Collection

[owlmoose]

Back in January, SE and I placed a bet on the outcome of the presidential election. Not because we wanted different outcomes -- far from it! -- but because she felt that the American people were not yet ready to elect a president who wasn't a white man. I accepted her wager: if McCain was elected, I would owe her a bottle of wine (to share, because we would be needing it!); if not, she would take me to tea.

So today, I collected: we had a very posh tea at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. I've had high tea at the Fairmont in San Francisco, but never San Jose, so it was a new venue for all of us. Good quality tea, tasty scones with lots of Devon cream, very very fancy tea sandwiches (the ham with fig was my favorite), and a selection of little French pastries, all while seated in cozy couches in the lobby of the hotel. Very nice, although the atmosphere would have been better if football hadn't been playing on a huge TV screen over the bar. Overall a nice little escape and celebration, followed by a trip to the used bookstore and its semi-annual 25% off sale and then some Chinese food for dinner.

My to-read pile is really out of control. I thought I was being nice and moderate by getting only 6 books, but then I also borrowed a volume of manga from SE ("Black Jack" by Tezuka), and then I got home and saw how many books I still have to read from my big Amazon haul a couple months ago, and once again I am despairing of ever catching up. I also really need to get some of my older books sold -- I have an overflowing box in the bedroom, and another bag hiding in a cupboard (it used to be in the bedroom, by the box, until Lexi decided one day that 5:30 AM would be an excellent time to start pouncing on it). Of course, once I get rid of those books, what will happen? That's right, I'm going to turn them into more books. And so the cycle continues.

Comments

[bottle-of-shine.livejournal.com]

You know what might help those book buying urges? Start adding all your new books to your goodreads account! Then you'll have the added hardship of seeing your to-read number go up as well as having to add each new title! HAHAHA! So maybe when you're considering bringing five books home from the store next time, you'll go, "crap, I'll have to sit down and enter these, or else if I mention buying them to Nay she'll punish me with Rikku/Auron porn!"

This plan doesn't benefit me at all. :D

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

if I mention buying them to Nay she'll punish me with Rikku/Auron porn

Is that a threat or a promise? ;)

[bottle-of-shine.livejournal.com]

BOTH.

[furitaurus.livejournal.com]

You went to San Jose? One of my old university friends lives in San Jose! What a coincidence.
That sounded all very pleasant, but was the Devon cream actually imported from Devon? Devonshire people here get very arsey when people call it 'Devon cream' if it's not actually made in Devon. It's the same with Cornish pasties, if it's not actually made in Cornwall, then it's not a cornish pasty, any and every cornish person will tell you that.
We also call it clotted cream over here. I could really go for a scone now...

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

San Jose is only about 50 miles from here, so I get there every so often. It's actually where I went to grad school.

The server said the cream was Devonshire cream, and SE's husband, who is English, seemed to think it was the genuine article. (Hey SF, if you see this: do you think it was actual Devon cream, or was it some American-made imposter?) But either way, it was tasty.