I was adamant about not leaving our old trees on the front porch. Mostly because I have this worry that some random arsonist is going to walk by and see the opportunity. And set our house ablaze with the flick of a match.
Liz has mocked me mercilessly about this, the last few days. But I’m solid in my sense that doing so would be dangerous in the city. Tempting fate, by leaving this uber flammable thing that’s visible from the street.
We brought a few things to share. And also got to sample some Armagnac that Katie and Tim picked up, while they were in southern France earlier this year.
An early joint gift: a sampler of “sherry bombs.” I figured this was something we could try out together. Funny enough, we were already familiar with a few of these: Arran as well as Auchentoshan.
Ah, dang.
Back at the house, Sandy’s cozied up in the living room.
to Merrilville… to hang out with Julie and Bob, and Katie and Tim’s family. We had a big dinner planned, with folks arriving in the afternoon for drinks and gift exchanges.
Part of my gift to Liz: three different bottles from Darkness, a bottler that specializes in Sherried Octave casks.
Jahnu, showing off the custom socks he got (featuring a photo of Kaya on the socks).
Note to self: next year, take this photo and print them on a new pair of socks. Repeat for the next 30 years.
I have vague memories of playing as a kid. And the sound of Mahjong tiles clacking together is something I hear, when imagining my grandmother’s house on the South Side of Indy. But while I think I know the rules, I never learned them officially.
We were thinking about using an upcoming weekend day to just relax and make cookies. But looking at our remaining time and our progress in the hallway, we realized we had more work and less free time than we anticipated.
So tonight, we made cookies. Or rather – everyone else made cookies, and I watched them. Liz brought a few recipes and was working on Oatmeal cookies and Sugar cookies.
One prompt in particular stands out. It was: “Politely tell your kidnapper that you need to go to the bathroom.” I forget who gave this answer, but the phrase “juice break” came up. And for the rest of the night (and the rest of our visit), that became a kind of in-joke that we kept going.
My sister didn’t remember it at first, but she recognized this photo. She kept saying “Who is that?” but couldn’t quite place where she recognized him from.
As I played the video, she started to remember bits and pieces. And it was hilarious, watching her remember all the various characters from this film.
This video by Charles Berthoud takes the “Increasing Difficulty” concept, and executes it perfectly. I was expecting some fancy bass playing, but I really wasn’t expecting the mind-numbing, two-handed, Stanley Jordan level sounds that came from this instrument.
Checking out how the family photos (and the silly one in particular) turned out.
A view of the chaos, from above.
