Well, Sean and I went over to Clayton's last night for a bit of a tiny New Year's Eve Eve celebration (since Sean and I both work tonight, that's a good thing). I got to break out the bottle of Redbreast I'd bought with Christmas money. Redbreast is a pure pot still Irish whiskey, which is essentially your single malt scotch of the Irish whiskey world. (If I understand correctly, it can't be called single malt because it's made with both malted and unmalted barley.) It's made at Midleton distillery, which is the same distillery that makes Jameson.* Lovely lovely lovely. If you ever get to try it, smell it first--it has a mildly sweet overtone that's just wonderful. It was only Clayton and Andy and Kirsten and Paula, but I like small gatherings--it means everyone gets to talk together instead of breaking into a bunch of little side conversations. We sat and sipped whiskey, and drank beer or rum as was our preference, and generally had a fine time.

Tonight I work. I'm not really psyched about working tonight, oddly--I don't really mind, but I'd rather be drinking than working. I'm sure I'll have fun once I get down there. I have to remember to ask for St. Patrick's Day off.

I hope that everyone has a lovely and safe evening, and I'll speak with you all again in the new year...

BTW, did you know that the whole Jameson: Catholic; Bushmills: Protestant thing is a purely Irish-American phenomena? I'll write about it another time, but suffice it to say that the same company owns both distilleries, so no matter which whiskey you buy your money is going to Pernod Ricard anyway.