Bourbon & Chocolate

The still at Old Scout.

Back in December, I was lucky enough to travel to Maxwellton, West Virginia to visit the Smooth Ambler distillery. The purpose of the trip was to select a barrel or two (we actually picked three) and establish a relationship with the proprietors, John and John. The Johns were incredibly generous with their time--they spent several hours taking us through their rick houses and explaining their approach to the business. Best of all, they let us taste as many barrels of whiskey as we wanted.

One of their two rick houses.

Smooth Ambler has taken a unique approach to the business. They are distilling their own juice, but everything (with the exception of the Yearling) bottled so far is from the LDI distillery (now MPGI) in Indiana. They are completely forthright with the source of their juice, which is refreshing in an industry not known for its honesty. Their oldest juice produced in house is nearing four years old and the exciting news is that it is a wheated bourbon! They plan to release it when it's ready--they've done an adequate job establishing solid lines of revenue, so there is no need to rush it to market.

The rick house holding the juice distilled on-site.

 As I said, the Johns let us taste at least 15 samples--it could have been more--of the sourced bourbon and rye of various ages. I'm not a huge fan of LDI's rye, but if you've not had their bourbon, get yourself some Old Scout, because it is damn good. We ended up choosing three barrels: one seven year old, one eight year old and one ten year old. Smooth Ambler will bottle at barrel proof, which is a nice touch. The Johns were really fun to work with--at one point we were sort of lukewarm on a couple of samples so one of the Johns ran out and got several more for us to taste.

The bourbons are schedule to arrive this month and I can't wait to post tasting notes. All three of our picks were complete winners, but I'm most excited about the eight year old as it was my favorite of the line up.

When we took Sammy in for her last checkup, we received news that she has hyperthyroidism. It's pretty common in cats and is typically treated with medication. I felt like a terrible cat mom because I hadn't realized that she had lost almost 1.25 pounds. Kind of a big deal when you only weigh 9 pounds to begin with.  I had attributed it to getting older and brushed it off. Big mistake!

For those unfamiliar with hyperthyroidism in cats, there is a tumor growing on the thyroid causing an increase in the T4 hormone. If it goes untreated, it could lead to heart failure. You can read up more about it here.


We tried the medication route for a almost a month, but Sammy wanted nothing to do with it twice a day. It had gotten to the point that whenever Keith and I were home together she would hide under the bed. If by chance she let her guard down and allowed us to pick her up, she shook like a leaf and you could feel her little heart racing.

Seeing that the medication approach was not a good fit for our Sammy, I went into full on research mode to learn more about hyperthyroidism in cats and what the various treatments options are. We started with a homeopathic approach to treatment. Basically, the claim is that cats can develop an allergic reaction to soy, which is prevalent in commercial cat food. As a result I now cook chicken breasts every weekend and then proceed to tear it up into tiny Sammy bite-size pieces. If she’s really lucky, Keith will share some of his salmon fillet with her. 


My hopes were raised when she gained weight back, only to the learn her T4 levels had increased. The vet recommended we continue the medication, but I didn’t find that as the best answer for Sammy. From my research I learned about an option for a radioactive iodine shot, which is a blast of radiation that will destroy the tumor.

Tomorrow morning we're taking our little purr baby down to Radio Cat, where she will receive a tailored radioactive iodine shot. After receiving the call confirming our appointment last Thursday, I’m really anxious about our visit. There is a 98.6% success rate and that’s what led me to believe this was the best option. She’s also relatively young, which also helps. I made the mistake of getting as much information as I could and read of the sad stories that resulted. I need to remind myself that was their situation and that we have yet to have our own. I’ve asked all the questions to ensure I’ve avoided any of the risks. 


Regardless, I wish there was a way to tell my sweet Sammy that she will be staying at the hospital for three days and then I’ll return to pick her up. She’ll be radioactive so we won’t be able to cuddle with her as much as we would like for the first 10 days she is home. I just hope she knows how much we love her and only want the best for her.  Now to just keep calm and nothing but happy thoughts for our Sammy Doodle.

As promised, I wanted to share a few more photos from our anniversary trip to New York last week. Considering another polar vortex had hit the city during our visit, we took in more museums than expected. I fear Keith might have already reached his limit for art exhibits for 2014.

We visited two of the essentials - the Met and MoMA, but we also took in the Morgan Library and Museum.  The Morgan Library began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, the father of J.P. Morgan. It was one of those delightful discoveries all because we wanted to stay inside as much as possible.