Aura

Thanks Al, you too! Maybe some whiskey to help the cold?

About to see Neko Case in Indianapolis.

I think Hakushu is easily better than Yamazaki. The peated version is a tad pricey but I'd go for it.

^ That's awesome. Every small town should have a store like that.

Got my 2013 taxes ready for filing on Friday. Worked in multiple states last year and so it was a little harder to navigate inputting my W2 information into Turbo Tax. Their customer service has no fucking clue what they're doing and after 45 minutes on the phone with 2 disconnects, I said fuck it and figured it out myself in under 5 minutes. Dumb fucks.

Whoops, thanks for the correction John. Guess I need to still try Hibiki then .

A surprisingly good Japanese blend is Hibiki. John/jvlgato shared with Mike and I back in December and I wouldn't mind adding that bottle to the stash.

Thanks Frank, I will be buying a bottle of the 15 yr. revival at some point this year. Same offer to you as well - though I've got drastically more bourbon right now. Jeff/emelius had asked Mikey about the new Bowmore 10 yr. Devil's Cask. I know a place that has several bottles and I think I'm going to buy one if it's around for another 3-4 weeks. It seems to hit the mark in most areas except for price and I'd really like to try an intense blending of peat and sherry. I started a short wish list on Whiskybase to help me organize the various bottles I've asked Mikey about in the past and am targeting right now. Edit - Glenfarclas 105 comes in 3 versions as far as I can tell. Regular (no age statement), 20 year, and 40 year (which was a one-time deal and is absurdly expensive because they had to cherry-pick 2 or 3 casks that were still a high enough proof to blend to 60%).

Has anyone tried the official bottling of Mortlach 16? Looks like this. The price is very reasonable and I'd like to try an official version before looking into the IB offerings. Binny's in particular has had a number of Signatory Mortlach's that I was interested in but didn't want to pull the trigger on without more experience. I wanna see what that "meaty, jammy" flavor is all about. If I order that Flora and Fauna, I'm considering tacking on a shitload of Glenfarclas mini's. I can get 5cl samples of 10, 12, 15, 21, 25, 40, and 105 for a total of about $100 usd and have one hell of a good horizontal tasting to pinpoint my favorite in their lineup. Hopefully it's not the 40 because I'm pretty sure I'm not baller enough to import bottles > $300.

Happy birthday my fellow 25'er! Hope you're having a most delicious glass of water.

Joel - it's been ages since Overclock.net, just wanted to say that it's great to see you getting active here on HC and congrats on the GLite! ~ Bryan

Happy birfday big bro!

Happy birthday Grahame!

Happy birthday Mac Daddy!

Good idea Chris. Since I've done nothing but gain weight the last 3 years, I have a general goal in mind to weigh less periodically throughout 2014 than I did in 2013 (like for my birthday and the holidays). I have an exact weight in mind but I'm going to try and get healthy without following the scale religiously because, simply put, it hasn't worked for me the last 3 years. All the scale has done is add pressure and get me frustrated when I've worked out for 9-10 days consecutively and haven't lost what I thought I should. I'm also getting a sense of just how important eating is for health. When I lost weight in college, I still ate crap processed shit every day. That wasn't healthy. I want to do it the right way this time. Allison and I bought a Breville juicer right after Christmas and I went on a 72 hour juice fast. I didn't do it because I wanted to lose weight. I did it because I wanted to gain a perspective on getting all my nutrients straight from fruits and vegetables, both of which I eat very little of in a normal day. Once I went back on solids, I decided moving forward to supplement meals with juice or potentially replace one meal a day with juice alone. This should help balance out my daily diet. I also plan on severely restricting my diary and red meat. I was considering trying vegan 100%, but I think we're going to start with a few vegan meals every week and see how that goes. I need to introduce a lot more whole foods, including some good grains to replace a lot of the basic pasta and bread meals I would usually eat. Physical goals: Maybe a half dozen 5K's at actual running events. Allison is doing one formal 5K every month this year and I'll be tagging along. 10K at a running event down in Peoria in September. Hopefully I'll have run a couple practice 10K's leading into this. Fit back into a few select pairs of dress pants by the end of summer.

Got the car started but it definitely took a few extra ticks to turn over. Want to get this battery charged back up. It's -40 when you stand directly in the wind.

Weather report is saying we'll hit 11 inches by tonight.

Glad you're home Ken, I'm sure the pets were glad to see you . Allison and I ran a 5K about 500 yards off Lake Michigan today. It was a fucking blizzard out there. Basically ran through snow drifts and the "path" was completely covered over with 3-4 inches. Snow blowing straight into our faces the whole time. Miserable, but I think we're both glad to have done it.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday Jacob!

Happy birfday Chris!

Thanks for another good year of football guys. Brees carried me to a win over Raffy to claim the 10-team league championship, but I have to thank Jamaal Charles once more for getting me to that matchup in the first place. Brent won the title in the 8-team league over Frank. Nice job Peyton Manning!

Sorry to hear about Ken, wishing him a speedy recovery.

I can't believe we're going to let Brent win a fantasy football championship.

Happy holidays everyone, love you all!