1. Today was Debbie's birthday. Today Debbie's driver license expired. Mine will expire next week on Monday.
Therefore, we piled into the Sube and blasted east on I-90 to our county seat, Wallace, and stopped in at the Sheriff's Office not only to renew our licenses, but to secure a Real Idaho ID, also known as a Star Card.
I had misread the list of documents we needed, but, at the last minute before we left the house, I put our latest Wells Fargo statement in the folder with out passports and 1099 tax forms. It's a good thing I did. I thought I was overdoing it bringing that last document, but, no, we needed it.
As a result, everything went smoothly and, in a couple of weeks, our new cards should arrive in the mail.
2. After spiffing up the house a bit and after I made a Debbie's birthday stop at Yoke's and the liquor store, we piled back into the Sube and blasted uptown and sat down at a table at Radio Brewing.
As we walked in, we stopped at a table occupied by Kelton, Sara, Adam, Scott, and Becky. Becky! I hadn't seen Becky since early in 2020 (or maybe late 2019) and it was fun to see her and have a few minutes of chatter and laughs with some of the youth of the Silver Valley.
Niece Molly was working. A sudden deluge of people surged into Radio and Molly was the only server on duty. We marveled at how deftly and calmly she worked the room and were relieved, on her behalf, that at some point another employee stepped into the fray and eased her workload.
Debbie enjoyed some red wine and I ordered something I hadn't tried for years. I asked Molly to blend Oatmeal Stout with a small portion of apple cider. Radio's Oatmeal Stout tasted chocolate-y this afternoon and I loved how it paired in my glass with the apple flavor of the cider. For me, it was like drinking a chocolate apple cake or a chocolate chip apple cookie.
Drinking this cider/stout blend took me back to a night I spent at McMenamins Edgefield over twenty years ago and spent an evening drinking Rubinators -- a blend of McMenamin's raspberry ale, called Ruby Ale and their terrific Terminator Stout. I was ecstatic that night. I loved being at Edgefield. I loved having memories of that night and those Rubinators suddenly occupy my mind.
I also fondly remembered blending beers at 16 Tons under the expert guidance of both Em and Colin. They helped me enjoy innovative Black and Tans and introduced me to the idea of blending ale and cider.
Beer.
It's a blast.
3. We ran into our down the street neighbors Tyler and Becca at the Depot last Friday and Debbie invited them to come over this evening and have a birthday cocktail or two (or more). We also invited Christy over and so we had a little neighborhood party. Debbie finished making cranberry liqueur a day or two ago and knew it would be fun to bust that out. Before our guests arrived, Debbie stepped into our Cocktail Laboratory (also known as the kitchen) and mixed cranberry liqueur, George Dickel Rye Whiskey, fresh squeezed ogange juice and dashes of Peychauds bitter. She christened it the Solstice Awakening.
Her cocktail was a hit. It turned out I was in the mood to drink rye whiskey straight, over ice, but I'll try a Soltice Awakening soon.
We had an awesome party. Christy, Debbie, and I got to know Tyler and Becca a lot better. Debbie got out her guitar and sang a bit. We talked about music and singers and songwriters. We talked about Silver Valley history, especially the Sunshine Mine Fire. It was an evening of high quality yakkin'.
Christy had to leave the party a little bit early to make a phone call and Tyler and Becca partied with us until about 10 o'clock.
It was an awesome way to celebrate Debbie's birthday, enjoy the good vibes of living on Little Cameron, and marvel at two of Debbie's many talents as she combined mixology with playing her stellar song, "Going the Distance".
By the way, you can also listen to this song and others on Debbie's first album by going to Debbie's Going the Distance bandcamp page, here.
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