What to do, what to do

There's an Irish ale tasting tomorrow downtown, thanks to the Smithsonian.

Wednesday is trickier. Robin Huw Bowen on harp, or a guided Irish whiskey tasting?

I learned a lot about beer and about wine when I went to festivals where you could sample a little bit of a bunch of them. I'm not a whiskey drinker by nature, but I do wonder if I could expand the experience of my palate...

Punctual

I missed Apollo 11 by a good seven years. There was just no way I was going to be around for July 20, 1969. Heck, my parents were only eighteen and hadn't met yet.

July 20, 1976 is a bit less famous. That's the day the Viking 1 lander separated from the Viking 1 orbiter and touched down on the surface of Mars. That one, I figured I could make. And, as has been my wont ever since, I even arrived early, on July 19.

We had a nice "not a birthday party" party Saturday, at the last minute. cmccurry and aemccurry brought a grill that, honestly, I'm not sure how to use as a grill, but it barbeques just dandy - which I can't do on the old grill, because there's no way to get the food high enough above the charcoal. edg brought wine and whiskey; hueffmea brought spicy turkey sausages. Steve brought beer and Michelle offered an assortment of schnapps for dessert. moetica helped me clean up the house and got the chips-n-dip and the Fudgesicles.

We started with salad, hummus and pita triangles, and tortillas and salsa. Then the grills got fired up; chicken legs barbequed for an hour while the steaks, cheddar sausages and turkey sausages had a shorter turnaround time on the grill. Corn on the cob and a surprisingly good potato salad from the supermarket rounded out dinner proper.

Of course there was "not a birthday cake" cake - a chocolate lover's cheesecake assortment from the store. Mmm. And ice cream.

A lot of fun all told!