For Christmas, Colleen gave me one of those iron kindling splitting stands. A couple days after Christmas, I headed out to my wood pile to try it out. In no time I had reduced a bunch of logs to smaller pieces. Placing the log in the stand and letting the weight of a sledgehammer fall on it sure beats swinging an axe. 

Now that I had all this wood ready to go, it seemed a good time to have a fire. Besides the nice weather, it was still early in the afternoon so there was plenty of time for a longer smoke. I'd been eying the 7 ?" x 49 Tatuaje The Frank Redux 1 sticks in my humidor I had not had the time to smoke. I enjoyed one at the lounge at couple months ago so knew it was an 2 + hour smoke. Now was the time.

For Christmas, Colleen gave me one of those iron kindling splitting stands. A couple days after Christmas, I headed out to my wood pile to try it out. In no time I had reduced a bunch of logs to smaller pieces. Placing the log in the stand and letting the weight of a sledgehammer fall on it sure beats swinging an axe. 

Now that I had all this wood ready to go, it seemed a good time to have a fire. Besides the nice weather, it was still early in the afternoon so there was plenty of time for a longer smoke. I'd been eying the 7 ?" x 49 Tatuaje The Frank Redux 1 sticks in my humidor I had not had the time to smoke. I enjoyed one at the lounge at couple months ago so knew it was an 2 + hour smoke. Now was the time.

Back on December 1 I got an early Christmas present, the Aldi beer advent calendar. Photos of every bottle with tasting notes are at https://odonnellweb.com/pictures/Beer_Advent_Cal/.

Overall, I think 2 of the beers were beers I would not drink again, 2 or 3 were beers I would seek out because they were really good, and the rest were for the most part competent examples of their respective styles, but not necessarily particularly exciting.

Although I guess if you factor in buying a six pack of any of these beers at Aldi prices, a good IPA, or Stout, or whatever for $6.99 a six pack becomes something to be a little bit excited about.

Between keeping up with the tastings for the advent calendar and being on vacation for a week in December, I drank at least one beer 24 straight days in December. That is not something I need to repeat anytime soon. I doubt I was ever legally intoxicated during December as most days it was 1 or 2 beers, elevated to 3-4 some days on vacation. If nothing else, that is a lot of excess calories in a month when most of us are already consuming excess calories.

So I'll be starting 2022 with more treadmill, less beer.

Back on December 1 I got an early Christmas present, the Aldi beer advent calendar. Photos of every bottle with tasting notes are at https://odonnellweb.com/pictures/Beer_Advent_Cal/.

Overall, I think 2 of the beers were beers I would not drink again, 2 or 3 were beers I would seek out because they were really good, and the rest were for the most part competent examples of their respective styles, but not necessarily particularly exciting.

Although I guess if you factor in buying a six pack of any of these beers at Aldi prices, a good IPA, or Stout, or whatever for $6.99 a six pack becomes something to be a little bit excited about.

Between keeping up with the tastings for the advent calendar and being on vacation for a week in December, I drank at least one beer 24 straight days in December. That is not something I need to repeat anytime soon. I doubt I was ever legally intoxicated during December as most days it was 1 or 2 beers, elevated to 3-4 some days on vacation. If nothing else, that is a lot of excess calories in a month when most of us are already consuming excess calories.

So I'll be starting 2022 with more treadmill, less beer.

Another year has come and gone. It was pretty much like the one before it. Standby for another one.

I do see some changes coming though. Not much longer will the "pandemic" be the basis for political overreach and profit. The "America is racist and something-phobic" agenda is being exposed. The clouds are gradually being removed from the eyes of even the CNN and MSNBC watchers. Maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

At least the days are getting longer.

Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone. It was pretty much like the one before it. Standby for another one.

I do see some changes coming though. Not much longer will the "pandemic" be the basis for political overreach and profit. The "America is racist and something-phobic" agenda is being exposed. The clouds are gradually being removed from the eyes of even the CNN and MSNBC watchers. Maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

At least the days are getting longer.

Happy New Year!

This silly website is now 26 years old. It’s older than one of my kids. It’s older than 99% of the websites alive today. It’s older than the Dole - Kemp 96 campaign website, which, inexplicably, is also still online.

Our 2021 was a lot like our 2020, but with less stress, especially once we were both fully vaccinated by the Spring. I had hoped that by fall 2021 we be into the endemic phase of COVID and not still in a pandemic, but the anti-vaxxers need their freedumb. Personally, I’m hoping their freedumb is served with a ventilator. I’m out of patience of with them. They are literally making life miserable for millions of people. That’s not freedom, it’s terrorism, and should be treated as such.

We had plans to dress up fancy and go out on NYE, but Omicron invited itself to the party, so we opted out of our plans. The band ultimately canceled the show, so we are even getting our ticket money back. Does that count as 2021 going out on a good note? You are deprived of a selfie of us dressed up fancy, though.

2021 highlights include a week in the Smokies, a bunch of weekend camping trips around Virginia, a week between jobs highlighted by Asheville, driving the entire Blue Ridge Parkway over two trips, Purdue Homecoming, and wrapping up the year with a week on the beach on Puerto Rico.

2022 will look similar, except that we are headed north to explore Western NY and Arcadia NP with the camper, some time in WV, and if all goes well, another week in Puerto Rico to end the year. I also plan to work on working from the camper this year, to open up mid-week travel opportunities for us. I can do my job from anywhere, so why not? Hopefully earlier than later in 2022 we can stop thinking about COVID-19, and let it fade into the background noise of life.

So that’s a wrap on 2021, and the 35 blog posts I wrote and 48 books I read over the course of the year. I’ll see y’all in 2022.

This silly website is now 26 years old. It’s older than one of my kids. It’s older than 99% of the websites alive today. It’s older than the Dole - Kemp 96 campaign website, which, inexplicably, is also still online.

Our 2021 was a lot like our 2020, but with less stress, especially once we were both fully vaccinated by the Spring. I had hoped that by fall 2021 we be into the endemic phase of COVID and not still in a pandemic, but the anti-vaxxers need their freedumb. Personally, I’m hoping their freedumb is served with a ventilator. I’m out of patience of with them. They are literally making life miserable for millions of people. That’s not freedom, it’s terrorism, and should be treated as such.

We had plans to dress up fancy and go out on NYE, but Omicron invited itself to the party, so we opted out of our plans. The band ultimately canceled the show, so we are even getting our ticket money back. Does that count as 2021 going out on a good note? You are deprived of a selfie of us dressed up fancy, though.

2021 highlights include a week in the Smokies, a bunch of weekend camping trips around Virginia, a week between jobs highlighted by Asheville, driving the entire Blue Ridge Parkway over two trips, Purdue Homecoming, and wrapping up the year with a week on the beach on Puerto Rico.

2022 will look similar, except that we are headed north to explore Western NY and Arcadia NP with the camper, some time in WV, and if all goes well, another week in Puerto Rico to end the year. I also plan to work on working from the camper this year, to open up mid-week travel opportunities for us. I can do my job from anywhere, so why not? Hopefully earlier than later in 2022 we can stop thinking about COVID-19, and let it fade into the background noise of life.

So that’s a wrap on 2021, and the 35 blog posts I wrote and 48 books I read over the course of the year. I’ll see y’all in 2022.

It's an old joke that if you don't like the weather in Virginia, wait a few minutes and it will change. It's also true that the weather on a any calendar day can be wildly different from year to year. This is especially true in the winter. (In the summer, you can just expect it to be hot. Period.) White Christmases are rare here, but last year, we were treated to one of those uncommon events. 

Over Christmas 2020 we experienced snow and very cold weather. That didn't stop me from enjoying the Rocky Patel A.L.R. Second Edition shown below. The full experience is recounted in this post. 

On this most recent Christmas afternoon I chose the new Undercrown 10 Lonsdsale with which to celebrate the day. The Undercrown Maduro is a favorite, and the new Undercrown 10 is a special release to mark the 10th anniversary of the cigar. The Starr Hill Snow Blind Dopplebock is a perennial favorite.

The difference in smoking experiences between the two years was remarkable when it comes to the weather. However, the pleasure of a good cigar is universal no matter the temperature.

It's an old joke that if you don't like the weather in Virginia, wait a few minutes and it will change. It's also true that the weather on a any calendar day can be wildly different from year to year. This is especially true in the winter. (In the summer, you can just expect it to be hot. Period.) White Christmases are rare here, but last year, we were treated to one of those uncommon events. 

Over Christmas 2020 we experienced snow and very cold weather. That didn't stop me from enjoying the Rocky Patel A.L.R. Second Edition shown below. The full experience is recounted in this post. 

On this most recent Christmas afternoon I chose the new Undercrown 10 Lonsdsale with which to celebrate the day. The Undercrown Maduro is a favorite, and the new Undercrown 10 is a special release to mark the 10th anniversary of the cigar. The Starr Hill Snow Blind Dopplebock is a perennial favorite.

The difference in smoking experiences between the two years was remarkable when it comes to the weather. However, the pleasure of a good cigar is universal no matter the temperature.