teapot

We often serve tea to guests, and would use Mitka's clear glass teapot with a glass strainer.  The last time we had guests, Yasha dropped the strainer in the sink and broke it, so he promised to buy Mitka a new teapot.  We got it today.  It is also clear glass, but has a metal strainer and lid; the idea was that a metal strainer would not break.  When we looked at the pot, it looked much smaller than the old one, but Yasha poured liquid from one to the other, and they're about the same.  The more spherical one just has a smaller area when you look at it.

The teapot came with a free sample of tea: apple spice black tea.  Yasha was pleasantly surprised, and commented that we should break teapots more often because then we'd keep getting these cool samples.

As the tea was steeping, we noticed that the strainer was positioned crookedly with respect to the rim of the pot.  We wobbled it and noticed that there were four nubs that looked like they'd lock the strainer in place if you pushed it in firmly.  Mitka tried to push it in; Yasha worried about upending the hot tea.  With one enthusiastic push, the lid suddenly flipped upside down on top of the strainer.  We pulled it out and set it aside.

The tea finished steeping, and Yasha removed the strainer full of leaves and poured tea for everyone.  The lid was hot, so he picked it up with a towel, aligned it carefully with the rim of the teapot, and dropped it... straight down into the tea.  Apparently the lid is smaller than the pot, and needs the strainer.  We laughed and laughed at the lid sitting in the tea at the bottom of the pot.

We drank our tea, and Yasha picked up the pot to pour himself more.  He tipped it carefully so that the lid would stay in the bottom of the pot, but eventually it tipped far enough that the lid tipped sideways with a soft clink... and tea started coming out the side.  Then glass fell out and the knob of the lid poked through as we all gasped and jumped back.

That was fast.  Yasha recalled that he _had_ said we should break teapots.

Another thing that happened: I was talking about things the AC (academic coordinator) does to prepare for camp.
Lucia:  "Okay, I'm really confused, because to me, AC means air conditioner."
Mitka:  "Yeah, there are actually two kinds of ACs.  One of them holds a long pole with fans at either end, and is responsible for spinning round and round..."
(Yasha protests and looks confused.)
me:  "Yasha, are you actually confused?  Mitka is saying that if a human's role is to be the air conditioner, then this is what they must do."
Yasha:  "Ah, yeah.  It occurred to me that he could be making a joke, but that didn't make any sense because I couldn't see any way that could be funny."
Lucia:  "That's so nice of you."
Mitka:  "You must just really like my face pan."
me:  "... I don't think it's called a face pan."
Yasha:  "Straight face.  No, there's another one---deadpan!"
Mitka:  "Well, I didn't say dead face."