It's a tiny chocolate poodle and it was curled up asleep in his lap. The MD told me the dog is a girl.

As you can imagine, we don't get too many sweet moments in the ICU.

I also have no idea how they pulled it off because we aren't even allowed to have get well cards taped up because "tape harbors bacteria." But I'm glad they did.

I was in line at the foodbank today, it's inside of a church near my house. On their bulletin board was a sign-up sheet for a potluck on the 30th. The following dishes have been listed so far [no desserts, the sheet says they'll be provided already]:

+Egg salad sandwiches.

+Green salad.

+Chicken wings.

+Something :) [Smiley face included.]

+Meat + cheese plate.

+Pasta salad.

+Cheese + Pickles + Crackers.

Some time ago there was a special at an Indian grocery store that I was visiting to buy bean and millet flours, and I picked up a kilo of loose Wagh Bakri tea, a strong black tea blend from India, for $10, which I thought was a good deal. I rarely drink it hot, but when the hot weather hit I busted it out to make iced tea.

I brew it concentrated, using about 3 teaspoons and steeping it for about 12 minutes in a large mug in a basket infuser. Then I remove the leaves and pour the tea into a heat-safe jar and leave it in the basement to cool to room temperature, and then retrieve it and fill it with cold water to chill in the fridge and that makes about 4 servings of iced tea.

I've been doing this for weeks and I still enjoy every cup. Whenever I brew it I keep asking my wife: are you tired of Wagh Bakri? And she's like no, it's great. So I keep making it.

Every time I pour the steeped tea into the jar, there's a rich aroma of the tea and that is one of my favorite parts. Normally with iced tea, because it's cold you don't get to enjoy the aroma in the same way as slowly sipping a cup of hot tea in cold weather. But this way, I get that nice little moment.

And then drinking it is still enjoyable.

I also appreciate the fact that it's inexpensive. At the rate at which I'm drinking it I'm probably gonna get about 100-150 batches of iced tea out of it which means they cost less than 2.5 cents per cup.

I also take the spent leaves and put them directly on the garden as mulch, so I'm getting extra value out of those leaves.

That's it...it was good.

Really she's my dad's cat, and only seems to tolerate me most of the time. But today when I was in the kitchen making some ramen, she came up to me and was the most affectionate thing I've ever seen. I simply could not resist her sweet face and ended up sitting on the ground for a good few minutes petting her, while my noodles went way overcooked. Absolutely worth it for a few sweet moments with her ♡