is white with stylized Japanese blue flowers on it. I display and use both. Love them. Although I am the only one in this house who drinks green tea, so I always accidentally let it get bitter sitting in the pot.

I can see the sun!

We had a big freakin' rainbow in Inglewood just a while ago, along with pouring rain. It has stopped raining for now, but I see black clouds everywhere I can see. Expect torrential rain as I attempt the grocery store in an hour or so (depending on 405 south traffic)

My mom went to the local grocery store earlier today, but the freezer where they keep the soy ice cream was broken. I probably shouldn't drive while on Vicodin. So my dad just went to Whole Foods to get me ice cream.

Good dad

You're welcome, SoCal!! Glad I could help. David, you want I should cut the other index finger?

I'm glad your dad is bringing ice cream, Hil.

My grandmother`s tea service is china. Black, with gold cranes on it. It`s gorgeous, actually. I have two of her sets, the "good" set and the "everyday" set which is white with stylized Japanese blue flowers on it. I display and use both.

Sounds lovely!

Hil, you have a good dad.

Good news on the job, smonster, and ~ma for your grandmother.

Plus I have a really nifty paraphrase-type New Testament, done by a classics scholar rather than a religious scholar, interesting and enlightening word choices with some of the colloquialisms.

Can you point me in the direction of which one this is? I'd like to have one.

even if I have churlishly refused the entire ginormpus dinnerware set of my great-grandmother's Limoges with pick rosebuds and gold edges.

You know, that could be valuable.

I have no idea where I'll put them, but I'll make sure it's someplace the cat can't reach.

I bought a glass-front curio cabinet for this very reason.

Zenkitty, it's Andy Gaus' Unvarnished New Testament [link]

You know, that could be valuable.

You could at least look up the pattern. For some patterns, that would be four figures.

I have the story of how my great-grandmother's samovar fell of the train, but no grandmothers' tea service. I do have Raq's tea service, which I should make more use of, as it's pretty.