middle-of-the-night tea and a walkabout

Pic and I had a truly fantastic day today. We really needed that after yesterday, which was not-so-fantastic. I was in a mood yesterday. Let's just leave it at that. You can guess which kind of mood. I finally explained to Pic that my mood was all about me and not at all about her.

So, today, we spent a good chunk of the day outside. We walked to a new, little local place (which I will write about later) and then we walked to the park. We visited with an acquaintance there and Pic and I played together for about an hour before Cardo came to join us. (Actually, we played for about an hour and then she and a boy at the park played together. I ended up sitting on a play structure ladder, enjoying watching Pic play with someone else.)

The three of us walked a bit. We ended up downtown, where we were able to watch part of the Tour de Nez. We didn't see much of it, but it was nice to be there. We also saw a band playing. They looked about high school-aged. I'm talking brass band here, not rock band or something. We listened to one instrumental song (I can call it that, right?) and then we listened to the band play while a great singer belted out "On the Street Where You Live." We got something to drink at Java Jungle and then walked for about another hour. (When Cardo came, he brought the wagon, so Pic didn't walk as long as I did. She's great about walking, but she is only five and I don't expect her to walk as much as I do.)

As we were walking downtown, I was telling Cardo about our day. I told him that we barely walked today and I followed that with "It took us about sixty-five minutes to get the restaurant and then another thirty or so to get to the park." He was cracking up. "Barely!?" he kept repeating. I see what he means, but it really did feel like barely. Perhaps I've found my calling. Now if only I could find a way to generate some income from it. I kid...perhaps.

That's all swell, but what about this tea? About a week-and-a-half ago, I was talking to Poke about tea lattes. She has some awesome tea places to go to in her town and I'm always jealous of that. (Not that I have been to a tea place here since she took me to High Societea when I was pregnant with Pic. I need to work on that.) So, we were talking about tea lattes. Then we got to iced tea lattes (which I guess are only "tea lattes" in the sense that latte is milk in Italian. I don't think there's any foam on an iced tea latte. I could be wrong. And, I'm thinking "latte" indicates there'll be foam on your coffee? I don't drink coffee, so I'm not fluent in the jargon.) She told me a place they go uses some kind of vanilla powder in their iced tea lattes, so I thought I'd try my hand at this. I bought some vanilla protein powder in the bulk foods section of the store -- this is the only vanilla powder I could think of -- and I went from there.

I heated four ounces of milk and four ounces of water together. I put the protein powder in this mix so it'd dissolve. Meanwhile, I also made an eightish-ounce mug of Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea, using two tea bags (I have a couple hundred bags of tea I'm trying to use up so I can finally permanently switch over to loose leaf, which I can buy in bulk at the Coop). When everything was hot and ready, I mixed it all together. I left it on the counter to cool a bit. I divided this between two glasses and added ice to one (I put the other in the refrigerator to drink the next day, as it was already somewhere around one-thirty in the morning when my tea was ready). The results: eh. I'd really like to have someone else make me an iced tea latte. I just want to know if it's something I'd ever really like. Hmm. I couldn't quite finish the second glass. Ah, well.



Now. It is once again late. I need to shuffle off to bed. G'night.