Cranberry Autumn

Eeeee that is such a good idea. I tend to re-read the books before each film comes out – I’m such a nerd! (I also rewatch all of the Lord of the Rings films every winter holiday – supernerd!).

Next semester my class is the Literature of Childhood, and one of the books we are reading is the Prisoner of Azkaban – can you imagine how excited I am!?!?!

I rewatch the Lord of the Rings about once a month! Can’t wait to see the Deathly Hallows!

I LOVE Harry Potter. I’ve read all the books at least 3 times, and now am re-reading them with my 9-year-old. I am so anxiously awaiting the release of these last 2 movies.

Love the seasonal movie nerdiness…I’m pleased; the temperature is finally going to be right this weekend for the Annual Viewing of Dead Poets’ Society. (Must NOT be watched until the daily high does not exceed 55 degrees. Carpe diem!)

gmathis – I shall take up your tradition :) I think it’s 56 today! Maybe a week or two away for me :)

I wish the books were available for the kindle. I suppose I could always get then from the library to re-read them. I just prefer reading on the kindle now that I have one. I’ll be sad when the last two movies are through:(

I just ordered 4oz of this, coming in tomorrow :D

I recently got a Sony Reader so I totally understand the digital book love! I’m reading David Copperfield on it now – I am loving all the free olde books because most of my copies of the classics are worn paperbacks and unpleasant and hard to read.

Thank you for keeping Thanksgiving separate and special. I’ve had a turkey on my front door since mid-October!

the us just needs to get with the program and move thanksgiving to october where it should be :) Then its much easier to keep the two separate!

oooh, new tea shops! There aren’t nearly enough of them in the core downtown area where I usually am.

Kensington Market is turning out to be a surprisingly good place to go for teas! And there are tons along Queen Street, we’re going to check out Pippins soon on *Uniquity*’s recommendation.

Aww. Sad.

I’m sad to hear your experience went worse than my own…But on the plus side, your Alice teapot is (hopefully) available at Pippins! Hopefully you can find some more excellent indie stores and make me jealous once again. : )

Uniquity, we tried to spot by Pippins yesterday, actually, I thought of you! We’d never been to that part of Toronto before, it was gorgeous! The teapot there is out of our price range, but we found it elsewhere online. I was just utterly disgusted by the complete lack of customer service. But we look forward to exploring a few more tea shops we’ve found in the area!

I wouldn’t be afraid to let Harney know of their abysmal performance on this front, if I were you. I know you’ve sent e-mails already to them, but to lose not one but many customers (as this is, for the tea community, a pretty “public” gaffe) is something that should be of major concern to them.

I’ve sent many emails, and contacted whoever runs their twitter (I actually got a response there) The twitter convo is as follows:

Me: Utterly disgusted with @HarneyTea. We placed an order on 4/8, still not shipped. Customer Service less than helpful. Canceling our order.

Harney: I apologize for the problems, and our failure to respond to you quickly. Pls. let me know how I can help to make this right.

Me: Improve your international customer service and respond to emails. It shouldn’t take 2 weeks to process an order.

I don’t think anything will actually come of it, but this is just ridiculous. I’m thinking of one last email to customer service, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. I do plan to continue to warn my Canadian friends away from them. The tea is good…but not good enough to make up for this junk.

In other news, had a very nice conversation with the people at Pippins today, I might be getting my teapot there after all!

I’ve gotta say, any US based company (tea related or not) that treats Canadian orders as if they’re going to the moon automatically turns me off. I expect lengthy shipping times and potential customs problems, butas you’ve rightly said before, in some cases we are closer than outlying states. I can imagine how the poor Alaskans and Hawaiians must feel (You know how you always see “Free Shipping! Except to Alaska and Hawaii”…)

Yeah, I put the effort into a long, long e-mail to customer service laying out everything that happened that led me to cancel my order and sent it just now. I hope it’s actually read and I hope they actually do something because this is ridiculous and unneeded. We ordered a box of card games from Steve Jackson Games and it managed to be here in a little over a week, processing and shipping times. There’s no excuse for Canadian orders to be treated as “international” orders. In fact, on their website, International is defined as “outside the US or Canada”.

Blegh. I am so completely turned off by this company that I’m not sure I’d ever order from them again, even if they did clean up their act.

My update feed is throughly abused…congrats!

I was eyeing this one the other day when it was featured on the sidebar and really wanted some.

Although… if there’s hibiscus in it… My interest suddenly vanished.

I’m glad you’ve found a drinkable tea while sick though. I can’t really get proper tea down in that state, it tastes bad to me. Get better soon.

Sounds like it would have some vitamin C in it as well – good for what ails you!

Feel better soon!

Feel better soon!

@Jason I’m gonna count that as a win.

@Angrboda There is no way that my sense of taste or smell is in any way shape or form fit to pass actual judgment on whether there’s hibiscus in it or not. It does have a tartness to it, and given the penchant for hibiscus in fruit tea on the market, my mind automatically goes there now. However, for what it’s worth, there are actual dried cranberries in the mix.

@Angrboda, @Cynthia Carter, @jennlea Thank you! Here’s hoping!

@takgoti count that as a double win. Not only did you leave my update feed shriveling in the corner begging for death, you somehow managed to pass along your cold/flu bug through the interwebs. damn you and your likable but (apparently) viral content… :)

Excellent…most excellent.

I’m totally adding viral to my resume.

Excellent?!?! All you’re doing by giving me your viruses is delaying my testing of the cool new features/designs we’re pushing out soon!

I TAKE IT BACK! RECIND! RECIND! GET BETTER! Alohomora! Expelliarmus! Annnd…jazz hands!

Did it work?

Nope, but I’m still working. I guess you’re just lucky.

Hee, I win again. I like this game.

Excited to see what you guys are going to unleash on us!

Dude, “Alohomora! Expelliarmus! Annnd…jazz hands!” cracked me the eff up. I think I’ve found my tea soul mate.

Yay! Tea buddies! We need a secret handshake or something…

Yay! Glad you liked it!

Yes – I am super excited for a fruity black in the mornings! I am realizing that to get the best flavour in a travel mug, black tea is the way to go, and I don’t have too much that isn’t astringent/doesn’t get astringent after sitting, but I’m pretty sure this one is perfect :D

Yay! Congrats on pulling off a 20+ dinner and garnishing it with tea! : )

Thank you! It was all kinds of crazy but everything came together in the end and it was totally worth it! Do you have any huge feast holidays in Ecuador?

Hmm… Not quite feast holidays, more like holidays that have a particular food related to it. We celebrate “Day of the Dead” early November with doll shaped breads (usually filled with jelly or dulce de leche) and Colada Morada (a sweet stew made out of berries and spices). We also celebrate Easter with a rich soup that is made out all sorts of grains and cream (which is tasty, but incredibly filling).

But, Thanksgiving is very different. My mom was born in the US so we celebrate it every year, since there isn’t vacation we do it Saturday! : ) Can’t wait!

This tea is one of my favorites. So tasty. :)

Did you just change your name? ;-) I got all confused…

LOL I just did it today when I updated my profile. Figured I’d jump on the name change bandwagon. ;) I’m not 100% sure I’m keeping this one but I think I am. But I’m waiting to post until I’m sure (IE tomorrow) b/c I don’t wanna change than change again. #indecisivemuch But I’m back posting I think now, instead of just loitering and reading. Sharp eye for catching it so quickly !

I saw the avatar and went-whoa, who is using Chrine’s teacup? And then I went to your log and realized it was you. I vote for keeping the name. I love NYC also-lived there for a lot of years and miss it terribly.

Ty. =) My mom is from there. And I thought the name was super cute spelled like that !

I just saw Harney and Sons tins at the Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble bookstore! What the heck?

It’s on the Chapters website as well.

Really? I’ll keep my eyes open!

Yeah…still think I’d order through hArney though, selection will be better and for some reason in my head its fresher whether that’s true or not lol

Agreed…H&S has figured out how to package the season!