Also, that IS a nostalgic '70s Kraft Pimento Cheese Spread jar, thanks for asking

The jam was grapefruit; we'll see if the orange and yuzu are enough to balance it out when I finally buy more bread. The snack was Buffalo wing sesame sticks; fortunately, there was enough blue cheese to drown that out. And I love blue cheese.

Today's Lego was a cute little wind-up robot, which reminded me of something out of Portal. The food, however, seemed like a dedicated effort to serve up my most reviled flavors: For the tisane, imagine the worst artificial "peach" flavor, then make it sour; 1st tea I've ever thrown out unfinished.

Today's Lego was an alien explorer. And the little bastard is lying down in the photo because it's so top-heavy that it kept taking nose-dives into today's jam: orange guava lime (which was delicious). Today's tea was a repeat of gingerbread. And today's snack was chipotle peanuts.

I was once asked if my dislike for mango was some form of racism. But it's probably just too close to papaya, which I was once force-fed in the middle of the night, in an attempt to cure chronic childhood bronchitis.

Today's ceremony was rushed, since I spent the day watching Elf and Wake Up Dead Man with friends. And today's jam is mango, which I do not like. The snacks were BBQ corn nuts, the Lego was a toy space shuttle, and the tisane was lemon & ginger.

And yes, I need to go grocery shopping. And also wash my glass prep bowls. And make corn chowder. And start Christmas shopping, sign up for health insurance, update my character sheet for tomorrow's Achtung! Cthulhu session, take the dome light apart, and dose my cat with flea meds. And… And… And…

…was truffle-salted peanut butter pretzels. I'm not much of a fan of truffle at the best of times (I don't care for the metallic taste), but who in their right mind combines it with peanut butter? It wasn't too bad, though: the two flavors didn't combine, so much as come in waves.

Tea today was good ol' masala chai; I tossed in some milk and monkfruit. The jam was apricot with honey… which just tasted like apricot, the least interesting of the fruits. The Lego was a woman wearing a Space logo sweater & holding an alien Squishmallow. Today's snack, however…

I even had trouble with the beds when I eventually spent a night in the Paris hotel with the husband's crew. It was years before I learned what "shortsheeting" was; I'd just figured it was yet another annoying French thing, like their showers.

She called it an "old ladies' drink", even though they were in their 30s. She later tried to get in the shower with me. They'd sent their kids off to summer camp, and her contractor husband spent weekdays in Paris renovating a hotel. I was blond, and a foot taller than anyone for miles around.

I'm not sure I've ever had redcurrants before. The only reason I've even had blackcurrants was an exchange trip to the Loire Valley when I was 17; the mother of the family with whom I stayed took a tipple of crème de cassis with her gals while they gossiped next to garden walls older than my country

Today's tea was peppermint, with a lovely dash of vanilla flavoring. Today's snack was honey "inferno" sticks, which were barely a candle flame. Today's jam was redcurrant & raspberry. Today's Lego was a skateboard and helmet.

(It took me five fucking years to find "apophasis" after I lost it the first time.)

Ritual was late today, because I went for my periodontal check-up, then got a salad the size of my head at Mezzo—which I hadn't been to since it was Café Intermezzo (which closed in… searching… Nov 2011, when it burned down). Honestly, it's probably been since before I graduated, last century.

I'm racking my brains to remember where I got that 1926 Saturday Evening Post Christmas mug. I presume it was a stocking-stuffer from my maternal grandmother, for her queer little grandson who liked odd things like tea and browsing the dictionary.

Tea was Earl Grey; classic for a reason. Jam was pineapple, allegedly with rum and vanilla. Snack was a wasabi "taproom" mix, confusingly with taco-spiced peanuts and Cajun-spiced corn chips in addition to the peas.

Lego was a cardboard box. With a kitten in it. No notes.

The mug proudly proclaims that my old Contra Costa County credit union was proudly Y2K compliant! A few years later, it was bought out by a much larger credit union from Silicon Valley. Who then closed all the CoCoCo branches for being too far away from San Jose. Because finance makes everyone dumb.

Today's Lego was a remote-controlled racecar, with a walkie-talkie. Which really drives home the realization that these components are not quite coalescing into a scene: Everybody's hands are full! Dad is going to crash the scooter! Who gave keys to the zamboni to a child?!