Some days I drink tea as an excuse to have time to write. Some days I write as an excuse to have tea. Some days I have tea because I was missing ingredients for dessert; some days I have tea with dessert. Some days I miss tea altogether; maybe I have coffee, or just water.

Vince and I have a recent running joke that his guinea pig would be a perfect graduate student. She's shy, and likes to hide in dark places; she gnaws on electrical cabling; and she would probably join any movement that offered free food. But, alas, I've decided I don't think most guinea pigs would be good graduate students after all. They have too high a self-preservation to curiosity ratio.

• Currently drinking: Earl Grey