Friday, February 26, 2010

Uisge Beatha, the Water of Life

Wednesday morning came like a kick to the head. A sinus headache, that was accompanied by some lovely drainage (the color is somewhere between neon and olive green for you interested medical types), and not enough sleep were enough to make me think of skipping my four hour peer review for work. After some saline lavages, two cups of coffee, and 400mg of Ibuprofen, I felt good enough to trudge onward. The excitement of the Whisky tasting got me through the day (and the excitement of seeing Erin and Scott too :) )

After dropping Dagan off at school, I made it to work only 30 minutes late (sorry guys-er, I mean ladies). We got six evaluations done, which was more than I'd thought we'd get. And guess what, it's snowing again! So, back home I go, thankful that the snow isn't sticking. John beat feet to his MRI appointment, but forgot his wallet...Classic Peg. After he got home, we spent the rest of the afternoon picking up around the house. John decided to wash his new sweater so he could wear it to the tasting. That's all well and good, but it's a lay-flat-to-dry garment. He pulled a soaking wet sweater out of the washer, and immediately put it back in, programming the machine to "spin-only" mode, which didn't do a damn bit of good either. The sweater was still wringing wet when it got done.
"Why don't you just wear your other beige sweater?" I asked.
"I don't like the way it fits me." He said.
"Isn't that sweater supposed to lay flat to dry?"
"Yeah."
"Then why'd you wash it? We've gotta leave in like three hours." I reminded him. His eyes darted around while his mind searched for a logical answer.
"Because it's never been washed...I'll just stick it in the dryer a minute." He decided.

Well, at 5:45 (we needed to leave by 6p.m.) the sweater was still very wet, but somehow not shrunken despite the fact that he used HIGH heat. "It's just a little damp, it'll be fine." He says as he gets dressed. It was not "a little damp." It was wet. I shook my head warily at him.
"Just wear the other one."
"It'll be fine." He repeated. Yeah right, I thought.
My aunt Jane had come over to keep the kids while we went out. This was our first night out besides music shows in two years. And by this time (6 p.m.) I'd already gotten a text from Erin saying they'd made it and had a table for us. Just great, we hadn't even left yet. "We're leaving now" I typed slowly, I'm not so savvy with the texting. I yelled towards the bedroom that we needed to go. I'll never understand how a man can take longer than a woman to get dressed. Maybe it's because I don't wear make-up, who knows, but it takes me no longer than 10 minutes to get dressed.
John came out wearing the "other sweater."
"Not dry enough?" I snickered.
"No."

After driving the speed of an elderly woman all the way to Murfreesboro, we got there only 10 minutes late. We had a short time to chat with Erin and Scott before the tasting started. Besides an awkward call during the tasting from the MICU educator, there were no interruptions.
Ed Kohl gave a slide show presentation during the tasting that showed us the entire process of making single malt whisky...very informative. There were eight whiskies to try, and I was very surprised that John participated. I'm not sure how much he liked them though. I really liked four of the whiskies (asterisks next to my favorites below) and purchased two bottles (#1&4) to pick up in three weeks.

* 1. 1999 Auchentoshan, Lowland 10 yr. 92 proof-light and easy, doesn't linger too long
2. Edradour, S. Highland 10 yr 92 proof-strong, a little oily texture
3. 1997 Mortlach, Speyside 12 yr 86 proof-like drinking fire or a ninja punch
*4. 1994 Glen Rothes, Speyside 15 yr. 92 proof-nice kick but smooth too
5. 1998 Clynelish, N. Highland 11 yr. 86 proof- a little peat/smoke flavor
6. Isle of Skye, Island 8 yr. (blended) 86 proof
*7. 2001 Laphroaig, Islay 8 yr. 92 proof -very smokey, like Lagavulin :)
*8. 1998 Glen Ord, N. Highland 11yr cask strength 120.6 proof-didn't write anything down for this one, I guess my head was swimming too much by that time. But I do remember liking it very much.

We had a wonderful time, and can't wait to try more in Scotland.
Note to self: research the customs laws on bringing back whisky :)
Photo below: (from left- Scott Moyers, Erin Moyers, myself, and John)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a really good time, and we ordered the same 2 bottles of whisky. We'll have to get together and have a drink when they come in :)

Aven said...

Absolutely!!