wow!  someone else who knows what i’m talking about!

sort of related…what i’m really finding bizarre right now is that i’m reading a lot of mommy blogs.  maybe it’s because stay-at-home-moms have more time to blog?  maybe it’s because i really enjoy the antics of little kids because they’re HILARIOUS?  i dunno.  either way, barking mad is simply awesome because a) she’s human and doesn’t shy away from that in her blog (which makes for some hilarious reading), b) she has more animals that i’ve probably had in my lifetime, and would have even more if she’d just let them come and live in her house, which i have no doubt that they would do given the opportunity, and c) because her family? is adorable.

okay okay, i know i’ve been really bad about blogging.  why, you ask?  hm.  probably because i hate writing.  i know that this is a strange concept, given that i’ve been blogging for about 5 years now.  however.  the fact remains that i really dislike writing, and the only reason why i’ve managed to write for as long as i have is because i really enjoy clicking on “save,” “post” or “publish” (depending on which blog service i’m using) and seeing MY WRITING (as crap as it may be) on a website.  i’m easily amused like that.

so, a lot has happened in the last week.  last week sam had to go down to derby for work on wednesday, then returned thursday just in time to head over to The State for the usual thursday evening pint or three with friends.  friday night we headed out to the twisted wheel to celebrate his friend ian’s birthday.  here’s some pics of the group, a few of which were during a session of passing my glasses around.  (and no, i didn’t get any photos of the birthday boy, which is completely shameful, i know.)

saturday saw us heading over to sam’s boss’s house for dinner, drinks, and to meet Neala, the dog that sam and/or i may or may not be housesitting in a few weeks while The Boss and family go on vakay.  (that was a long and complicated sentence.  sorry ’bout that.)  so we headed out in the afternoon, and had a pretty crummy drive, being that it was rainy most of the day.  as they live about 45 minutes to an hour away from glasgow, they invited us to stay the night, which was really cool because 1) they had a spare bedroom with an ensuite bathroom and 2) we (or sam) could drink and not have to worry about the long drive back to the city.  and if i may say?  their house is BEAUTIFUL.  okay, granted, it’s sort of built in an american style, but the main living room/kitchen/dining room is one big room with vaulted ceilings and huge windows on three sides, and it may be exactly what i’d want for a main room.  very conducive to a lively social atmosphere, and with two small daughters, it’s definitely lively.  there was one point in the evening when there were five (!) children running around and yelling, and i thought to myself “wow, i feel like i’m at my sister’s house” and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. (although it was kind of a loud thing.)

one thing that i will definitely say for The Boss is that he makes a really mean pizza.  he had a HUGE ball of pizza dough ready to go, and had all sorts of toppings to go with: chicken, peppers stuffed with greek cheese, salami, mushrooms, grilled courgettes (zucchini to those in the US), goats cheese, carmelized onions, pepperoni, OHMYGOD i am making myself hungry just thinking about it.  they were all thin crust, so of course that means you can eat twice as much.  i must have had two whole pizzas by myself.

after dinner (and after the girls had gone to bed), we sat at the table and talked for awhile, and the subject of scotch came up somehow.  i mentioned that i wanted to try scotch at some point, and possibly go on a scotch tasting.  and i didn’t even think of it at the time i said that (i swear i didn’t!), but i forgot that The Boss’ wife works for one of the larger whisky companies in Scotland.  so upon hearing that i wanted to try it, she got up and whipped out four glasses and poured a different scotch into each one for me to try.  she even went through and told me the benefits of drinking it straight, with ice, or with water, and WOW it makes such a difference.  (for the record, i will probably be drinking scotch with water from here on out.)

so that i remember, i tried glenmorangie quinta ruban (port cask), the scotch malt whisky society (“may contain nuts”), balvenie 2 cask 12 y.o. (sherry cask), and ardbeg 10 y.o. (which quite frankly, tasted like plastic and iodine d/t being peat-smoked. er…NOT my favorite).  i really liked the glenmorangie and the balvenie the best, and so i’m going to have to keep an eye out the next time i go to oddbins.    at any rate, it was really nice to have someone to sit down and explain the differences in the types of whiskys, what i should be tasting, and to talk to someone who really had a thorough knowledge of the products. (and apparently, prior to this job she didn’t like whisky? coulda fooled me!)

yikes! meeting sam and some friends at the pub, so i’ll have to cut this short, but more to update (hopefully tomorrow)!

but i leave you with my favorite loldog: