I'm Rick James, Bi... err... Son!

Last night while caring for The Lad, I was singing out loud to him, as I often do to entertain him. I suddenly realized I was singing "Super Freak". I also realized it was making him smile and giggle.

I'm not sure which realization should be cause for more concern.

Which Comes First?

knowing I love Single Malt Scotch, two fasmily members purchase the Water of Life for me for Christmas. One SIL/BIL combo gave me a bottle of Orach Dram, a malt with which I was previously unfamiliar, but quite like. The other SIL/BIL combo presented me with a boxed tasting sampler, with 6 small bottles containing a dram each of the following malts:

Cragganmore 12 yr.
Dalwhinnie 15 yr.
Glenkinchie 10 yr.
Oban 14 yr.
Talisker 10 yr.
Lagavulin 16 yr.

Here's my question for any fellow Single Malt afficionados who may read my blog, especially the more well-rounded drinkers: In what order should I sample these six drams? The only one I've ever had before is Oban, which was actually the first Single Malt I ever tried. I expect to enjoy the Lagavulin, because I prefer Islays, and the Talisker intrigues me, being the only malt distilled on Skye (my ancestors include MacAuleys, and one of the two MacAuley clans were descended from Skye royalty). I don't expect to NOT like any of them, but I have no Idea where to start and how to proceed.

Suggestions?

You Asked For It

Mr. Priapus has tagged me. In response to a challenge by Nicki, he haws listed what he considers the five weirdest things about himself, then picked five people he'd like to have do the same. And guess what, I'm one of them.

Are you sure you really want to know, Chris? I'm serious, because while I might seem pretty normal, I have some deeply odd stuff just under the surface....

OK, well, since you asked, here goes:

1. I slept with a stuffed animal until well into my 20's (a short time after college). When I was a child, I was given a stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh bear who was my constant companion through countless childhood diseases and four (yes, four) major surgeries by the time I was ten. This was coupled by the fact that I had a frighteningly vivid imagination to make Winnie a copilot, fellow liferaft survivor (on a beanbag afloat the Livingroom Sea), astronaut, Fellow GI in WWII Europe, mountain climber, etc. And I became very attached to him. I did eventually outgrow him, but kept him. Sadly, Winnie (aka Infrabear to my college friends Brian and David) will never play with any child ever again. He is the ultimate Velveteen Rabbit -- so well-loved and worn that his fabric is too weak to hold a stitch, he is no longer a whole bear, just a deteriorated shell and loose stuffing saved in a ziploc bag.

2. One of my hobbies is Role Playing Games (the old rule book/paper/dice kind). that's not the weird part. The weird part is one of my sub-hobbies: I like to imagine and create elaborate fictional background settings for such games -- alternate histories, fictional planets, etc., with complete geographies, histories, cultures, etc., but I almost never get a chance to play any actual games set in these background settings.

3. I have a birthmark shaped like New Jersey just under my left nipple.

4. As a child, I read the encyclopedia for entertainment.

5. I like to eat mustard just for mustard's sake -- especially yellow mustard. One of my favorite childhood snacks was mustard sandwiches.

So there you have it. Nothing spooky weird like making hats out of human hair or anything, but still, a little um.... quirky.

So my turn, huh? OK, I'd like to think big and nominate:
The Maximum Leader
The LlamaButchers (that counts as two)
As well as my buddies:
Vonski
Gullyborg