Well, this is different.

It's foaming outside.

It's foaming outside.

um??? Huh. Seems to just be dreary and windy here in Owings Mills. Really windy on the way in. My little car was getting shoved all over the place.

If she expresses sympathy one more time, or calls us a team, I will need to take a walk.

Sometimes we get dinged if we don't "express empathy" or "get buy-in from the client." Because I'm here to be your friend and sympathetic companion, not here to just fix your damned computer and get on with life. We know it's garbage, but the public relations people need to justify their salaries somehow, and the CEO read an article on the plane last week about improving customer relations.

Sometimes we get dinged if we don't "express empathy" or "get buy-in from the client."

She was entirely "Oh, honey, I feel your pain, let's hug it out." It was offensive. And I'd have rated that specifically lower than the previous tech who sniped at me and gave me information that contradicted the web site.

But I'd have been sure to be explicit in both cases about what was annoying. They were both pretty poor experiences. While skimming my email I found chat transcripts from years ago with Time Warner, and they were also comically bad. So not much has changed.

So the tea I bought last weekend says to use 5-6g for one cup. I decided to be all anal and weight out 5-6g. That doesn't fit into one brew basket, and a brew basket full brewed for the time they mentioned in 5oz of water was disgusting. I'm not sure what that was about. White tea shouldn't taste like that, I'm pretty sure.

DId you have the water at the right temperature? I am told that makes a big difference with white teas.

Because I am concerned about the directions being wrong. I am invested in the tea you were conned into buying being better than that.

I wasn't precise about the temperature (it tells me 85-90° C). I just grabbed it before the boil the first time. This isn't the con tea, though (that was Teavana Jasmine Pearls--this is Lupica White Peony). That tells me to use a teaspoonful, and it works just fine. Why would I use more than a basketful of leaves?

I just made a cup that brewed a minute with about two teaspoons of White Peony leaves with whatever temperature of water comes out of the work hot water spigot, and it tastes decent.

With white tea, you don't want to get near to boiling water. It makes a huge difference.

Oh, if it isn't the con tea I'm not so concerned. That's weird that the instructions seem to be wrong.

Well, I have very little control over water temperature at work.

Oh, if it isn't the con tea I'm not so concerned

I like that you're looking out for me.

I'm a little surprised my mall has two dedicated tea stores, and the one I got the white tea from is priced about half as expensive as the con store, and the sell is half as hard.

But I don't think I like the tea as much...

OMG, someone on IO9 said something like "I just started watching Buffy. Does it get good, like, you know, Firefly or Supernatural?" I had mild apoplexy. I like IO9, but their appreciation of what I like is weighted in all the wrong places. Wrong seasons of Buffy (3?), or Supernatural (4?), wrong episodes of Firefly (not OOG? HDU?). I may have spieled.

Looks like WX is down ahead of time. So, you know, if you wanted something you might have missed it. I'm gonna miss that crazy board. I had made peace with the shit about it that I didn't like. And I hate new stuff.