R_Dudley

Finally off work for the week, home with a bottle of delicious Stoudt's oktoberfest to start my Sabres pregame ritual. :beer:

Great question. A slight twist on the answer for me. I have drank name brands for some time but this thread has encouraged me to be more adventurous Example I just bought a bottle of Labrot & Graham Woodford reserve, distiller's select on a whim(and it was on sale) based on reading about bourbons(single Barrel, etc.) in this thread. I tried it neat right out of the bottle and I have to say I actually tasted the vanilla with a nice leather/oak finish with a touch of smoke. What a delicious treat. I followed that one glass with a 1 finger Gentleman Jack night cap and it tasted horrible in comparison. Mind you Jack has been my standby. Interesting point on your Bulliet Bday gift, I also tried a bottle of that in the spring as my regular golf bag accessory and wasn't sure if it was bourbon or frontier whiskey as it says on the bottle. I didn't know it was made by (or affiliated w/) four roses till I read it here but now I see why it's maybe so nice and smooth and it make great sipping with a good cigar. I want to try some of the scotch's mentioned here. Glen livet 12 yr old is my standby but I would like to try some others. It would be great to be a bit more confident in what I am going to like. I have my eye on McCallum 12yr old but I think I need to do some taste testing first. All and all a very cool thread and some pretty neat reading. With a wife, 3 young kids and a new puppy dog I don't have much time to post but I always find time to read, keep up the good work.

F'N Hockey and Octoberfest brews doesn't get much better.

Still living on the fumes of a F'N" fastastic weekend last week with my annual Bills game roadtrip. Great weather, F'N fastastic football game, tailgate, gleefully berating patriot fans and even made last call 4am at a bar for first time in like 20 some years. Took 3 days to recover, hell I might still be in recovery. Just got to say Buffalo still rocks.

- I have a new love of my life that has absolutely dominated the past 2 months of my free time. A beautiful blond that adores me, is always happy to see me and makes me feel young again. Oh pardon my gushing all lovestruck about her when I can just share a picture worth a thousand words. - Oh and 1 more thing I get the weekend off from my new love to shuffle off tomorrow to Buffalo for my annual Bills game, chicken wings, beer and ballet here I come. Destroy the Pats, Let's go Bflo

Is it hockey season yet ?

Sept already when did the summer go. I didn't do half of the great idea's/things I thought of at the end of May would be great. :thumbdown: Although I did thoroughly enjoy the other half I did :thumbsup: Oh yeah, and being bipolar. :unsure:

+1. I am still a Bills fan but distance helps. I emotionally divorced 2 players jersey's ago, Takeo spikes than Losman, not buying another. I remember the season they benched losman I went to my annual tailgate with Holcombs number taped over losmans and his name taped out. Last Jersey i will buy until a new owner changes the culture. Strange how living in Steeler nation now for 19 years effects your view of football. After seeing a team that has solid ownership with a plan that starts with coaching and defense. I think they may have the best starting group of linebackers in football in a 3-4 this year. Last not to spoil the rant but it appears the steriods story is bust according to the Buff news this morning unless of course you want to continue the conspiracy to include the commish throwing the bills a bone to placate the dog wisperer story.

+100. at least I finally got my 2 young boys to a baseball game at PNC park last night. Beautiful place to watch a evening game and the boys of summer even when they don't win.

New owner, new vibe around team, and still no Sabrespace hockey game reunion er get together, okay to be a reunion i guess we have to have that first one. Even some of us out of towners would come. I did make Tom Websters almost bar weekend game a couple years back where I did get to meet SDS, Eleven, and Tom, Okay rant/off

Hey just to be accurate since this is a new cigar for me I checked the humidor and it is the Drew estate Liga Privada No 9, if my recollection with my friend during the swap is correct this is a limited production item not always easy to find. Good hunting.

:clapping: that's funny and exactly just about right timeframe for my original go around with them. I still drink them. Not that I do not love and crave ice cold beer in the summer, it's just that now that I am older they go right to the waist and they contribute to that going problem or is it a growing problem :unsure: . Beer is great but liquor is quicker and I'm down on that physics volume in volume out formula.

Very similar tastes to both you, Weave and GODD. I really started about 14 years ago when my second daughter was born and I was so happy and doing well enough workwise that my enthusiasm got the best of me and instead of the cheap king edwards it's a girl I headed down to a smoke shop with a walk in humidor and bought a full box of mild lucienados panatella's. With the stickers it's a girl and a box of the pink bubble gum cigars I made the rounds sharing my joy, problem is most people chose the bubble gum instead of real. So I started taking the leftovers to my every 2-3 week golf games as I found the smoke keeps the gnats and flies down and two children later and the rest is history. I enjoy about 15-25 a year mainly during golf season but also for special occasions and for the occasional weekend backyard firepit nights. I am now smoking medium mainly but also an occasional full bodied. I enjoy both connecticut shade and broadleaf/maduro wrappers. I like the 42 to 48 band width in a corona, lonsdale, churchhill or torpedo typically. I can stretch the churchill or torpedo best for 9 holes on the course. I prefer the long filler but a medium is fine. Like my drinking I do not stick with just one kind so I do not buy full boxes of one type. For my buying style, quantites and the best deals on cigars that I like I use Holts mail order. They offer seasonal variations and deals of mixed brand samplers (e.g.like the cigar afficiedo 93 sampler) and 6 pack specials. Over time and for the amount I smoke I have narrowed my favorite brands down. For the price my regular golf cigar is now a Rocky patel decade, Vintage 1990 or 1992, or edge square. When in the mood for a mild smoke their new velvet is excellant and a very good starter for someone new to it trying it. For special occasions or a treat for me I like the Arturo Fuentes, Ashton VSG or a padron 1964 anniversary as my favorites. I have tried many other excellant cigars but these are the ones I can regularly find the best deals and prices on. A new friend of mine and I just started trading our likes so for a full bodied but strong cigar not for the faint of heart I can say Drew estate is a very good kick butt cigar but like another here said nothing beats a true cuban cigar or at least from what I have sampled to date. So if someone you know is going to Mexico ask them to pick you one up, they know at the smoke shops to switch the cigar band to domestic brand. it's worth it to at least try it once.

Haven't tried the Ten yet but will have to give it a try on your recommendation. For a cheaper party and still good with the ladies alternative you might try a simple gin bucket. Take a new clean large bucket and start with a handle of cheap gin add two regular frozen concentrates, I personally recommend one 5 alive and one tropicanna lemonade or limeade, chop up one full lemon and one lime and add two 2 liter bottles of pop like 1 diet fresca and 1 diet 7up and fill the rest with ice. Travels pretty easy if you want to take to a party your invited too ladies love it and it goes down too easy. Have bucket will travel. Only problem with me and Gin is I am a bit like the WHO song. Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim he only comes out when I drink my gin. Darndest thing, I am a pretty happy go lucky drunk on every other type of liquor but Gin brings out that little bit of Mr Hyde. Strange thing about these elixir's, I have always suspected we all have a Mr Hyde brew.

Man I love this place for the width and breadth of topics. I missed this original thread but but picked up on the recent bump. Liquor consumed neat is an acquired taste. For me the choice of drink has a lot to do with the environment, setting and activity that I am engaged in. For example bourbon by the pool doesn't work for me like a vodka and tonic with lime will. Bio never brought the vodka into the dicussion but I will just briefly mention dry martini's up with olive and on the higher end Grey Goose, or kettle one and for a real good on the cheap Tito's or Lukosova. Cut my teeth and suffered many a vodka poisening on vodka and ice tea and kamikazee's for shots. I also started my bourbon drinking ala manhatten and have long since moved on. All the manhatten advice is excellant down to the bitters vs vermouth options which is a taste preference IMO. Interesting Manhatten variation is with a 100 proof Southern comfort, dry vermouth over ice with a lemon twist. Bourbon of choice for me is rare breed over some ice where the ice allowed to melt for all the water I need or want to add. I also enjoy Gentleman Jack as a straight up bracer from my flask on the golf course chased with water, gatorade or beer depending on how hot it is that day. Oh and it is a must to dip the end of my cigar in the bourbon. For Scotch I defintely agree that starting with the blends is probably the best beginner advice here. I second Chz post as Dewers and water with ice is where I started my scotch drinking. I have since settled on single malt and will agree the Johnny Walker Blue, green and gold label is just fantastic scotch neat, no ice or chaser needed. I have tried glemorangie, Glen Fiddach, JW Black, etc. settled on Glen livet as my bar stock option of choice. I will say an upscale macallum aged 25+ yrs that was bought on a vendors dime as an after dinner appertif was the best I have ever had by far. Ta kill ya, I agree after much experimentation on cabo wabo by chocie but boy i really don't like the way i feel the next day after tequila. Oh and chaz on autheticate mezcal I have ate the worm. :ph34r: Gin, well that love affair started as gin and tonic w/lime or gimlets for shots but has long since been replaced by vodka and tonic. When I still occasionally gin it's Tanquery. Great finally found the time to type all this up, let me know when you all decide to do the cigar thread GODD mentions.

Ratta fratta mutha racken getting old. Don't know how or what I specifcally did but my back went out last weekend. Even just getting out of a chair let alone walking is very painful and hard. I am in pretty good shape only 15 pounds over my high school weight. Never had back issues always did what I wanted w/o thinking about it. Never understood what all those people who talked about their bad backs were going through. Now I understand. Dr. says it could just be a repettive , worn out thing that I now have to deal with. Never thought about the effects of high mileage on the body.

My prayers go out to both of you and your families. Friends are great but families are blood and what really matters in the long run. Best wishes for better days ahead.

Only complaint I got is I am not watching the Sabres representing the East in the finals. Corp, My Condolences to you and your family on your loss.

Rain, rain go away and bring a drought to the north east today. ... till at least sept.

Put my daily driver's in the other thread but for weekend fun like the flashlight drags and occasional test and tune night at the raceway I have a 1987 5.0 - 5 speed Ford Mustang GT first year of the fox body style. I bought it from original owner with 23k miles on it and have done a bunch of mods myself overtime just because I always wanted to try it as a hobby. Fun to drive when I want to vroom around town.

Umm, technically already done ya know with the left and right that is. ;)

Just when one kids basketball season ends my other two kids spring soccer seasons begin all with the hockey playoffs getting ready to start. I am ready to become Russian again. Rushing here and rushing there. Это сосет

Kids and being Russian. I am already missing starts of hockey games for 5th grade tournanment basketball and now soccer started this week with my other two and it's always rushing here and rushing there. Это засасывает

Arggg, there is this big yellow thing in the sky this morning, it is bright and it hurts my eye's.

Weather wise it's not really winter but it's not spring yet either. Boy do I hate the cloudy, dark, dreary, cold rain soaked weather in between seasons.