I found chrysanthemum tea! I was looking for it and failing to find it, which is nutty given how not-fancy it is, but finally found a tea stand that sold loose tea. Little flowers floating in my tea pot, I love it!

She also doesn't know the other cop is also working with them, and other cop doesn't know she is working with them either.

You know, I did not realise this. It didn't even occur to me. Doh.

finally found a tea stand that sold loose tea

Previous day I managed to make it into the office I was waylaid by a tea purist, who spent about 20 minutes talking about *nothing* but tea. He highly recommended the store in Century City mall that's not Teavana. And he talked about a whole lot of tea stuff I'd never even heard of.

This is the tea site link I always recommend for ordering online, but they don't sell chrysanthemum tea.

David's Tea is my new favorite: [link]

Many of my co-workers at the new job are amused by my silver tea pot and fancy tea cup.

Scola always pitches that same place too.

Ah--the other place in the mall near me (apparently two tea specialty stores is perfectly reasonable in a mall that doesn't even have a bookstore?) is Lupicia. All I know about them for sure is that I didn't think their equivalent to Teavana's dragon jasmine pearl tea was as good (I think that about Upton too), but looking at their site, they have more options than I'd realised.

Magic of the tea machine is that *all* my tea tastes better, so I feel more comfortable trying other flavours as well as other stores. The rooibos blend I got from Upton was very good.

my silver tea pot and fancy tea cup.

My co-workers aren't as amused as they should be by this, frankly.

However it's becoming a liability because I keep looking at it and hissing "nightsssss" to myself.

I smoked pretty much from my early teens until I met DH in my mid 30s. Smoking was a deal breaker for him. 24 or so years later that is one of the seriously long list of reasons I am grateful for him in my life.

I am not a judgemental person by nature, but my son smoking is completely unacceptable to me. Any parent that has treated their child gasping for breath repeatedly with the nebulizer for years would be in my camp. The last time I had to do it was when he was 3, shortly after his last smoking grandparent died. Every time he visited them his lungs got inflamed. Yeah, I got an issue with it.

And yet I have ashtrays outside for my brother and other friends that smoke, because it isn't my desire ever to make decisions for adults. My kid will never be in that category.

Oh, and when I quit I used hot tea as a substitute. The ritual, the amount of time, the heat, the oral; it was my substitute.

Since life doesn't work with the timing of cinema, there are no rehab places with an open spot within 5 hours of my brother. Woo.

So for the time being, he's trying to taper down his drinking with 3.2% beer and nothing else, with a backup that if he gets sick (I am not thinking the word "seizure" I am not IamnotIamnot) he'll have to go to the ER.

I get that it's the best of his short-term options (#1: fuck it, keep drinking like he's in Leaving Las Vegas; #2: go cold turkey and bring on the seizures [oops, guess I'm thinking it]; #3: taper down his drinking). But I feel like he would have a much better chance if he were in rehab, not drinking 3.2% beer in his living room.

Gah.

Oh dear, Teppy. I send all kinds of obstacle smashing vibes.

Eta - mobile posting stuff