Today Ian and I put up the outdoor icicle lights at work because I'm going to be gone at the time we normally would (i plan to put up the rest of the winter/holiday decorations over the weekend at work -- at home I'll wait to put the tree up until I gt home because unattended angsty lonely cat is a bad idea with breakable ornaments, lol.) We also chose today as opposed to start of next week because today it went from a high of 70 sunny in the morning to a low in the 30s ushering in real winter after this cold rain finishes. As of right now, it's actually supposed to snow here the day before I leave, lol. It will feel right to leave for a November/December trip to see snow on the ground in Wisconsin. 

It's so weird to me that it's now less than a week until I go visit my sister's family... It definitely seemed like a much loner wait when I booked the tickets back at the end of August! I fly out to Seattle area on Nov 16 -- I leave Milwaukee airport at like 9am Central, have a layover in Denver, and get in at like 4pm Pacific time then we're planning to go somewhere for dinner. Likely won't have any chance to be online or do anything until after my sister and brother-in-law head to bed. More or less you should expect me to not be online as much while I'm out there because when I'm spending time with my family who live far away form me, they're my focus and priority. Well, also World Cup matches in the mornings (though my nephew is excited to watch some soccer with me) and the Packers games which we'll just all watch together. I'll be out there for Thanksgiving (they said they wanted to see me more than they wanted to have bacon in their recipes -- which is a lot of love from them given my pork allergy and how much my sister's family loves bacon, ham, pork etc.)  And then I fly home on Dec 2. But my flight doesn't get into Mitchell from Denver until like 11pm -- so we moved the symphony tickets from Friday to Saturday. 

It just seems like October disappeared super fast and I blinked and now we're almost to my visit. 

*yawns* That said, I just added up my hours for the week to see how late I would be staying tonight and I'm already at/over my 40 hours of work in for this week. So I'm going to finish this cuppa tea and then tomorrow I can stay home and do laundry and tidy up around home before heading to symphony in the evening. And then I'll have Saturday thru Tuesday to get as much as possible of next week's hours in before I leave. And to get a handful of errands done. 

O!!!! AND!!!!!! When my Aunt Geeta was here and we first opened my bottle of Highland park 12 year Viking Honour to try, I went down the rabbit hole of looking up the other single malt scotches that Highland Park makes. They're extremely smooth but pearty but not in a boggy tobacco overwhelmingly sea air sort of peat. They're based in the Orkney Islands (thus the Celtic-Viking artwork and totems) and so their peat is specifically not tree based peat and so it has a distinctly unique profile of peat in Scotch.  And I got super excited about wanted to try one called Spirit of the Bear base don the name/art/descriptions of it BUT I found out at the bottom of the page that it was part of a line of scotches they made EXCLUSIVELY for duty free shops in the UK and Ireland.... And then I was super sad, wracking my brains for who I could get to bring it back for me. BUT, Ian's wife Jane has been in Germany for the last month or two and when I half-heartedly with a sigh was telling Ian, "It's a shame that Jane is coming back from Germany not the UK or I'd see if she could get the scotch for me I want." He gave me one of those startled "witch, how did you know?" quizzical looks then laughed ironically before he casually said, "Actually, I'm pretty certain her layover is in Heathrow last I checked." So then he hopped on his phone and confirmed it was indeed a several hours in Heathrow layover and I got super excited asked that if Jane was up for it and as long as flights didn't get changed, would she take on the quest of trying to find me a scotch that is ONLY available in the duty free shops in the UK and Ireland, specifically i was most interested in Spirit of the Bear. (The others in the duty free specific "travel edition" are 14 yr Loaylty of the Wolf, 16 yr Wings of the Eagle, 18yr Viking Pride -- but Spirit of the Bear was the one I found first and that called to me most while browsing their whiskey selections/prices.)  

And she did!!!!!! Ian texted me on Sunday to ask which scotches Ian (or her friend traveling with her) should get for me and then on Tuesday when I came in to work there was a duty free bag in my chair which made me squee excitedly but I didn't let me open it until AFTER eating lunch and then going to vote!!! But I opened it first thing I got back without even taking my mask off or anything and then I texted my Aunt Geeta this picture because one of of the first things my aunt did when she got back to Charlottesville was try to find herself a bottle of highland park Viking Honour:

 

I had told him that I'd be happy with any of them unless they were ridiculously expensive but that I most desired the Spirit of the bear. And it turned out the only one they had at Heathrow duty free was Spirit of the Bear AND when she went to check out with it, Jane learned she got me the last bottle of it in the airport until they restocked.

I haven't opened Spirit of the Bear yet -- my rule with myself was that I couldn't open it to try it until after I paid Ian the $50.63 for it and I warned him on Tuesday that I didn't have time to get cash before heading to Chicago for the concert but that I'd have cash for him next time I saw him (which was this afternoon -- and I made sure I paid him BEFORE we started in on putting up the outside Christmas lights at work.) I haven't yet decided if I want to open it over the weekend while working or if I want to wait to share the experience of opening it with my mom and Sarah and Crissy. (Sarah and Crissy have still not yet tried the 12yr Viking Honour, which is currently my absolute favourite Scotch. I have half formed indefinite plans that they've all been informed of but no dates picked for Crissy to come into mcw after she's done at work so that the four of us can do a side by side of the Viking Honour and the Spirit of the Bear all together as tasting.)

I'm so excited!!!!! AND!!! Spirit of the Bear is a 1L bottle whereas the Viking Honour (which I can easily buy locally is a 750mL)

I'm so happy with me wee little Scotch bairns from the Orkney Islands!!! I'm so excited to have a bottle of Spirit of the Bear now!!!!!!!!!!!

Audrey loves the smell comes running whenever I open spirits she likes and will take a small lick off my fingers (but only for Irish whiskeys and single malt scotches -- and some malt bomb dark beers. She has zero interest in wines, clear liquors, rum, or brandy, lol. And she only comes running for the smell of someone opening Irish whiskies, Scotch, and Japanese whiskies -- never bourbon or rye.) 

So I gave her a sniff and a lick after I'd opened the Viking Honour to smell it and pour me a small amount -- and then I gave her a biscuit.