Lynn and Phillip and I went to Masalisa tea house, in Ballard. Along the way, Lynn suggested that I could amend my resolution to: 25 different types of tea houses. It's a little late for that, but after today's wonderful experience, that's not a bad idea for the future. We were served by half of the husband and wife team who own Masalisa - an informative fellow obviously more fluent in Japanese than in English. When I was obviously having trouble making up my mind, he told me, "First, ask your body what it wants." I love Seattle.

In addition to the menu, samples of each tea were lined up for us to smell. I finally settled on The Fire, described as: "A sweet, spicy and energizing herbal infusion imparting a warming energy known as Yang. Vietnamese cassia bark, ginger root, chicory root, sarsparilla root, Panax red ginseng root, orange peel, Chinese licorice root, star anise, black peppercorn, Szechuan peppercorn and natural flavoring." (Very spicy!) Lynn and Phillip both had lichee red: "A sweet and fruity black tea from Guangdong, China. Rich and robust black tea leaves are cured with the essence of Lichee fruit. Great hot or iced. A strong infusion can be blended with different tropical juices ."

My 2004 Tea/Tisane Log

1. yerba maté, 1 January
2. genmaicha, 9 January
3. South African Rooibos (with honey crystals), 10 January
4. chamomile lemon herb, 15 January
5. Northwest blackberry, 17-19 January
6. lime herbal teasan, 6 February
7. aged Earl Grey, 17 February
8. black cherry tea (organic Ceylon tea with black cherry flavor), 5 March
9. black tea blend (organic), iced, 17 March
10. oolong, 19 March
11. iced green tea with apple, peach, ginger, and elderberry juices, 21 March
12. artificially flavored "raspberry tea", iced, packed with dyes, preservatives, and possibly tea, 24 March
13. True Blueberry™ herb tea, 19 April
14. raspberry yerba maté (iced), 6 May
15. white (with orange blosson and ginger), iced, 14 May
16. Morning Dew™ (organic Chinese green), 19 May
17. chai tea latte (iced), 20 May
18. black with apricot, 9 June
19. "The Fire" herbal blend, 12 June

Pet and I have been having an interesting email conversation, concerning the nature of "politics." It was a conversation that bordered on argument. It was the type of exchange of opposing viewpoints that only true friends could have. I enjoyed it.

Pet doesn't consider herself a political person, since she doesn't pay attention to the events happening at The Capitol. I disagree. My friend Pet is a political person in much the same way that I am a political person.

Phillip and I bought a Prius, because it is a gas-electric SULEV hybrid, knowing that we could get almost as good gas mileage from a traditional car at half the price. We carry reusable canvas bags with us when we shop for groceries. I prefer to spend $10 on a pound of shade-grown, fair trade, organic coffee rather than $6 on a pound of coffee of unknown origin. I use public transit or walk when it's just as easy to drive. I buy Real Change. We recycle. We stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. These are all things that we feel benefit our society more than ourselves. That, to me, is true politics - politics in action.

(In my view of politics, it's not those specific things that make a person "political." It's the awareness of how your life changes your community that makes you a political person. If you don't care where your consumer goods come from or where they go when you throw them away, if your thoughts end at your property line, then you are not a political person. If you, the reader, feel that 100 HP compact cars blocking the flow of traffic at crosswalks are a blight on society, then driving your Lincoln Navigator makes you just as political as I am.)

This is the political topic that currently gets me riled up. It's when someone says: "How come they built that fancy new library, and then close it at six? Why didn't they use the money to keep it open longer?"

I'm pretty much financially ignorant - I have trouble taking minutes during the Treasurer's Report in our Church Council meetings - but even to me, the answer is obvious. Constructing a building and operating it are two different types of expenses. Buying a car requires writing a check - keeping the gas tank full requires an income.

In 1998, the voters of Seattle voted for a capital project named "Libraries for All." The purpose was to upgrade Seattle's libraries. After that, Seattle voters consistently voted against taxes that would go toward running those libraries. The City couldn't just take money the voters approved to build the libraries, and use it to operate the library, since the voters had said they didn't want that. (Actually, that was how Safeco Field got built, but that's another story.)

Phillip and I saw Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban at The Metro last Sunday. Sorry, Chris Columbus, but I felt that Alfonso Cuarón did a much better job at directing this one than you did with The Sorcerer's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets. The first two Harry Potter movies were fine film versions of the books, but this third one was a true film adaptation. (Every potential change to the story, I read, was given to JK Rowling for review. Any change she disapporved of didn't make it to film.)

There was a scene in Prisoner of Azkaban that stuck with me after we left the theater: Right before Buckbeak is executed, we see (from left to right) Ron, Hermione, and Harry looking on. Hermione wraps her arms around Ron's chest. Harry leans over and rests his arms and head on Hermione's shoulder. There was something - odd - about that scene, but I couldn't figure it out. It wasn't inappropriate, and it certainly fit the story. It didn't seem wrong, just somehow noteworthy.

(Now that I'm thinking about it, I know why I noticed that scene. It seemed a little forced, a little deliberate - like it was asking me to notice it. Writing does help sort things out!)

After we got home, I read the article in Entertainment Weekly which I had been saving until after I saw the film. The article said to look for an homage to Cuarón's previous film, Y Tu Mamá También in the scene where Buckbeak is about to get killed. I knew it was that scene I'd been thinking about.

Today, I went to the Internet Movie Database (one of my favorite web sites) and looked up Y Tu Mamá También, hoping I find what I was looking for in the photo gallery. Instead, I found that the homage was to the movie poster. The internet solves another mystery.

(I thought Y Tu Mamá También was a terrific film, too, by the way.)

My 2004 Tea/Tisane Log

1. yerba maté, 1 January
2. genmaicha, 9 January
3. South African Rooibos (with honey crystals), 10 January
4. chamomile lemon herb, 15 January
5. Northwest blackberry, 17-19 January
6. lime herbal teasan, 6 February
7. aged Earl Grey, 17 February
8. black cherry tea (organic Ceylon tea with black cherry flavor), 5 March
9. black tea blend (organic), iced, 17 March
10. oolong, 19 March
11. iced green tea with apple, peach, ginger, and elderberry juices, 21 March
12. artificially flavored "raspberry tea", iced, packed with dyes, preservatives, and possibly tea, 24 March
13. True Blueberry™ herb tea, 19 April
14. raspberry yerba maté (iced), 6 May
15. white (with orange blosson and ginger), iced, 14 May
16. Morning Dew™ (organic Chinese green), 19 May
17. chai tea latte (iced), 20 May
18. black with apricot, 9 June

Mystery solved!

I paid another lunchtime visit to the downtown library today. (I love that building!) I noticed that they now have a stairway open for getting down from the upper floors. It's an improvement.

Then, this evening, after the Church Council meeting, I was talking to Barbara, my friend the library employee. As of today, she has grown to love the new building. She said it feels so much better now that there are people in it. I told her I can't figure out why it's so much easier to go up than down. Barbara gave me the reason: Originally, that long escalator going up from the 5th floor to the 10th was designed to be dual level. It was determined that it would take too much room away from the Book Spiral to place two escalators side by side, so the escalators were stacked on top of each other. Then cost overruns made it too costly to do that, so one escalator - the down one - was eliminated.

I took the BBC - Science & Nature - Leonardo - Thinker quiz.

I agree with the results.

"You are an Existential Thinker" it told me.

Existential thinkers:

* Like to spend time thinking about philosophical issues such as "What is the meaning of life?"
* Try to see beyond the 'here and now', and understand deeper meanings
* Consider moral and ethical implications of problems as well as practical solutions

Like existential thinkers, Leonardo questioned man's role in the universe. Many of his paintings explored the relationship between man and God. Other Existential Thinkers include
The Buddha, Gandhi, Plato, Socrates, Martin Luther King

Careers which suit Existential Thinkers include
Philosopher, Religious leader, Head of state, Artist, Writer

It was wonderful hearing from Angie today.

I heard good news about Connie - I just wish I knew how to contact her.

It was nice running into Toni and Arthur this afternoon - although I don't think Arthur knew how to react to me.

I have yet to hear back from the guy from Turnip Video - strange.

I slept until nearly 9:30 this morning. I could have made it to church if I rushed through the shower and if I drove. I've been so tired lately. I can't fully wake up.

I woke up feeling sad this morning. My mind is full of "what ifs."

I woke up this morning remembering a dream I had just had. I was driving south, somewhere, when the road ahead of me was completely blocked off. It wasn't a frustrating thing, though. It just meant I had to be creative. There were several u-turns, cutting across empty lots, and just as I was about to double back on a freeway off-ramp, I saw why the roads were blocked. Some group was testing out a small, experimental rocket. The launch involved a Highway Patrol officer carrying the rocket on his motorcycle. The cop got the motorcycle up to full speed and then slammed on the brakes. The rocket, which was attached to a long cable, took off. I had stopped my car on the off-ramp to watch, but I was also at home, watching the launch on "The Today Show," which was rerunning their entire show, including commercials, from 1999.