Scotch Malt Whisky Society, February 2026 Outturn
Had another fun night tasting whisky with Liz, at the local SMWS outturn event in Chicago.
Posts Tagged "liz"
Hazel and Hugo: Last Bonding Session
Tonight more or less sealed the deal: Hazel and Hugo, despite what seemed like an incredibly positive first encounter… are not meant to be a pair.
Which leaves us in a challenging position. We now need to figure out two separate spaces for them. And while Hazel seems more of a solo bunny, Hugo is still desperately in need of a friend (he really hasn’t been the same since Daisy passed).
Mistakes Were Made
Then I looked over, and noticed by wife. Who said to me “Mistakes were made.”
And around then is when I noticed how hazy the air was in the basement. And how everything seemed to have a slight layer of dust. Which ended up not being dust, but ash.
Trim Cuts and Cleanup
After the work of cutting everything, we tackled reorganizing our piles. We had smaller groups of trim for each window, but also had a lot of stuff that wasn’t going to be used in the near future. And needed to get put away (for a while, anyhow).
Trim Cuts, Continued
Back in the basement, suited up after a long day at work. We were able to make more progress on pairing boards together. And got some rough cuts in, for the windows.
Trim Cuts
With our newer cut list defined, Liz went about trying to match boards for each window (casings to match the stool/apron, etc). And after all this planning and talk, we finally set about making a few cuts, tonight.
There’s more to do yet, but actually cutting down some boards into rough lengths was a big deal for us. Trim is a newer endeavor, and tonight was a big, first step.
Trim Discussions
But what started as some research into how to cut returns for a window stool… ended up being an all-day conversation.
We spent a long while looking over trim videos online, trying to track down how to measure/estimate the length needed to cut a return for a window stool.
Sorting the Trim, Continued
To get them off the tops of our sawhorses, we had to do this threading motion (feeding them in at an angle). A little challenging given that these were super-long boards, in a basement.
The storage we have against the wall is made of three sawhorses. Think about making a tight three-point turn in a car, and you’ll kind of get the gist of what we had to do.
Sorting the Trim
Liz, looking over the window trim. We set up a set of horses, where we were able to stack and assess each piece.
First Fire on the Last Day of the Year
Our first fire! It’s New Year’s Eve, and better late than never. Glad we got this in, in 2025.
I do have to say – this has been a long, long time coming. With the cost of fixing and updating a fireplace, we’ve held off on this for years because our money was better spent elsewhere – on more critical, infrastructure type work for the house.
To have this done and working is… difficult to describe. It’s a nice, warm feeling, both literally and emotionally.
Liz the Mason
Liz was a whirlwind around the house, today. Of the many things she was working on, she applied some mortar between the fireplace and our newly installed hearth.
Christmas in Chicago with the Holders
The Holders were away on a travel vacation over Christmas proper, but flew back in to Chicago yesterday. And so we made plans to hang out, and to have a late birthday dinner/celebration for Kirt.
After showing folks around our house (and our newly updated floors)… we decided on something for our afternoon: mini-golf.
Christmas in Indy, Day 4: Christmas Day
Post breakfast, everyone gathered in the new addition (a part of the house that I still refer to as “new,” despite it being over 30 years old). L to R, it’s Stacey, Shane, Liz, me, Nathaniel, Jasmine, Jahnu, and my mom (photo courtesy of dad).
Christmas in Indy, Day 3: Christmas Eve, Game Night, and Putting the Chinese and American in Chinese American
The goal is to steal a jewel from the museum. To do so, you need to move the locks off the top of a jewel, relocating them onto other locks… and to move the jewel onto a pedestal in the middle of the board.
The catch: each player gets to use just one tiny hand. The crew gets 90 seconds to complete the task, without bumping any of the lasers.
Christmas in Indy, Day 2: Dinner at Seasons 52
A pretty slow day, today. I was working, but everyone else mostly lazed around the house. Towards the evening, we all gathered at my sister’s house.
Stacey and Shane treated the whole family to a nice dinner at Seasons 52, over at Keystone.