George T Stagg: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

About 5 years ago I asked a guy in Wine Source what was the best whiskey because I wanted to buy some for a friend. When I told him price didn't matter he recommended George T Stagg. I bought a bottle and had to make a box to gift it in because the bottle is kind of tall.

When I got back to Texas I bought myself a bottle because I wanted to see if it was any good. Well, it is. It is apparently also in very short supply. Because I only have drops left in my bottle I decided to buy a new one. That wasn't as easy as just going to the store and picking it up. The liquor store in a nearby strip mall said they'd order it for me. A couple weeks later I went back in, and the manager said they couldn't find it.

I called the Wine Source and the Whiskey Guy--Tim, said he'd take down my email and let me know when he got some. Well, that email came last week and on Saturday I picked up my new bottle. The whiskey is nice and dark--uncut and unfiltered. Strong? Hmmmm. I suppose so--143 proof--handwritten on the label (the reason I bought the first bottle, I loved that detail). I guess I can finish off my old bottle now that I have a new one.

Garden in Pots

My potted garden is all planted now. I have (from the left) three jalapeño plants, rosemary, Greek oregano, sweet mint, Thai basil, sweet basil, and apple mint. I got the jalapeños a while ago, and a certain someone chewed on the leaves. They have survived though, and I even noticed that the flower fell off one of them and there's a little tiny nub of a jalapeño growing. I don't expect the sweet basil to last long (I kill it every year). It was half price at the store because the little basil plants are already starting to die off. I put some in tonight's dinner--along with some rosemary. I'm hoping the Thai basil takes off the way it did last year.

Twisted Prong

I messed up my diamond ring on vacation in Maui. How you ask? Surfing? No. Hiking? No. Zip Lining? No. What then? Reaching for a drink in the POS Chevy Aveo rental car that we had. What? Yep. The only apparent cupholder was at the back of the center console. I reached back to get the drink I had put there and my ring snagged on the crappy fabric armrest of the driver's seat (I was in the passenger seat, which didn't have an armrest.) Now my ring is unwearable. That's what I get for going on vacation as a married woman.

To Each Her Own

My mom sent me a cashmere robe. Luxe huh? Now I have two robes that I love--and that Bailey loves. Now she can lay on one while I wear the other. No more fighting over the robe. Now that the temperatures have risen Bailey doesn't always want to come to bed at night. If I lay the cashmere robe on the bed she curls up on it. My purring pillow.

Dreaded Wrinkle Wall Solution

My mom heard about my dreaded wrinkle wall and sent me these garter/suspender thingies. Ross put them on and they are working pretty well. We still have an occasional bump, but no more wall.

Elvis Costello Revolver Tour

First off, I'm going to complain. Not about Elvis, but about people. I don't like venues where beer is served, especially if you can take the beer to your seat. Why? People are constantly walking around (to go get beer, come back with beer, or go for a piss cause they drank so much beer), some people get drunk, and some of those drunk people get stupid. Two guys actually yelled at/jeered/heckled Elvis last night. I was in shock. It was rude. Beyond rude. I was worried that we'd all be punished if Elvis decided to walk off and not come back. But Elvis is cool. He walked off, changed jackets, and came back. Thank you Elvis.

So I was wondering why this tour was called the Revolver Tour. I guess it is for two reasons--he played mostly old songs, and there was a giant spinning wheel of songs on stage. After Elvis and the Imposters came out and played a couple of songs Elvis put on a top hat and grabbed a cane. He announced that his name was Napoleon Dynamite and that someone would have to come up and spin the wheel to pick the next song. He picked out a girl from the audience with a spotlight and she came up on stage, spun the wheel, and then she got to stay up on stage while he played that song and another one. She got to sit at "the lounge" and have a drink, and even got to dance in the go go cage and with Elvis. So cool.

A girl (with a really nice ass) in a crazy outfit (think bright colors, spandex, bell bottoms, stripes) brought people up onto the stage and they spun the wheel and Elvis played whatever the wheel said. The purple wedges had words on them that signified a set of songs. Somebody spun Napoleon Solo--which meant that Elvis got to pick the song and do a solo. Someone spun Joana, which is slang for piano, so Steve Nieve got to pick the song and Elvis sang it with only the piano and guitar. The purple wedge marked Time was for a bunch of songs with the word time in them. And there were many other songs. Elvis even came out into the audience to sing one song, and he came out himself to pick someone to spin the wheel.

After about an hour and twenty minutes the guys all walked off stage. That's pretty normal. He takes a 2 minute break, then comes back. Elvis walked back on stage (alone) in a plaid coat and said it was time to play his Napoleon solo. He played two songs from his newest album--National Ransom. Ross and I really like the first one Slow Drag with Josephine. I'll put it under songs stuck in my head if you want to download it. This is when the yelling happened. It seems these guys didn't want to hear new songs, or Elvis acoustic solos. Whatever. Douches.

Elvis walked off after those two songs, changed into a gold jacket, and came back with the guys for another set. No one spun the wheel. They just played song after song, after song. Then it was over (pouty face.)

I just bought a ticket to see Elvis at the Wolf Trap on June 15th. Woohoo!

The go go dancer did her thing during a lot of the songs. It was kind of entrancing.

I love Elvis. Oh, and a special shout out to Steve Nieve. I love him too. He played the theremin.

Zippin'!

We got up really early on Thursday and headed to Flyin Hawaiian for some zipline action. The guys on the tour: Matt, Jason, Scott, Thomas, and Alika were very friendly. They had all our names memorized by the time we got to the top of the mountain. Since it was Tejal's birthday they carried her gear the entire time. The guys made a good experience really great.

The Hawaiian state flower is endangered, so we planted one and watered others that had been previously planted on the mountain. They are also trying to replace ironwood trees with endangered koa trees.

The zip lines were really fun. The last line was really long, fast, and high. I loved the view of the trees as I neared the end of the line. Oh, we even got to go backwards on one of the lines.

Here are a few videos to give you an idea of what it was like.