there is no other word for it - i'm zua* - and have all the symptoms to show for it. i know very well why this is so - chocolate has been flooding in from every direction for bear's birthday, and he has given me permission to eat them. von, in addition to the panda bar, has also brought me kinder bueno, and i had just bought myself six cartons of chocolate bahlsens (ostensibly for bear's party next week, but really to get through the remaining of my papers.) unlike people with self-restraint, (su-lin, for instance,) i don't hoard prize boxes of chocolates to reward myself at future, strategic moments. if someone puts chocolate in front of me, they can be sure that I Will Eat It. very well, upon my own head be it. i have eaten it all, and though i am at death's door not a cocoa bean is regretted. now what i need is chrysanthemum tea, water chestnut juice, or ya pears. all of which will restore the cooling balance; none of which is available. but i do have apricot kernels and white fungus, both of which (i think) are cooling. are they not? white fungus is good for the pulmonary system. an investigation shall ensue.

* i have not yet found a satisfactory way of explaining zua to those who have not grown up with this belief, except to say that in chinese medical theory of bodily balance (which is akin to the western medieval theory of humours) to be zua means that i have an excess of heat. this is Not Good For One.