Vacation And New Tobacco

I finally took some well needed and deserved time off from work. Today, I went up to my favorite tobacconist and bought a couple tins of tobacco. Tobacco is the one thing that I have still much to learn. There are so many different brands, cuts, and blends, that it takes a long time to sample them. Let alone the fact that I don’t smoke very often, I usually leave it up to some of the recommendations of Smitty (the tobacconist).

I came home with Samuel Gawith’s Westmoreland Mixture. It does taste a lot like Dunhill’s 365 in my opinion, but like Smitty said, it’s a little smoother and sweeter. The amazing part is, I packed my pipe perfectly the first time… Well, maybe not too perfect, *clicks my lighter for the first time after the initial light…*

That’s right, I’m sitting here typing this entry, having my own cliche moment. I’m sitting in my sunroom, smoking my Rinaldo bent Rhodesian, with my dog at my feet. It’s a beautiful late spring day. The sky is completely void of clouds, and the trees are swaying in mother nature’s breath of fresh air. I’m alone at the moment, just soaking this all in. The kids are in bed for their afternoon nap and my sweet wife is at a local tattoo shop getting her Mother’s Day present.

I’m finally getting a chance to play some golf tomorrow. I came away from an event recently with a free round of golf for two. I’m excited. I haven’t played but three times. Each year, it seems, I get in one full round of golf and that’s it. So, we’ll see if this is my only chance for the year, or if there will be more. I’m hoping for more.

Oh well. To my brethren of the briar, I hope you have a wonderful week and a few of those slow paced moments to enjoy a good smoke. For those golfers tomorrow, I really hope you keep your eye on where my ball goes, ’cause I don’t want to whack anyone.

Happy puffin’

Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout

Being a bootleg  bon vivant, I sample many things. One of those things happens to be beer. This particular beer, 

Reminiscing and Confused

When I was a kid, my brothers and I would torture the boy-scouts during their meetings. Their meeting place was a metal roofed pavilion and was down a pretty steep embankment with a gravel drive. We always loathed them because parents and scout leaders would park in the parking lot across the alley from their entrance (no parking available next to the pavilion itself).

Even More Mobile

Since my lovely wife quit working, we wanted to get a laptop so that her life wouldn’t be stuck to the house if she wanted to pursue other things while watching the kids play in the park or in the playground at the mall. The problem was always justifying the cost of a brand new laptop. Dell, in my opinion is starting to turn out some pretty shitty computers as of late. I loved our last HP laptop, but at the time, we weren’t using it that much and my father-in-law really wanted a laptop. So we gave it to him and buying a new HP just seemed out of the question for us right now.

I had been watching Ebay, but electronic shit seems to go for way more than the damn things are worth. Patience, it seems, works. So does prayer…

Our local news channel, 11alive, did an article on PropertyRoom.com and we decided to check it out. Talk about some really good stuff, for really cheap. At first, all I could do was laugh at some of the things that were on the site. But then I started paying attention to the laptops and some other things. REALLY cheap and if you pay attention, you won’t over-spend.

Long story short, I bid on a Dell Latitude D600. Actually, I bid on two of them, thinking I’d most-likely lose one. Well, I ended up winning both of them and am writing this blog from my newly used laptop. I can’t complain. It’s a corporate computer and is in great shape. I figure I’ll upgrade the RAM soon, but all-in-all, this thing is awesome. My wife is extremely enjoying hers and feels right at home, since her work laptop was the same thing.

 Now she wants an AT&T wireless card, so we’ll see how that goes…

Honourable Mention for your BonVivant

Another one of those things I’ve neglected as of late, but it’s still a work in progress. I’m hoping to continue adding great tobacconists, shops, etc. to my platial.com page. But hey, I can’t complain for an honourable mention!

A Man’s Pipe Smoking Hobby

Being a new parent, I have found that I have little time for pipes and smoking them. Also, I don’t exactly look forward to standing out in the cold to smoke a pipe during winter. So, this chosen hobby of mine has gone wayward for awhile with hopes of rekindling my interest with warmer weather. I also have to find a way to smoothly accomplish my projects and tasks at work. With a lot of added pressure, I’ve been working sixty plus hours for the past three weeks.

Savinelli - Estella

That’s right, this might be my newest pipe, but it’s taken forever for me to finally get it cleaned up and a picture posted.

Three Days Past The New Year

I’m really hoping that this year will be fulfilling to the point of overflowing. My family has grown with the addition of two great children we are fostering. My wife is closing the door to a company she’s been with for seven years. It’s been a bumpy, great, and interesting ride for her, but she’s had enough of the changes the company has made. Many of them aren’t for the better. She’s going to stay at home to take care of the kids and work to organize our home and home-life. There are many positives to this major change, so I think it’ll benefit not only my wife, but our whole family.

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