Saturday at the Hut - 12/4/10

Last week at The Tobacco Hut saw a lot of political discussion, sometimes a bit more heated than usual. So in the spirit of friendship, I brought a peace offering to Joe K. I presented him with a much-coveted coffee mug sporting the name of my favorite NPR program, All Things Considered. I'm quite sure that "liberal" portions of coffee would taste much better coming from an NPR mug rather than a backward-looking, bitter conservative cup.


I returned again to Lou's Baker Street tobacco, this time in a David Jones Canadian sandblast. I've had problems before with this pipe smoking a little wet sometimes, but I think this was the first time I had tried Baker Street in it, and it wasn't wet at all. It was a very pleasant, cool and dry smoke, and burnt completely down to a fine gray ash. This Canadian is one of two David Jones pipes I have, both obtained on the recommendation of my old manager at The Tinder Box. I've never met a more knowledgeable pipe guy in my life, and am glad to say that we are still in touch many years after I worked for him.


In addition to Joe, Peter and Adrian were in attendance. We talked a little politics, but not nearly to the extent of last week, and with scarcely the same ferocity. We watched some little college football team beat up another on TV, something called the University of Central Florida. I guess Joe's son James called in long distance demanding that we switch the channel. Lou was in an accommodating mood, so instead of the ice dancing we were all set to watch, we watched James' alma mater. Sigh...

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My wife and I celebrated my birthday this weekend and she was kind enough to give me a new camera as a gift. It is a compact Canon PowerShot SX30IS with an amazing 35x zoom lens. It also shoots HD video and will be perfect for our upcoming cruise in January. She bought it at Pasco Camera as we always try to buy local. Jim and Annette Smetzer opened Pasco Camera Exchange fifteen years ago and if you're looking for anything photography related, check with them first. They have a large inventory of cameras, from point & shoots to dSLR's, and tons of accessories. I also used them to have some old 8mm movies converted to video and they did a wonderful job. At right is one of the first shots I took with the camera. For those of you who are into photography, here's the exposure info: 1/100 sec, f/4.0, ISO 80, evaluative metering. I was really impressed with the dynamic range of the camera, holding a lot of detail in both light and dark areas. I'll post some more pictures in the weeks to come.

Speaking of shopping local, Christmas is right around the corner and if you're looking for some great gift ideas, check out my online t-shirt shop. I realize that sounds like a contradiction, but I've been using a "print-on-demand" outfit called CafePress for several years now to sell my graphic designs. Here's the link to my shop, The Erudite Outlet. There's t-shirts for the cigar and pipe lover, and lots of other designs as well, plus coffee mugs and other fun stuff.


Finally, Adrian and I will be having a meeting of the minds next Saturday over the chessboard. He is an avid player as am I and we've talked a few times about playing, and we have decided to do battle at last. I don't think I've ever smoked a pipe and played chess at the same time, but it seems like a natural combination and maybe it will intimidate my opponent into thinking I'm smarter than I actually am!


Until next week...
 - Bob