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Weekend Open ThreadBy · Comments
On this date five years ago, the Yankees came back to beat the Phillies 8-5 in Game Three of the 2009 World Series after an 80-minute rain delay, giving New York a two games to one series lead. Philadelphia scored three runs in the second thanks in part to a Jayson Werth homer, but the Bombers rallied to tie on an Alex Rodriguez two-run homer — it hit off a camera in right and had to be reviewed — and Andy Pettitte's run-scoring single against Cole Hamels. Johnny Damon doubled in two, Werth hit another homer off Pettitte, and Nick Swisher and pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui plated insurance runs with solo homers. Mariano Rivera got the final two outs for the save. Here's the box score.
I don't have many decent links for this weekend, plus I don't want to interrupt our little 2009 World Series recap, so I'm going to cut straight to the open thread part now. The links will be back next Friday, I promise. None of the local hockey and basketball teams are playing tonight, but it is Friday, so it's a good night to get out of the house and unwind. Talk about whatever here.
Quiz!: The 2014 Yankees roster Sporcle quiz is out. It's a good way to drive yourself nuts for ten minutes. I got 53 out of 58 and didn't miss anyone obvious.
Heyman: Yankees hire Eric Chavez as special assignment scout
Via Jon Heyman: The Yankees have hired former infielder Eric Chavez as a special assignment scout. He's always said he wanted to continue working in baseball once his playing career was over, and he's remained close with GM Brian Cashman and assistant GM Billy Eppler. Chavez retired this July after battling injuries with the Diamondbacks. Heyman says it's unclear if Chavez pursued any coaching jobs this offseason or if the Yankees considered him for their hitting coach vacancy. · (19) ·
2014 Season Review: The Obligatory LeftiesBy · Comments
One thing has become very obvious over the last few years: the Yankees value having a left-hander in the bullpen. Two, preferably. Some teams don't worry too much about carrying a southpaw, but not these Yankees. Joe Girardi likes to have a matchup lefty out there and the team has spent a lot of money trying to fill that spot. Remember Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano? Of course you do.
The 2014 season were no different, but, believe it or not, they only had 109 appearances by a left-handed reliever this year. That was the fifth fewest on baseball. At the same time, they had 56 lefty appearances of two or fewer batters faced, the fourth most in baseball. Girardi is definitely a fan of matching up for a batter or two if the opportunity presents itself. Let's review the team's surprisingly large collection of left-handed relievers from this past season.
The Yankees signed the 38-year-old Thornton to a two-year contract worth $7M last season, figuring he could still be a quality specialist even though his performance against righties had declined big time in recent years. He was one of the top relievers in the game regardless of handedness not too long ago. Maybe there was still some magic in there.
Thornton threw only 24.2 innings across 38 appearances with New York, so Girardi definitely used him as a matchup guy. His overall 2.55 ERA (2.73 FIP) is good but that's not the best way to evaluate a lefty specialist. Thornton held same-side hitters to a .237/.306/.250 (.258 wOBA) batting line with a 17.2% strikeout rate, a 3.1% walk rate, and a 54.3% ground ball rate. Despite still having mid-90s heat, his swing-and-miss rate against lefties was a paltry 8.3%. That's well-below-average. Also, he allowed 14 of 43 inherited runners to score (33%), including five of the last 12.
In early-August, the Yankees simply gave Thornton away for nothing. The Nationals claimed him off revocable trade waivers and New York opted not to pull him back, so they let him to go Washington on the claim. It was … weird. Girardi and Brian Cashman both confirmed the move was made to create roster and payroll flexibility. Thornton had a 0.00 ERA (2.51 FIP) in 11.1 innings for the Nats after the claim and quickly emerged as an important part of their bullpen.
The Yankees spent the first ten or so weeks of the season cycling through some amazingly bad long relievers, so, when the Giants decided to cut ties with Huff in mid-June, the Bombers jumped at the chance to re-acquire him. The minor trade cost New York nothing but cash.
Huff, 30, had a 6.30 ERA (4.38 FIP) in 20 innings for San Francisco, but he actually pitched pretty well in pinstripes. He chucked 39 innings across 30 appearances — so he was multi-inning guy, not a specialist — and posted a 1.85 ERA (4.00 FIP), holding lefties to a .250/.301/.279 (.266 wOBA) batting line with a 19.2% strikeouts rate and a 6.2% walk rate. Huff also stranded 16 of 17 inherited runners. What more do you want from a low-leverage lefty?
After letting Thornton walk, the Yankees grabbed Hill off the scrap heap and he actually had two stints with the team. He came up in early-August, made six appearances, was designated for assignment, then was called back up when rosters expanded in September to make eight more appearances. All told, Hill faced 19 lefties with New York, striking out seven, walking two, hitting one, and allowing four hits. That's a .250/.368/.250 (.298 wOBA) batting line. At one point in September he struck out six in a span of eight batters faced.
Hill was designated for assignment in late-August to make room for Outman, who the Yankees picked up from the Indians because he was a so very slight upgrade. He faced ten left-handed batters in pinstripes and held them to one hit. He also struck out one. That works out to a .100/.111/.111 (.099 wOBA). If you extrapolate that out over 60 innings, Outman was, like, the best lefty reliever ever, man.
Two years ago, Cabral almost made the Opening Day roster as a Rule 5 Draft pick before suffering a fractured elbow late in camp. He made four appearances with the Yankees this season and faced five lefties. One made contract (a hit), one drew a walk, one was hit by a pitch, and two struck out. As you may recall, Cabral allowed three runs on three hits and three hit batsmen in one ugly April outing against the Rays. He was designated for assignment after the game, eventually landed back in Double-A, and that was that.
Confession: I totally forgot Jeff Francis was a Yankee. They acquired him in a very minor trade with the Athletics when they were desperate for pitching depth at midseason, and he somehow made not one, but two appearances in pinstripes. He threw a scoreless 14th inning in a late-July game against the Rangers — when Chase Headley hit the walk-off single in his first game with the team — and allowed a run in two-thirds of an inning against the Blue Jays a week later. They dropped Francis from the roster soon thereafter.
I did remember that LeBlanc was a Yankee this year! He made one appearance with the team. It went single, single, grounder to first, intentional walk, hit batsmen to force in a run, sac fly, ground out. The Yankees designated him for assignment to make room for Huff a few days later. I hope Wade LeBlanc goes into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee.
RAB Live ChatBy · Comments
Earlier this week, Baseball America started their annual look at each team's top ten prospects. The series continued today with the Yankees, and, as always, the list is free but the scouting reports are not. The link also includes free video for six of the ten prospects, so make sure you check that out. Here is Baseball America's entire top ten index and here is New York's top ten:
- RHP Luis Severino
- OF Aaron Judge
- SS Jorge Mateo
- 1B Greg Bird
- C Gary Sanchez
- LHP Ian Clarkin
- 2B Rob Refsnyder
- LHP Jacob Lindgren
- C Luis Torrens
- 3B Miguel Andujar
Severino and Judge are 1A and 1B in my opinion. I consider Judge the team's top prospect because of the general attrition rate of 20-year-old pitchers plus the fact that offense is the scarce commodity these days, not pitching. That's just my opinion. They're both excellent and both are Yankees though, so the order doesn't really matter.
The Mateo ranking might be a bit aggressive but people have been raving about him all summer. He's clearly one of the team's top prospects even though a hand injury limited him to only a handful of games in 2014. Bird over Sanchez seems to be based on performance as much as anything. The scouting report calls Bird an average defensive first baseman who "projects to hit 18-20 homers in the big leagues," then says Sanchez can be a "frontline catcher with the potential for a .280 average and 20-25 home runs annually." Plus Sanchez has at least a grade 60 bat flip tool:
Anyway, Refsnyder and Lindgren are basically MLB-ready pieces while Clarkin, Torrens, and Andujar are lower level guys who are still years away. The scouting report notes that, with the help of pitching coordinator Gil Patterson, Clarkin added a cutter to his fastball-curveball-changeup mix this summer. Torrens is going to be the next great Yankees catching prospect very soon — the write-up says his defense draws raves even though he didn't move behind the plate full-time until the team signed him in July 2012 — and the scouting report says Andujar has a "future of an everyday third baseman whose bat profiles for the position."
Compared to last year's top ten, I think this year's has much more upside and depth. 3B Eric Jagielo didn't make the cut — I assume he's prospect No. 11 — despite having a pretty damn good year with High-A Tampa (132 wRC+ with 16 homers in 85 games) around an oblique injury. Last year he would have been in the top five no questions asked following a season like that. The farm system still isn't in a great shape but it is definitely on the way up, especially after the club's international spending spree this summer. There's a ton of upside in the lower levels right now, way more than usual. I think the Yankees have been very good at acquiring talent in recent years. Developing it has been the problem.
Return of the RAB chat reminder
It's been a few weeks, but the RAB chat returns today. Assuming I can remember our ScribbeLive login information, of course. We've got a lot to talk about this afternoon. The postseason, the upcoming offseason, all sorts of stuff. See you at 2pm ET. · (7) ·
Mailbag: PTBNL, Weeks, Zobrist, Kuroda, A-RodBy · Comments
Got a big mailbag this week. Thirteen questions, so it's rapid fire with short-ish answers. Use the Submit A Tip box in the sidebar to send us anything throughout the week.
T.J. asks: Do the Yankees owe any of their trade partners PTBNL (Player(s) To Be Named Later)? If so, when might we hear who is going back to said team? I only ask after the whole Zach McAllister/Austin Kearns deal, back in the day.
The Yankees owe the Indians a player to be named later (or cash) for Josh Outman and they also owe the Diamondbacks a player to be named later (or cash!) for Martin Prado. I thought that deal was straight up for Peter O'Brien, but apparently not. The official release says there's a player to be named heading to Arizona. The Yankees will probably just send cash to Cleveland for Outman, but I suppose the player going to the D'Backs could be somewhat notable. It won't be a top prospect or anything like that, but maybe a bullpen prospect or something. PTBNL have to be named within six months of the trade, so sometime before December for these deals. Also, it's time to move on from McAllister. He's not very good. The definition of replacement level.
Matt asks: We've seen, as you've mentioned before, teams employ co-hitting coaches, could you see in the near future a team employ co-managers? I know bench coaches are viewed upon as a second manager, and sometimes are former managers themselves, but do you see it possible to have two actual "co-managers?"
I don't think that will happen. I think you need to have one guy making the final decisions and calling shots. The bench coach is there to help the manager out and stuff, but at some point it needs to come down to one person saying yes or no. Having co-managers seems like it would be too many cooks in the kitchen. There should be one clearly defined person in charge.
NYYFan14 asks: Thoughts on going after Rickie Weeks this offseason?
Weeks, 32, had a nice year in a part-time role for the Brewers this summer, hitting .274/.354/.452 (127 wRC+) with eight homers and 19 doubles in 252 plate appearances. He's hit .243/.347/.448 (122 wRC+) against lefties the last two years and the various defensive stats say he's been below-average at second for a while now. The FanGraphs' crowdsourcing has a two-year, $12M deal for Weeks and while I don't think that's unreasonable, I would rather not see the Yankees lock themselves into a second baseman like that. I really want them to give Rob Refsnyder a legitimate chance at the job at some point in 2015.
Mark asks: Given the complete mess the Rays are in now and that the new GM likely will want to rebuild, should the Yanks become aggressive in trying to acquire Ben Zobrist? What do you think it would take to acquire him?
I'm guessing the Rays will go into total rebuild mode now, and Zobrist figures to be among the first to go since he can be a free agent after next season. He would obviously be a great fit for the Yankees — switch-hitter with a ton of patience and some power, very good defensively, can play almost anywhere (second base until Refsnyder, right field thereafter?), and will be owed only $7.5M in 2015 once they pick up his no-brainer option. My guess is it would take three pieces — a top prospect, a decent MLB-ready piece, secondary prospect — at a minimum. That's what it cost to get one year of Matt Holliday back in the day, and acquiring offensive help has only gotten more expensive. Plus Zobrist will be in very high demand. The Rays will have their pick of offers.
Seb asks: Hensley Meulens is a free agent. Is he the best fit as the new hitting coach in New York?
No idea. Meulens has been the Giants hitting coach since 2010 and during that time they've had a number of veteran players have surprisingly big seasons after looking washed up (Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, and Andres Torres). Was that his doing? Who in the world knows. I don't think we can say who is and who isn't a good hitting coach candidate for the Yankees. I don't think there's any way we can accurately evaluate coaches, really. Meulens has been the hitting coach for a very good team the last five years. That's reason enough to interview him in my book.
Joe asks: Here's a softball down the middle … who is the Yankees biggest acquisition this offseason?
I honestly don't think the Yankees will sign any of the top free agents (Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, etc.), but they are still the Yankees and they have a lot of roster holes to fill. My guess — and this is a total guess — is they open up the wallet to keep Brandon McCarthy and give him a three-year contract worth $15M per season. Again, just a guess. They need pitching and they know him. McCarthy's a very good fit.
Nick asks: If the Yankees had to choose between McCarthy and Hiroki Kuroda for next season, Who do you think they should go with?
I love Kuroda. He's been one of my favorite Yankees the last few years. But he's going to turn 40 in February and he wasn't quite as good in 2014 as he was in 2012-13, enough to make me nervous about him going into next season. McCarthy is nearly ten years younger and he's very good in his own right. I know he has a history of shoulder problems — McCarthy did stay healthy in 2014 for the first time in a long time — but I'm not sure his health is any riskier than that of a 40-year-old whose thrown over 3,000 innings in his career. Love Kuroda, but I'm taking McCarthy for 2015.
Anonymous asks: Is improving the offense the most important task on the agenda this off-season?
Yep, clearly. Improving the infield defense relative to last year will be important as well, but they need offense first and foremost. Trying to contend with a below league average offense in a small ballpark in a division with three other small ballparks in the DH league ain't gonna work out to well for them. Run prevention is great! But you need to score too. A lot more than the Yankees have the last two years. Offense is priorities one, two, and three this winter.
Darrin asks: With the 3b situation unfolding I don't see why there is much of a debate between going after Pablo Sandoval or keeping Chase Headley. To me — and his stats show — Headley is barely average offensively while Sandoval puts up nice consistent numbers and is very good in the postseason. I would much rather have Sandoval instead. What do you think?
Sandoval is clearly the better player and he is two years younger. I don't think anyone will dispute that. The question is whether Sandoval at five years and $80M (again, FanGraphs' crowdscouring) is better than Headley at four years and $56M. That is very much up for debate. Sandoval's conditioning has been a problem his entire career and part of me worries that if you drop $80M in front of him, he'll eat his way out of baseball before long. In a vacuum, I'd take Sandoval in a heartbeat. But Sandoval for $80M over Headley at $56M? Eh, probably not.
Rick asks: Would you prefer the Yankees to go with Shane Greene as the fifth starter or to sign two starters this offseason and assume that one of the starters is going to break down/be awful?
Sign two starters, definitely. Masahiro Tanaka (elbow), CC Sabathia (knee), Ivan Nova (elbow), and Michael Pineda (shoulder) are all going into next season with some kind of injury concern. Whoever goes into next season as the number five starter could end up the number two starter before the end of April. I'm totally cool with signing two starters — Nova won't be back until midseason, remember — and pushing Greene into the sixth starter's role. You know as well as I that he'll end up making like 20 starts anyway.
Sam asks: With as much as playoff performance seems to weigh in debates over who is a true superstar across all sports, is Madison Bumgarner catching Clayton Kershaw as best lefty in the game?
Bumgarner was historically great in the postseason. Like all-time great kind of stuff. But Kershaw is on another level. I'm not going to let this last month outweigh the last four years, when Kershaw has been clearly the best pitcher on the planet. I mean, it wasn't even close this year. He was far ahead of everyone else. Right now, I'd have Bumgarner as the third best southpaw in baseball behind Kershaw and Chris Sale. You could make a very strong case that David Price should be third too. Bumgarner was absurd in the playoffs this. Off the charts great. But there's more pieces to the puzzle than October.
Nick asks: Would the Yankees have any interest in Kyuji Fujikawa?
On a minor league contract, sure. The 34-year-old Fujikawa was a big deal a few years ago when he came over from Japan as the top closer in the country, but he blew out his elbow after signing with the Cubs and needed Tommy John surgery. He had a 5.04 ERA (3.61 FIP) in 25 innings scattered cross the last two seasons. I'm not sure that guy deserves a guaranteed contract, but I'm sure someone will offer him one anyway. Fujikawa is someone to keep in mind though. Maybe he'll slip through the cracks.
J.R. asks: Reading that the Yankees reinstated A-Rod from his 162 game suspension got me thinking: If there had been a game 163, could A-Rod have played in that? He had a 162-game suspension and was ineligible for the postseason, my understanding is that game 163 is technically a regular season game. Your thoughts?
Game 163 is considered a regular season game and yes, technically Alex Rodriguez would have been eligible to play. I don't know if that means the Yankees would have had to reinstate him off the restricted list — I suppose A-Rod could have filed a grievance if they tried to keep him out while he was eligible to play — but I guessing they would have declined to do so if it was at all possible. The suspension only covered the 162-game regular season and postseason. Knowing MLB, I'm sure they just would have finagled the rules to make sure the suspension covered Game 163 as well.
Thursday Night Open ThreadBy · Comments
The first day of the offseason is in the books. Only another 113 of these left to go until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. The Yankees and Phillies did not play on this date in 2009 because it was a travel day between Games Two and Three, so our little recap of the 2009 World Series will continue tomorrow. Kinda crazy that series was only two games old on this date and this year's World Series is already over after the full seven games.
Here is your open thread for the night. The Saints and Panthers are the Thursday NFL game and both the Devils and Knicks are playing as well. From what I hear, the Knicks are playing the Cavaliers in LeBron James' return to Cleveland. That'll be cool. Talk about whatever you like right here.
A-Rod reinstated, ten Yankees become free agents
Now that the World Series is over, Alex Rodriguez has officially been reinstated off the restricted list by MLB and the Yankees. He was originally suspended 211 games for his ties to Biogenesis, but it was reduced to 162 games during an appeal. A-Rod would not have been eligible to play in the postseason had the Yankees qualified. He now counts against the team's 40-man roster.
In other news, a total of 121 players became free agents at 9am ET this morning. Here's the full list. Ten of those 121 players are Yankees: Chris Capuano, Stephen Drew, Chase Headley, Rich Hill, Derek Jeter, Hiroki Kuroda, Brandon McCarthy, David Robertson, Ichiro Suzuki, and Chris Young. No surprises there at all. Martin Prado, CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, and Slade Heathcott all have to be activated off the 60-day DL if they haven't been already. So, after all of that, the Yankees have 35 players on their 40-man roster. · (147) ·
2014 Season Review: The Sometimes Setup MenBy · Comments
Because they dealt with so many rotation injuries, the Yankees had to rely on their bullpen a ton this past season. Joe Girardi asked his bullpen to throw 501.1 innings this summer, the sixth most in the league. Dellin Betances soaked up a ton of innings, especially early in the year, but it wasn't until late into the season that he settled into a traditional setup role. For most of the year, that responsibility belonged to Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley.
Adam Warren, Workhorse
Last season the Yankees used Warren as a true swingman and he was pretty damn good at it, especially by swingman standards. Getting 77 innings of 3.39 ERA (4.32 FIP) ball out of the last guy in the bullpen is really good. The Yankees moved Warren into a more traditional short relief role this season and he excelled. First and foremost, his fastball velocity ticked up noticeably:
Warren was Girardi's regular seventh and eighth inning guy in the first half while Kelley and David Robertson missed time with injuries. The second half was a bit rough — nine runs in his first 14 innings after the All-Star break, perhaps due to fatigue — but Warren settled down and finished very strong thanks to some mechanical tweaks suggested by pitching coach Larry Rothschild.
"Larry pointed out one day, maybe move your hands a little this way and and all of a sudden it's like, oh that feels a little bit better and you roll with it from there and you just kind of tinker with things until it feels right," said Warren to Brendan Kuty in September. "Once things started to click it was like, oh, why didn't I think of that two weeks earlier? It's a process."
Warren allowed just two runs (both in one outing) on six hits and three walks in his final 15 appearances and 20 innings of the season. He struck out 21, including ten of the final 18 batters he faced on the year. Warren closed out 2014 with a 2.97 ERA (2.89 FIP) in 78.2 innings with a very good strikeout rate (8.69 K/9 and 23.5 K%) and solid walk (2.75 BB/9 and 7.4 BB%) and ground ball (45.4%) numbers.
Last season, Warren's main problems were the long ball and left-handed hitters. He allowed ten homers in those 77 innings (1.17 HR/9 and 13.2 HR/FB%) and lefty batters hit .301/.370/.526 (.387 wOBA) against him. This year it was only four homers in 78.2 innings (0.46 HR/9 and 6.0 HR/FB%) with a .170/.253/.271 (.239 wOBA) line by opposite hand hitters. That's quite the improvement. Probably too much of an improvement. Not sure if he can sustain that going forward, but it happened in 2014 and that's all that counts.
Anyway, given the team's rotation issues — there was plenty of talk of moving him back into the rotation after the injuries struck in the first half — Warren was especially valuable because of his durability. He recorded at least four outs in 29 of his 69 appearances, the second most in baseball behind Betances (35!). Sure, Warren has been a starter his entire life, but throwing multiple innings two or three times a week is no easy task. Outside of that little hiccup after the All-Star break, Warren was very good and very valuable to the 2014 Yankees. He soaked up a ton of important innings.
Shawn Kelley, Intermittently Awesome
When the season started, Kelley was Robertson's primary setup man. That was plan coming into the season after Mariano Rivera retired and the Yankees opted not to bring in some kind of veteran replacement. For a while, Kelley was excellent, pitching to a 1.88 ERA with 15 strikeouts and three walks in his first 14 appearances and 14.1 innings. He even went 4-for-4 in save chances while filling in for the briefly injured Robertson in April.
Then it all fell apart on May 5th in Anaheim. Kelley walked four of the six batters he faced and allowed three runs to blow a game. He landed on the disabled list with a back issue two days later and missed six weeks. Kelley looked shaky — his slider lacked its usual bite, specifically — but was generally effective in his first few outings back before settling down. He struggled in mid-July (seven runs in the span of three appearances at one point) and again in late-September (four runs in his last four outings) to close out the year.
Kelley finished the season with a 4.53 ERA (3.02 FIP) in 51.2 innings. He struck out a ton of batters (11.67 K/9 and 30.5 K%) but also walked a few too many (3.48 BB/9 and 9.1 BB%) and didn't get any ground balls (33.6%). Kelley actually kept the ball in the park (0.87 HR/9 and 8.9 HR/FB%) and handled left-handed batters (.221/.311/.301, .269 wOBA) better than I remember. Like most middle relievers, there were times he was really great and times he made you pull your hair out.
After starting the season as the first option behind Robertson, Kelley closed the year behind Betances and Warren on the setup man totem pole. The injury really seemed to knock him off track in May, but, as we've seen these last two years, Kelley is prone to spectacular meltdowns. That's baseball. The good generally outweighs the bad — few guys can miss bats like this, that's a valuable skill — and at times Kelley was a very important member of the bullpen in 2014.


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particularly in the 10 mainstem states, is crucial. Coordination among other federal agencies is also necessary, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have CWA-related programs and responsibilities along the river, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has some water quality monitoring responsibilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
This chapter examines programs under the Clean Water Act in which federal, interstate, and state-federal coordination is needed for effective water quality protection in the Mississippi River. It examines existing and potential collaborations among states, EPA regions, and other federal agencies pertaining to Clean Water Act implementation, and the experience of various organizations that have been established to facilitate state and federal coordination on other shared U.S. waters. Finally, the chapter assesses the potential for using some of the approaches adopted by these organizations as models for improving Mississippi River water quality management.
As this report has explained, the pillars of the Clean Water Act are effective National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) point source permitting programs that achieve best available treatment technology; water quality standards comprising designated uses and water quality criteria; adequate monitoring to ensure protection of water quality and achievement of water quality standards; assessment to evaluate water quality status; and restoration programs to improve waters with impaired water quality relative to designated uses. For interstate rivers, coordination among states is important for effective implementation of each of these Clean Water Act components.
Water quality standards are central to Clean Water Act implementation. As explained earlier in this report, states develop standards for particular waterbodies that consist of use designations and criteria for the waterbody's physical, chemical, and biological quality. States and the EPA use these standards to establish water quality-based effluent limitations for point source discharges, to assess surface water quality, and to develop restoration programs, based on TMDLs, for waterbodies that do not meet standards. Different use designations and associated water quality criteria established by different states for the same shared waterbody can lead to conflicts in permitting, monitoring programs, assessment conclusions, and restoration strategies.
Monitoring programs that both state and federal agencies administer are critical to the ability to determine the extent to which surface waters are meeting relevant water quality criteria, to understand trends and existing

subset: commoncrawl


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So I thought I could handle RPing by way of switching accounts, but I apparently was wrong. All I've been doing lately has been switching between accounts and watching other people have fun, and that's just not good for me. So I'm going on an official hiatus. I don't mind giving people my skype, but I'll warn you, I'm bad at chatting, like seriously, ask anyone, but feel free to ask if you want it. This is my personal, which generally has some level of activity. I'm sorry, I'm sure I'll be back in some capacity eventually.
A Few Best Men on the red carpet in Rome!
I worked hard on Marcus' assignment, but I didn't end up using Nick as a subject. Instead I chose a stranger, someone I'm only starting to figure out, someone I'm a little scared of: me.
God I miss that look
I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.
Stephanie is mostly retired from every day heroing, only venturing out when a backup is necessary. She took over Thompkin's clinic, still operating under the same rules set by her predecessor, taking in criminals and addicts, including the backdoor for vigilantes. She married Dmitri Quinzel in her twenties, has a lovely young daughter, Nadya, and continues to have teen heroes in and out of her guest room regularly. Lately she's been keeping her eye on Glory, a Batgirl wannabe who Steph gave her Spoiler costume to.
This also ties in to the Stefaniya verse
After Dr. Thomkins spirited away a "dead" Stephanie Brown to Africa, she stayed there another year until she was 18, then returned not to Gotham, but to start a new life in New York City. Leslie helped her find a tiny apartment and a job at a women's clinic. It wasn't long before the nights called to her once again, leading Stephanie back out to take up her Spoiler name in Hells Kitchen.
This is a young vigilante with something to prove, she fights harder with every hit a memory from her torture and each fight another girl staying safe at night. She still pulls her Spoiler gear, but has since lost the cape. Hood, mask, and belts are plenty.
This is my answer to having a Marvelverse for this account.


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CCMH collaborates with Midwest Heart and Vascular to bring community additional cardiology services, enhancing patient care.
Read More »
The 2014 Annual Carroll County Community Health Fair
Read More »
CCMH Auxiliary is hosting the Fall Book Fair to help raise funds towards a sound system for the MRI machine.
Read More »
Details about the fantastic event are available by clicking the link:
Diabetes Nite at The Y


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Agricultural Summary: Last week, precipitation received in eastern Colorado replenished soil moisture supplies. Fieldwork was limited in some localities by the precipitation while hail storms were noted in the eastern and southeastern districts, with hail damage reported to have occurred in some localities. Cool conditions later in the week throughout northeastern Colorado resulted in slowed crop growth. Warm, dry conditions and localized storms were experienced early last week across the San Luis Valley, spurring potato development until cool temperatures prevailed during the latter half of the week. Conditions remain excessively dry elsewhere with drought conditions noted in some localities. Mountain snowpack was 210 percent of average as of June 4. Farmers were allowed 5.0 days in the field for spring operations.
Small Grains: As of last week, barley and spring wheat were 4 and 3 percent headed, respectively. Development of both crops was behind 12 percent headed on average. Eighty-five percent of the winter wheat crop was headed, up from 63 percent previously. Thirteen percent was turning color, compared with 3 percent last year and the average of 21 percent.
Row Crops: A gain of 20 percentage points was achieved in the planting of dry beans last week, which remained behind average. Thirteen percent of the crop had emerged, compared with 11 percent last year and 17 percent on average. Fifty-five percent of potatoes inside the San Luis Valley were emerged by week's end, ahead of 33 percent last year and 38 percent on average. Eighty-eight percent of potatoes outside the San Luis Valley had emerged, ahead of 69 percent last year and the average of 66 percent. Sorghum was 38 percent planted, behind 53 percent last year and 55 percent on average. Nineteen percent was emerged, ahead of 10 percent on average. Sunflower planting progress gained 21 percentage points last week, ending on 34 percent complete.
Pasture and Range: Pasture and range conditions were rated 63 percent fair to good across the State. Last year, 40 percent was rated fair to good while 59 percent is fair to good on average. The first cutting of alfalfa ended with 38 percent complete by week's end, compared with 39 percent last year and the average of 43 percent.
Livestock: Death losses for cattle and sheep remained mostly average to light with no significant changes from the previous week. Stored feed supplies improved slightly since the previous week and remained mostly adequate to short.


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Kenmore upright freezer model 29502
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I can understand your concern on wanting to obtain certain information on your upright freezer. I did some research and provided a link to the manual for your specific model. The manual usually contains a lot of helpful information and frequently asked questions. I hope this will help you out until the Expert responds to your question in more detail within 24 to 48 hours.
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Mountain Mike's Universal Skull Master Deer Mounting Kit
Product #: 835379 Mountain Mike's #: MMR SM UPC #: 792382301126
Product Information
The Mountain Mike's Skull Master Deer Skull Mounting Kit is just what you need to create a great looking European mount with shed antlers or antlers from your own trophy. This kit includes all the hardware you need to attach a set of antlers to the included skull, and it even has two different size interchangeable top sections so you can decide which size you need to fit your antlers properly. With the Mountain Mike's Skull Master Kit you will never have to mess with boiling a skull again.
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Category Archives: Family
A Family Affair at Frankie's 570
Why do people go to restaurants? The most obvious answer is to eat and that is certainly true. There is little point in going to a restaurant if not to eat, but one does not necessarily need to go to a [...]
Posted in Cheese, Cocktails & Libations, Culinary Personalities, Family, Food and Drink, New York City, Pastry, Restaurants, Slow Food, Traditional Ethnic, Travel, Wine Tagged Arthur on Smith, Brooklyn, family dinners, Ferdinando's Foccaceria, Frank Castronovo, Frank Falcinelli, Frankie's 570, Frankie's Spuntino, Gargiulo's, gnocchi, Italian restaurants, Italian-American traditional cooking, Joe Isidori, Monte's Venetian Room, NYC, NYC dining, NYC Restaurants, Ryan Bartlow, Teddy's, Two Toms 1 Comment
Daikaya – DC's Delectable Duo
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I look forward to attending the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in NYC's Madison Square Park on Madison Avenue every year and have attended all but one (missed it because of a conflict with my son's college graduation) over the [...]
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Eating (and Drinking) Excels at Estela: Part 1 – Brunch
When we first sat down at Estela and perused the brunch menu, my first inclination was that my first time there should have been for dinner. It was just brunch, after all. While it would likely be good, they had [...]
Perfektion at Pakta
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Posted in Cocktails & Libations, Culinary Personalities, Family, Fine Dining, Food and Drink, LJ Sconzo, Pastry, Photo Posts, Restaurants, Slow Food, Spain, Top Restaurant Meals, Traditional Ethnic, Travel, Wine Tagged Albert Adriá, Barcelona, Catalunya, elBulli, Jorge Muñoz, Jorge Muñoz Castro, Kioko Li, Nikkei Cuisine, Pakta, Peruvian cooking, Peruvian cuisine, Peruvian-Japanese, sake, Spain 4 Comments
A Few Bites at The Boqueria in Barcelona
It may very well be the most famous food market in the world today. It is large, vibrant and contains an incredible selection of both fresh and cooked foods, ranging from immaculate fresh seafood to a surfeit of meat and [...]
Posted in At the Market, Bistronomic, Culinary Personalities, Culinary Shopping, Family, Food and Drink, Photo Posts, Regional, Slow Food, Spain, Traditional Ethnic, Travel Tagged Barcelona, Boqueria, cigalas, food markets, Juanito Bayen, Kiosko Universal, Mercat de Santa Caterina, Mercat de St. Josep, Pinotxo, Quim de la Boqueria, Quim Marquez Duran, Santa Caterina Market Leave a comment
Around the World in 41 Courses – The 41º Experience
The full elBulli experience will never be replicated. While the food was of paramount importance, the magical setting of Cala Montjoi, the paradoxically traditional decor of the restaurant space and the creative ferment of the kitchen all combined as major [...]
Bodega 1900 – Beguiling In Barcelona
It's tiny and it's mostly (but not totally) classic. Bodega 1900 is the most recent opening in Albert Adria's growing empire of restaurants located around the Avinguda del Paral-lel between the Ciutat Vella and Montjuich. Situated within blocks of Tickets/41º, [...]
Posted in Bistronomic, Cocktails & Libations, Cooking, Culinary Personalities, Family, Fine Dining, Food and Drink, Pastry, Photo Posts, Restaurants, Slow Food, Spain, Top Restaurant Meals, Top Tastes, Traditional Ethnic, Travel, Wine Tagged 41º, Albert Adriá, Barcelona, Bodega 1900, elBulli, L.J. Sconzo, Pakta, Pedro Asensio, sea urchin, Spain, Spanish restaurants, spherical olives, Vermouth, Vermuteria, Yauarcan 11 Comments
The Art of The Iberian Pig – A Week in The Heart of Spanish Pork Country – Part 5 – Los Pedroches
We had one more day of pig ahead of us, but we had to get up and out early to do it. We left Sanlucar after breakfast driving east into a bright sun. We made our way up past Sevilla, [...]
Posted in Architecture, Culinary Personalities, Family, Fine Dining, Food and Drink, Madrid Fusión, Pastry, Regional, Restaurants, Slow Food, Spain, Top Tastes, Traditional Ethnic, Travel, Wine Tagged Chinchon, COVAP, dehesa, el secreto, Iberian pigs, Iberico, Jamón Iberico de Bellota, La Balconada, la pluma, la prensa, La Puerta Falsa, Los Pedroches, Manuela Nieto Recio, solomillo, Spain, Spanish restaurants, Villanueva de Cordoba Leave a comment
A Seaside Sojourn in Sanlucar de Barrameda
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text:
Question Detail
The art of making fireworks is called
- Chromatics
- Cosmogony
- Cosmography
- Cosmology
Answer: Option A
The science of the nature of heavenly bodies is called Cosmogony.
The science that describes and maps the main features of the universe is called Cosmography.
The science of the nature, origin and history of the universe is called Cosmology.


text:
Earn double miles for even more trips!
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Stacie from Yellow Spool shows how you can up-size a pleated skirt. You'll need to make a new waistband, but otherwise you won't be inserting any new fabric. Intrigued? Go to her tutorial to see how to do it.
[photo from Yellow Spool]
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Scented Sachet
This fragrant drawer sachet keeps clothes smelling sweet and makes for the perfect gift. It is made from scraps of fabric and netting and you only need a handful of potpourri or lavender to fill it. Cut out the star shapes using zigzag scissors to stop the edge of the fabrics from fraying. A star-shaped button makes a delightful finishing touch.
What You Need:
- Pencil
- Tracing paper
- Thin card
- Scissors
- Black felt-tip pen
- Zigzag scissors
- Fabric in a color of your choice
- Netting in a color of your choice
- Glue
- Handful of potpourri or dried lavender
- Star-shaped button
What You Do:
- Trace a 5-inch star shape, then transfer the design onto the thin card. Cut out the star and draw around it in black felt-tip pen on the fabric and netting. Cut out both stars with the zigzag scissors.
- Run a line of glue around the outer edge of the fabric star, leaving the top edge free from glue. Press the net star on top. Hold in place while drying.
- Pour the potpourri or lavender into the sachet through the hole in the top of the star.
- Run another line of glue around the top of the fabric star. Press the netting onto it firmly to close the sachet and prevent its contents from escaping. Finally, glue the star-shaped button to the front of the sachet. Set aside to dry.
Heart and flower sachets
Cut out the fabric and netting in the shape of a heart of flower, then finish with a button matching the color or shape of the sachet.
- Fill the sachet over a sheet of paper, then you can tip any spilled lavender or potpourri mix back into its container.
- Don't worry if you can't find a button that's star-shaped; just go for one in a color that matches.
- Refresh potpourri with 1-2 drops of essential oil of lavender every few months if the scent fades. (Have an adult on hand to prevent too many drops of oil spilling out.)


text:
Vile Bodies
'The Thing About Thugs,' by Tabish Khair
"The Thing About Thugs" is an odd confection of a novel, set mostly in what looks like late-Victorian London. The streets are gaslit. The underworld teems with the flotsam of empire: lascars, Irishmen and so on, the undesirables of many nations. The city is overwhelmed with crime and prostitution and an influx of immigrants. Opium dens abound. And a serial killer is on the loose. Known as the "head cannibal," he decapitates his victims after murdering them, but the heads are never found. The Metropolitan Police are baffled, as they were by Jack the Ripper, active in 1888, who also desecrated the bodies of his victims. Meanwhile, characters with names like One-Eyed Jack make shady deals in low taverns, and at the dinner tables of the upper classes Darwinian ideas are hotly debated. It feels as if we're in the disillusioned twilight of the 19th century, but our narrator — or one of our narrators — sitting in his grandfather's library "surrounded by Dickens and Collins," claims that his story is set in 1837, the year Victoria ascended to the throne.
This is an anachronism. But the author, Tabish Khair, seems to relish his plot's liberation from the more rigorous conventions of historical fiction. In his disregard for the proprieties, he's like some of the characters he's created in these bizarre but lively pages. For in his plotting, he scavenges so much material from so many different sources that his book at times resembles Dr. Frankenstein's monster, its bits and pieces barely held together with coarse stitching.
It won't do. Or, rather, it wouldn't do if not for the flashes of imaginative verve and insight that here and there illuminate the book and somehow keep it afloat. A couple of serious ideas struggle to assert themselves, but halfheartedly. The position of the colonial subject in the imperial city is one. Another is the implicit claim that since every story is the product of other stories, a writer needn't be shackled to notions of verisimilitude, historical precision, plausibility or even coherence. But if everything is possible then nothing really matters, and this is the risk Khair is running.
One major strand of the novel does read with a degree of authority and even originality. Amir Ali, a young man from "the ancient country of Hindoostan," serves various narrative functions, chief among them his position as a suspect in the case of the "head cannibal," which provides suspenseful drama toward the end of the book. Amir is also the lover of a house servant called Jenny, to whom he writes passionate letters in "cursive Farsi script" that tell the believable and at times moving story of his early days in his family's ancestral lands, of how he lost his home and eventually fell in with an English gentleman, whose interest he aroused by claiming to be a thug.
Thuggee was a centuries-old Indian practice of robbing travelers by first winning their trust, then asphyxiating them. It had complex and long-established customs, handed down from father to son. All this Amir describes to the Englishman, a soldier-scholar who brings him back to London to live in his house — where Amir meets Jenny, to whom he explains the subterfuge. He's making it all up so as to string along the Englishman, Captain Meadows.
But Meadows is a poorly drawn character. He lacks depth and dimension. We are simply meant to assume he's a good man. He's a student not only of thuggee but of phrenology. And it's here that Khair's project of nesting story within story, generating linkages between them, grows increasingly shaky. Phrenology, the study of the bony structure of the head, was based on the belief that character could be read from the skull's formation. Another of the novel's amateur scholars is Lord Batterstone. He's similarly sketchy, a bad man who employs what in the 18th and early 19th centuries were called "resurrection men" to dig up fresh cadavers — "things," in their slang — and sell them to medical schools for student dissections. The most infamous were Burke and Hare, who bypassed the recovery of corpses from graves and resorted directly to murder. One-Eyed Jack plays the role here.
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Golfrange Tuttendörfl
18 Aug 2010, by Michael Pallinger
click to view: window ~300Kb | fullscreen ~1Mb
Golf range Tuttendörfl in the early morning.
Equipment Used
Canon 350d, Samyang 8mm, Hand held, Hugin
Location & Nearby - Austria
|This panorama was shot here.
|One panorama here - click to view
|Many panoramas here - click for details/zoom
by Michael Pallinger


text:
Mark T. Wendell
Popular Teas from Mark T. WendellSee All 63 Teas
Recent Tasting Notes
An excellent pure white tea. Not a surprise, because Mark Wendell offers some super teas!
The flavor is delicate, but it doesn't lack in flavor. It has a crispness to it that I find very enjoyable. This crisp note is very invigorating! Sweet with hay-like notes. Gentle and earthy.
This tea is good for many resteeps too!
here's my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/12/12/china-mutan-white-tea-from-mark-t-wendell/
I decided to get all my Christmas cards done this morning.
Got the cards out and found my address book, and then went to fill up my tea kettle.
No water. What!??!
Apparently, my landlord came to fix some issues with our well and turned off the water.
Well, thought I, it should not take long, I will just get at these cards.
After a bit, when my card stack grew and my hand had a cramp in it, I thought surely they must be done.
It had been two hours and he was still out there.
I was starting to have a full on panic. You know…when you realize you have no water, suddenly the things you want to do most involve water usage.
Anyway, here it is, edging onto 1:30 pm and I am finally having my first cuppa of the day.
All my cards are written up and addressed and ready for the mailbox.
I have not had a genmachia in awhile, and when I placed an order with this company I realized I had a real hankering for Genmaicha, and I had not tried Mark T. Wendell's as of yet.
Genmaicha is not a tea I drink every day, and sometimes a week or two will go by with me not even thinking twice about it, but I like to keep it on hand, because when I want some, I do not like to be without.
Mmmmm. When I poured the water over the leaves that cozy, toasty, nutty odor enveloped my nostrils.
Gosh, I missed this stuff.
Taste is more delicate than some of the genmaicha's I have tried.
And the green tea is more sweet than a bit of a bite at the end, like in the others.
Tea color is a bright yellow.
Overall, very happy to have some of this tea in my cupboard as well as most of all in my cup:)
Will drink this more and see if it grows on me, at this point there is some other genmaicha's I have tried that I enjoyed a little better than this one. This is still quite good though.
Happy Monday, Ya'all!
I am currently eating carrot sticks in the attempt to remind my body of a food besides the carbs I have been ingesting the last 24 hours and drinking this tea because…well, just because! I don't need a reason to drink tea.
I am also browsing through a book I bought on my tablet called 'How to speak like Jane Austen and Live like Elizabeth Bennet' by Kaelyn Caldwell.
Its quite a delightful and fun little read.
Anywho, the name of this tea brought pine-y loveliness to mind and since its winter time and I live in the land of no trees (seriously) I had visions of snow covered pine trees in my head.
Well, I could have read the full description before my hurried purchase and I might have known that vision was incorrect.
However, despite all that, this tea is very tasty.
It's smell reminds me very much of a Milk Oolong.
It smells creamy and nutty.
I am getting a bit of sugared nuts and whipped cream, with a roasted veggie note…perhaps parsnips?
Taste will remind you that this is an oolong, a nice sweet, bright vegetal taste cuts through the creamy aroma, rounding off to just a dash of dryness at the back of the tongue.
A lovely tea, indeed!
Perfect companion to a bit of reading and for tagging along to the workshop for a woodcraft project this afternoon.
Have a Happy Day, all you lovely people!
Tea #12 from HHTTB2
Ever had steamed green beans with slivered almonds and just a tiny drizzle of butter?
That is this tea.
Vegetal, slightly nutty, and sweet with a creamy mouthfeel.
Hello, all!
I have been absent as of late because I have been trying to dwindle down my ever growing tea supply.
Quite proud that I am down to approximatively 35 teas.
Since I have been doing so well, I treated myself to a few teas when I made a recent Christmas order.
And this delightful tea was one of those treats.
The dry leaves are dark in color and there is a crisp earthy-ness to the smell.
The tea brews up to a lovely amber orange.
The tea itself smells quite different than the leaves, there is still a earthy type odor, but what comes out more prevalently is warm notes of chocolate and a tinge of spice and bright citrus.
Taste is a milder version of the smell.
A little spicy, slightly citrus, earthy chocolate.
Nice mouth feel.
Really is quite lovely and different Oolong.
Thanks, Sil! Glad to be back..you steepster folks are just terrible for trying to eliminate large tea stashes. You lovely enablers, you;)
Thank you, JJ!
KS,Ysaurella, and WPTC, Well, I realized that I could not possibly drink all the tea that I kept acquiring before they started to age or change in flavor.
I decided that really did not seem fair to the teas, my palate or my pocket book. Sigh…I hate when I am sensible;)
well, jane austen would be proud….. 'sense and sensibility' and all that! i've been sipping down fairly steadily. though i must admit i hoard my french teas in airtight containers. i sniff them, debate, and then put them away, lol.
i am amazed at the then and now of my tastes. where i began versus where i am…..
This Earl Grey is my benchmark by which I measure other Earl Greys. I've found a few different better, I've found worse (much worse). I "inherited" a 1 pound tin from a friend who had to swear off caffeine and its kept me going for the past year. Keep it sealed in an airtight container, that's the secret.
So this tea is a straight-up basic Earl Grey, no fancy citrus bits, no colorful cornflowers, just tea and bergamot. It has a high quality tea base…probably a blend, as I don't get specific regional notes like Ceylon or Assam.
Tea #9 from the HHTTB
Decent cup of green tea. It smells like it will be bitter, if that makes sense, but it isn't at all. It's a bright and sweet green tea. I tend to favor a stronger vegetal flavor, but this is good too.
Mmm, this is quite tasty! Very smooth, with a slight bit of smokiness and a little sweetness, too. Definitely a nice afternoon pick-me-up! Sort of reminds me of a softer version of Cara M's Sherlock fandom blend (Sherlock being a little spicier and less sweet). I shall have to do a side by side tasting of them at some point.
this is a GOOD jasmine tea!
i put a couple of pearls in my tiny cup and steeped for about a minute and it had unfurled!
jasmine scent is good-strong, not overpowering
jasmine taste is good-strong too. there was an almost imperceptible bitter aftertaste, will have to steep for a shorter time, maybe? still it fared better than the other jasmine i had steeped earlier and gave up on hot-steeping. the other jasmine also had that slight bitter after taste even after cold-steeping :(
this is my first jasmine pearl though so no points of comparison but this is the best jasmine i've had! haha
one time, i will have to steep at the same time as my other jasmines.
will update this upon re-steep <3
update: the 2nd steep normalized the flavor and i liked it the best. was able to steep about a couple times more of this goodness :)
Oh hey, this was actually on my shopping list! It caught my eye again on the SWAPs board, thank you momo for sending this to me. I find it amusing that three of the five people reviewing this tea (not including myself) passed it on to each other until it came to me over the last two years. Which explains why as soon as I brewed it I got a familiar odor that I have a very hard time describing but comes from teas that have been passed along or perhaps been in plastic bags too long, no matter if they are green, oolong or black. Sigh.
The dry leaf smells better than the wet, the second infusion is better than the first (which I had to toss, so lets just consider it a rinse shall we?) and the tea tastes much better cool than it does hot or warm. If I let it go cold I get a nice powder sugar/tree lichen/mushroom taste/feel that lingers on the tongue and that's about the only nice thing I can say. I get "mellow brew", but not the full body or bouquet, there's a bit of spice and the weird age notes are sharp at times. ::shurg::
Tis not Keemun and has lost the majority of it's former Formosa oolong mojo that other tea drinkers took note of. So Taiwanese Assam: win, Formosa Keemun: loose. Could be the age but I'm unlikely to acquire a new batch. I also don't know it this was fine cut to begin with or if I just got the dusty bottom of a bag of full leaf, but tis something to consider. Oh well, thanks for letting me try it momo. The good news? I have two Keemun's from Butiki to try!
Thanks TeaEqualsBliss!
I've had a pretty full day, going to the allergist, mailing stuff, picking up a prescription, eating a $10 lunch (!!! never again), buying a couple dresses for my Halloween costume to only find I might have an even better dress at home already, and then learning that if you walk around Goodwill with a hockey stick, people get the hell out of your way! That's for my boyfriend's costume, not me, don't think it works with a dress. I'm gonna be a Bond girl gone zombie.
And then best of all someone bought SIX lip balms from me, someone I don't even know!!! YAY the ads work! So that was thrilling.
Now it is tea time. I should have probably got out a regular keemun since I've been wanting one for days, and the other day I had one that was more like lapsang because it wasn't made properly (not by me!). This looks a lot like a Taiwanese oolong instead.
I steeped it in my gaiwan, 3 steeps of 15 seconds, 20 seconds, and 25 seconds and put all those steeps in one mug.
This is…weird.
It doesn't taste like Keemun at all, it tastes like a roasted oolong. And when it comes to Taiwanese oolongs, I'm just not a fan of those types. Baked wood chips. That's all I get. I think I'm going to add honey to it.
It's such a pretty color though. I wish I could paint with it.
Well, honey makes it better but it's still not my type of flavor underneath it all. I wish I could get into it but I just can't.
I was also really confused and disappointed in this one. Definitely doesn't smell, look, or taste anything like keemun. :(
I'm really confused why the name keemun is on it in the first place, being as it has no keemun qualities and doesn't come from the Qimen County. I'm gonna have to experiment with it and not think of it as a keemun and maybe I can like it. Haha…but please, go brew yourself some real keemun! :D
Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tisane.
It tastes very crisp and minty. Very minty! Cooling and vibrant. This particular Guayusa sold by Mark T. Wendell is a Runa brand. Here's my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/07/23/peppermint-guayusa-from-runa/
I'm glad the review for this one posted when it did … this is perfect for the change of seasons:
I'm not one of those people that will spend a lot of money on green teas because, case in point, you can get a very satisfying green tea that hits all the notes—sweet, light, pleasingly vegetal—for a very reasonable price, from the always reliable Mark T. Wendell company.
A cool foggy morning, waiting for the sun to shine and enjoying a gut-warming cup of one of my faves. My new favorite band, The Futurebirds streaming on Spotify and the kids off with my wife for an hour—a bit of calm plucked from what promises to be a busy afternoon of yard maintenance.
Ahhh…tea and music. Love Futurebirds, pure laid back enjoyment…a friend introduced me to their album Hampton's Lullaby last year cause I was totally hooked on this from the Beach House:
What a great suggestion that was! After reading your note, I found their new album, didn't know they had released new stuff so thank you for that :-) It seems a little more uptempo, love the sound.
My summer find of the moment is Hummingbird from Local Natives (unintentionally staying on the bird theme it seems!)
Oops, sorry for highjacking your note with music reviews, just can't help myself sometimes!
Wow! Another Futurebirds fan. They're playing in my town on June 4th—lucky me. The new album is more uptempo—reminds me of another band I like—Beachwood Sparks. Thanks for the You tube links and keep the suggestions coming!