Developments

Last night's scotch night was one for the record books: our goal was to do vertical tasting... some 10-15 or 12-18 year tastings. And yes, we did compare a Deanston 12 to a Deanston 17, and we were stunned at the difference - at how much richer the 17 is... and when revisiting the 12, you could totally tell the family traits, how the extra 4 years of maturation allowed certain flavors to mellow and others to bloom.

But the truly mind blowing moment was that Rich uncorked a Highland Park 25 year. This is over $200 for the bottle, and we were quite intimidated. But upon tasting (and as a cask strength, we needed to add a splash of water) the complexity of character was so amazing it was if the others were all two dimensional, and this was three. Or the others were sepia and this was technicolor. It just had such a rich, multilevel flavor that we felt honored to be tasting it.

Turns out, while cleaning, Rich happened across a stash of cash he had been paid 5 years ago for some freelance work. It was by all accounts now "Free Money" and he felt like treating himself (and us). BRAVO!

Ok, on to the non-scotch moments:

Isaac has had some major developments in the past two days. First, he's tantalizingly close to crawling - he's now able to inch forward so so slowly... it'll be game over for us. But more importantly, he started talking with GUSTO this weekend. Ah-Dah-Dah is his favorite, though Ah-GAH-Yah, Ah yah, and Da-Da-Yah are all other variants. He YELLS these words constantly while playing. In between maniacal giggles, that is.

We dropped him off at the nursery at church today, and when I picked him up 80 minutes later, the sitter was in awe - she had never had such a solidly happy guy. He apparently just laughed and played and never fussed even a bit. Good boy.

Bella and Isaac participated in their first Peace march today: We walked 2+ miles with around 4000 other peaceniks from uptown to downtown. Pamela decorated the stroller with cute signs like "Iraqi Kids: Wanna Play?" It was in the 40s and a bit windy and overcast, but it did not rain, so we were fortunate. For the record, we're not "chanters", so whenever somebody would start up with the "Whadda we want? Whendowewantit?" chant, we'd either stay silent until it died down, or we'd yell things like "HAM SANDWICHES! WITH MUSTARD!!!!" Really, does chanting help anyone?

So now I'm off to "work" - doing more music for Brainready audio projects, and coming up with still more exercises for our BR Book #3. It's most excellent.