Oh, good one -- I will totally add feta. Also yogurt.

I had some lovely babaganoush at a place near Sparky's. That's eggplant, right? Otherwise I avoid it. Just not a fan. It's pretty, raw.

Youngest nephew just called. T's 5. His dad didn't know he'd called. First time he's called to talk to me (he calls my parents all the time.) I now know that D got in trouble at school, how Sadie Mae (new kitten) sleeps, how to make mac& cheese in the microwave, the colors of all his cars (he is so used to skype, he kept forgetting I couldn't see,) a five year old's directions on how to use skype, how to pour mommy's wine (ahahaha. He's a helper, that one!) and that when he gets a strike bowling he does this: [insert silence as he demonstrates.] God, five is fun. This one is just such an extrovert and enthusiastic. D was just rarely one for the phone, and while I thought he was an extroverted doozy, he's a quiet, sensitive little mouse compared to T.

Got to talk to the brother some too. It's been too long.

OMG, that's adorable.

That's eggplant, right?

Yep.

They've never tried to sell me teapots, I either buy a pound (of the jasmine) so they don't need to upsell me to it, or much less than one, so there's no upsell, and I tell them I already have tins (which is true), so there's not much angle. I maintain three minutes of conversation, and I have immediate tea, cheaper than online. Since it's no skin off my nose, and I often walk right past their store, I'm good.

I've also found I really haven't missed anything about Costco other than cheap gas in 6 or 7 years. I don't wear their clothes, I always spent too much on food that went to waste or electronics I didn't need...no pull these days.

Emmett celebrated the last day of his summer job and his paycheck by taking his family out to dinner.

He was ravenous (he's having another growth spurt) but the rest of us weren't that hungry. Still JZ and I split fries and a beer, while Matilda got into a milkshake and tried out some new expressions of exasperation on us. To wit:

"Awww, dangersnaps!"

...and also...

"Awww, Doctor sauce!"

We're already working these into the rotation.

Now we're all hanging out on our various electronic media devices and listening to Al Green.

Dang, Matilda. She's got Whedonesque levels of linguistic ingenuity. I'm kind of jealous.

Dangersnaps! I'm totally going to use that. Thanks, Matilda!

Dangersnaps is pretty great.

dangersnaps is super cute.

Le Nubian, I totally get it. I've never been in a teavana, so I don't know.

Eggplants should totally be seen and not tasted!

I harvested figs and now I have a lot of figgy mess. Also some of the figs went direct to trash. I also picked up the downed lemons. Man, my life is NOT glamorous at all.

I do think it's hysterical the squirrels keep trying to eat the quince unsuccessfully. We find downed quince with teeth marks.

Random question based on super long convo I just had: is my unwillingness to let Grace go through random procedures all a response to the crap we went through at CHLA?

Ita,

You might be in a good store. The try to upsell me ALL the time. Extra teas, more of what I have, pots, sugar, ponies, timeshares, junk bonds, etc.