Booze, Books, and Baby

Fatherhood won’t slow my drinking.
It will increase it.

I took some time off from work to enjoy my son’s first few weeks of life.  Between the diaper changes, feedings, and entertaining my toddler daughter, I have had a surprisingly large amount of time to read and drink due to my son’s easygoing demeanor and predictable eating and sleeping patterns – both fantastic thus far (knock on wood).

So here’s a quick peek into the last few weeks of my life – what I’ve been reading and drinking – free from professional responsibilities and focusing solely on having a great time with my kids and wife.

Please enjoy the following books and drinks: you might learn something new, discover a new hobby, or find new taste or two.

Reading:

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, the author’s posthumously-published fictionalized account of his life in early 1920s Paris.

Barbara Holland’s Wasn’t the Grass Greener?: Thirty-three Reasons Why Life Isn’t as Good as It Used to Be, another wonderful book by the late author and drinker, which I’ll post soon as an addition to The Hip Flask’s Recommended Reading.

Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer’s No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden, the controversially-released chronicle of a Navy SEAL’s life and career at the U.S. military’s proverbial “tip of the spear.”

Ludwig Bemelmens and Anna Quindlen’s Mad About Madeline, a collection of the acclaimed author and artist’s six stories about the Parisian native who lived in a house covered in vines; after Kay Thompson’s Eloise series, this is my daughter’s second favorite bedtime story series.

Drinking:

Lagunitas Brewing Company’s Lucky 13, the brewery’s 13th anniversary beer that was bold, easy to drink, and picked up on a lark.

Macallan 18 year old, a gift from my wife to help welcome home our second child.

Bananaweizen, a shandy-like beer cocktail made with hefeweizen wheat beer and banana juice about which I’ll also post on in coming weeks.

A homemade batch of frozen strawberry margaritas, to enjoy for dinner: my wife’s choice of an inaugural drink after abstaining from booze since Christmas last year.

And finally, Sam Adam’s Oktoberfest, just because it’s that time of year.

A Dram of the 25

It’s not every night I open my bottle of Macallan 25 year old.  It, of course, is a special bottle that was given for a notable wedding anniversary.  I only open it on important occasions; special evenings that mark important milestones in my life. I’d like to stretch this bottle a few decades into the future.

Before this weekend, I had a small pour – no more than an once or so – a few weeks after we closed on our first home purchase.  This was only my first dram from the bottle this year.  But this year has been a special one because this weekend brought another reason, a much more important one, to open the Macallan 25 again: the birth of my second child, a boy.

Parenthood freaks most out the first time around and I’ll be honest, it did to us too.  But this wasn’t our first rodeo, which made the entire process far less stressful.  And a nice, long pour of fine scotch whisky after returning home certainly didn’t hurt.

So for the next few months, I’ll sleeping a little less and most likely drinking a little more, just like last time.  My home bar will grow because I’ll be drinking out less. Just as it should be.

And when my boy’s grown, I’ll teach him how to drink like a proper, sophisticated, and responsible man.

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After we brought my daughter home from the hospital well over two years ago now, my wife bought me a bottle of Macallan 18 year old as a new father present of sorts.  It was a pleasant treat then, when she gave me another bottle this evening to welcome home our son.  It’s a nice family tradition we’ve created.