Space aliens

Consider the size of this crab. Consider that my engineer's mom is almost 6 feet tall (she is a tall lady, yes indeed). Consider that NYC's Chinatown may one of the few cities in a developed nation where your food can eat YOU.

The previous photo was sent to me by my sweetie's niece, and was taken during our dim sum outing over the haoliday break. She is a very sweet young lady who brought me (handmade?) chocolates from a local shop in Florida for my birthday. Consider that she had never met me before! (Okay, okay, also consider that I am going out with her favorite uncle, so really, it's a transitive thing.)

Speaking of mutants (the crab! not the niece!!) I have come up with a solution to the potentially harmful effects of plastic leaching into the 64 oz. of water I try to drink daily at the office (yes, that is one gallon -- I do trek off down the hall to the loo quite a bit: or as one wiki suggested, it's hard to fall asleep at your desk when you're going to the WC every 30 minutes): a glass bottle is my friend!

Yes, a 750 ml green San Pellegrino bottle (coincidentally, the size of a wine bottle, no?) now is my constant desktop (furniture, not PC!) companion. However, since it holds only 25 fl. oz. this means quite a few trips to the UV-filtered water fountain in the pantry.

Oh, and in case you are curious, here is a link to a chart from Mother Jones which delineates which grades of plastic are preferable for food / water / microwave use. Haven't actually read the accompanying article yet.

And since we're on the topic of food-related info, here is a link to the Mayo Clinic's listing of caffeine content in different foods and drinks.

I now return to paid informational research, now that lunch time is OVAH.