Saturday at the Hut - 5/14/11

Joe K made his first appearance at The Tobacco Hut in several weeks! I suppose missing the Hut for his son James' wedding and then traveling out of state excuses him. He was even on his best behavior and didn't complain about his cigar canoeing like crazy. He described a lovely wedding on Davis Island - too bad all of our invitations apparently got lost in the mail. It would have been nice to attend. Apparently James and his new bride honeymooned in Mexico somewhere. Wonder if he ran into the cigar-smoking monkey down there! Anyway, congrats James!


Darryl G and his son Greg stopped in for the afternoon and Darryl presented a good idea to Lou: A Father's Day celebration at the Hut on Saturday, June 18th. The suggestion was met with instant approval by Lou and we decided it would start at 1:00. Darryl offered to bring wings and when I mentioned it to Paula, she said she could make little cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off for all the guys. She was kidding, of course, but offered to make something manly that I could bring in.


So make plans now to stop in at the Hut for a Father's Day party, June 18th, at 1:00. Obviously all are welcome, not just dads.


Adrian arrived and I was so excited to finally have a shot at dethroning the reigning chess champion. He had breezed in and out last week, promising to stay this week and play some chess. But, alas, he reverted back to the ole' Adrian - his patented breeze-in-and-out, a quick meet and greet, buy a couple cigars, and he was on his way. Apparently he would rather spend time with his wife than hanging out with the guys (and risk losing a game of chess). Next time, Adrian!


A shout out to my buddy, Scott R, AKA "Knife Guy". I've already mentioned his most-excellent blog about knives in this space before (and if you aren't reading it, you really should), but that's not what is getting the shout out. The last time he was at the Hut, he and I were talking knives and I mentioned that I really needed a good pocketknife. I have a small Swiss Army Knife attached to my keychain, but said that I should have something a bit more substantial to carry around.

My new knife!
(Click to enlarge)

So what arrives in the mail a few days later from Scott? A knife! The guy completely surprises me by sending a knife from his collection. And it's perfect, sleek, slim, and the blade is insanely sharp! I slipped it into my pocket right away, and it's been there ever since. So a big thank you to Scott! Much appreciated, my friend.


I had occasion to use said knife the very next day when I arrived home from work and a much-anticipated box of custom imprinted pens was sitting on my front porch. As many of you know, I'm now in the promotional products business and was in need of something of my own to hand out to prospective customers.

My new Clipper Pens!
(Click to enlarge)

I threw together a website to promote the pens themselves and took some photos of the pens for the page. Scott R is the guy who got me into the business and I've shamelessly copied an idea of his, i.e. choose one product and push the hell out of it, not only to sell that particular item, but generate leads as well. Here's the link to the new website: www.clipperpen.com and pictured is one of the images I shot for it.


As I was at the Hut on Saturday puffing on some delicious Dunhill 965 in my rusticated Ascorti Peppino, I thought, "Hey - it's been a couple weeks since we've had a good theological debate." And then I thought of my friend Arleen at work. She's a terrific writer who comes down squarely on the opposite side of the theological fence from me. We've had some great discussions at work about a variety of issues (not just the existence of God), and she maintains an active and thought-provoking blog of her own. I highly recommend giving her a read: http://arleenspenceley.blogspot.com/.


Don't forget, Saturday, June 18th, 1:00 at the Hut for the Father's Day Party!


Cheers!
 - Bob

Saturday at the Hut - 3/19/11

Bob on the Left, Joe on the Right
(in more ways than one).
Click to enlarge.

As many of you know, Joe K and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. In point of fact, I think I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum from most of the regulars at The Tobacco Hut. But Joe and I have the most fun with our rivalry. It all started several months ago when I purchased an National Public Radio shirt and wore it proudly to the shop one Saturday. Joe countered with a shirt of his own several weeks later that said "Pipe Down You Silly Liberal". Actually, he wore a homemade shirt a little earlier, one that sported a circle with a line drawn through it over the initials "NPR". Well, I finally came up with a counter to his counter, and I wore it today. I forewarned Joe, so he made sure to wear his "Silly Liberal" shirt. Thanks to Adrian for taking this picture (with Joe's camera, and thanks to Joe for actually sending me the picture!) of the two of us. Your turn Joe!


Peter G was at the store when I arrived. It was great to see him, as it's been a few weeks. He spent a week sailing around the Caribbean on a Norwegian cruise a week ago. He confirmed what my wife and I suspected after our last cruise, that a balcony room is well worth the price. We had a window only and kind of wish we had sprung for the balcony. 


Barry C and his son Chris came in. I had never met Chris before and, other than some pretty towering height, he looks a lot like Barry (poor guy!). Apparently Barry's work schedule has changed, so hopefully we'll see more of him on Saturdays now. Barry didn't have a lot of time so he got a new cigar that Lou started carrying, the Ashton Half Corona. It smelled good and Barry reported that it was a nice smoke, so by the end of the day I bought a 5-pack of them. Looking forward to trying it.


Today I enjoyed a bowlful of Dunhill 965, a rich English blend characterized by Macedonian tobacco, Latakia, and Brown Cavendish. It was my go-to blend when I first began smoking an English and I actually found this tin this past week, shoved to the back of a closet. I had feared that it had been opened and was now completely dry, but it was still vacuum sealed and tasted wonderful in the Ascorti Peppino sandblast. 


Ed B pulled up in his uncovered Jeep, obviously enjoying the beautiful weather. Besides discussing the announced retirement of Ed's boss, Sheriff Bob White, a lot of the talk was about the NCAA March Madness tournament that was on TV. Fortunately Lou kept it tuned to that instead of the golf tournament that was being held down the street at Innisbrook. 


Adrian came in and I have to say I was looking forward to his arrival as much as I had been anxious to show Joe my new shirt. See, Adrian and I had a chess game to finish from last week. We had adjourned it and Lou graciously allowed us to - rent free - keep the chessboard set up in one of his display cases. Pleasantries were exchanged and we quickly set up the table and resumed the game. I was a little concerned at first because I had a gaping hole in my king's defenses, but I found that I was able to go a piece up and finally whittled my way down to a victory.


In that game, I was playing the white pieces and Adrian the black. And it just so happened that our respective pieces matched our own, ahem, skin color. As Adrian congratulated me on my victory, Joe commented that perhaps he should change his color to white for the next game. Adrian responded quickly by rubbing his arm and saying, "I don't think it's going to come off!" We all burst out laughing and I think "race relations" are just fine at the Hut!


That next game was a bit of a nail biter, but I eventually prevailed. And so we played another game. And again I prevailed. It was now 4:30 and Adrian was eager for a final rematch. I begged off at first, not wanting to have to adjourn a game like we did last week. He insisted, saying we could get in a quick match. I finally agreed and the game was afoot.


Adrian was playing white and opened with 1.e4 (advancing the king's pawn two squares). I responded with 1... e6, the French Defense. I made an early positional misstep, but thought I was doing pretty well because I was soon up by two pawns. We were moving along at a pretty good pace and I was soon bearing down on his castled king. What I neglected were his two rooks that he had along the e-file. I went in for the kill, aiming for a back rank mate, but out of seemingly nowhere, he advanced the first rook, checking my king. I had only one move available and with no hesitation Adrian advanced the second rook, bringing the sword of checkmate upon me. I was speechless and I'm sure my jaw dropped two inches. Adrian, having suffered through a number of straight losses, jumped up and let out a victorious howl. 


Slowly shaking my head, I extended my hand to congratulate my most formidable opponent. Well played, my friend, well played.


I can't wait 'til next week!


 - Bob