Still alive. Busy busy week. I am slacking on my computer-couch potato time. I have had a lot of energy and have been cleaning and organizing. I have this compulsion to organize all of the four hundred and seventeen boxes in the basement. Perhaps I am watching the show Hoarders too much. My full basement is frekaing me out. I keep thinking about how much stuff that is already down there, then when we pass on we'll add our own crap down there. Then Dylan and Alice will be left with seven hundred and eighty-five boxes of crap! I can't do that to them. That's just mean. 

The boxes are 99% Dave’s; Dave's grand dad’s, Dave’s dad’s and of course Dave’s, all filled with man memorabilia: millions of papers, war books, comic books, gun books, book books, there is no jewelry, no clothes, no pottery no good stuff. I have got to organize and shrink these boxes to at least half. Dave is sweet and trusting enough to let me go through them. I am sure that he will tell me to stop any day now, but for now he is happy. Lydia is offline and organizing for fun? I know, I am kind of freaked out too. I am also here to report that I haven’t been eating sweets after the kids go to bed. Do you think that I should see a doctor? I don’t have a fever. But, my ass does look a little smaller than usual. I’ll keep you all posted.

Chai Chai Again

I am here to confess to you my closest friends that I have never stopped obsessing about chai. If you recall from a few blogs ago that I am a college educated grown darn woman who cannot make a nice cup of chai. I used those crappy Chai tea bags to save money. Well I refuse to accept failure. I was going to find a way to make chai without buying the expensive, yet yummy as heck premade kind.

Last week was pretty stressful so I started a little nightly ritual of making home made chai. I made it my personal quest to learn how to make a good cup. To insure my success I went online and found a recipe that claimed to replicate the expensive “Oregon” brand chai that I can’t afford to buy anymore. I made my grocery list and went to the cheap grocery store to buy cardamom, fresh ginger, and other supplies. Do you know that cardamom cost $7.99 for the smallest jar? Can you believe it? I rationalize the purchase since I will only need a half of a teaspoon per cup. After a while the money I am saving not buying the premade kind will make up for the start up cost.  I take my purchases home and wait in anticipation for the kids to go to sleep so that I can make my perfect chai.

That first night I followed the directions. This is a complicated recipe. I had to steep the tea, peal and thinly slice the ginger, measure in the spices, add sweeteners then steep some more. Then I had to strain out the spices add milk and then cook again. After all of my effort and about 30 minutes of my precious time I sit down with a cup of weakly spiced hot milk. Then I clean up and wonder why I have spent 45 minutes preparing and cleaning up a beverage that took me 10 minutes to drink and not even enjoy. The second night I tweaked the recipe and put in too much ginger and not enough cardamom. I ended up with gingery grainy milk. I mean how hard is it to make a darn cup of milky tea? I know what you are thinking, obviously way too hard for me. That may be all and good but I had all of the ingredients and I am a stubborn mule so I made myself a horrid cup of chai every night last week.

Each night I was more disappointed and even grossed out, but on principal I drank them all. On the bright side my husband did become more and more amused at my failings. He seemed to look forward to chai time. He occasionally delights in my I Love Lucy antics, especially when he is not involved like in this case since he does not have to ever ingest the end product he is happy to watch the chaos and smile.  He has adamantly stated that he is never ever trying my or any other chai. He compares chai to lukewarm dishwater. Which coincidently was the taste of my home made chai. So how could I argue? Secretly I was on a mission toprove him wrong.  I was going to show him tonight.  I was planning to make the best chai ever. Yes, I like to torture myself; it’s nice to have a hobby.

Which brings me to today, I was at whole Foods with the kids and there mocking me from the shelf in the tea aisle was Oregon Chai. Big beautiful cartons of Oregon Chai. Big beautiful cartons of Oregon Chai on sale for $3.00 a carton! Do you like word problems? Try to figure this one out.

If Lydia bought Oregon Chai at her local grocery store for $5.99 a carton. Each carton makes about 6 mugs, each mug needs equal parts milk (we buy organic $3.99 per half gallon). If Lydia then bought about $15.00 worth of ingredients and spent about 2.5 hours of her life making 5 large mugs of mediocre chai. The question is:  How much of an idiot can Lydia actually be?

I don’t have the time or energy to stress out about a darn beverage. Enough is enough! I put 4 boxes of chai in my cart and have officially moved on. So what? So I can’t make chai. There I said it. Lydia cannot make chai. Well I can make it; it’s just that no one including me wants to drink it.