Weekend review; October 27 & 28, 2007

Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007

Lit up a new Perdomo Habana Corojo that was gifted to me by Carlos, aka Boofa. Nice looking cigar. 5x52 or so. Had nice spice and pepper, just the way I like 'em. Very smooth cigar. Had a few small burn issues but nothing terrible. I enjoyed this cigar very much.

Very cool looking band on this cigar too:

Next was another Perdomo; a Reserve La Tradicion maduro, 7x54.

I love these cigars and have purchased a bunch from cigarbid.com. This cigar never lets me down. Great maduro flavor with just a touch of pepper.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Started off the afternoon with a new cigar from Gurkha, the X-Fuerte. Great looking cigar; 7x54 torpedo shape, almost black. I was looking forward to some deep maduro tastes! Unfortunately, this cigar does not have the maduro tastes that I love. The flavor is maduro but without any richness or sweetness that typical maduro usually has. Also, with a name like Fuerte I expected it to have some pop, but it didn't. The cigar does, however, have one of the prettiest bands I've ever seen! Too bad you can't smoke the bands! I have a bunch of these as I went wild on cigarbid awhile back, because I usually like Gurkha stuff, so maybe with a little age they'll improve.

Next was a long time favorite; J.R. Ultimate Oscuro; 7.25x54. This is the last of a box I bought a couple years ago. I knew this cigar would not disappoint, and it didn't! This is a double maduro delight that J.R. Cigars sells as their top of the line housebrand. At around $85 a box of 25, these are a great value in a top notch cigar. I'll be picking up more of these.

The last cigar of the day was an Oliva G Maduro Churchill. This is a nice looking cigar; very square pressed! It must have been maduro day for me because this was the 3rd maduro cigar for me today! This cigar was fantastic! Everyone knows Oliva makes great cigars and this was my first of the "G" series. It started out with the typical sweet maduro flavor that Oliva is known for, then at about the halfway point the pepper kicked in. Ah! This was a delight! Great cigar. Highly recommend it to you maduro lovers.

Cheeze has a birthday, but we got the present!

Cheeze, aka Mark Heimburger, had a birthday last Friday (10/12/07) and met us at the Wild Hare for supper. Mark and his family live in Greenwood, SC and came home to Lexington to spend his birthday with his folks, but took a little detour for a few hours to be with us. When he arrived he pops open his travel humidor for what I thought was his first cigar of the evening. Instead, he whips out 3 Cohiba Esplendido's; one for each of us to celebrate his birthday! Oh baby! Thanks Mark! Oh, and Happy Birthday!

Jim, Mark, and I enjoy our Cohiba's:

The birthday boy!

The "Bald" contest!

First of all, thanks to everyone who voted for me. Is this where I also thank the academy, producers, my wife...etc?


Here is the background of the contest. Shortly after returning from vacation I overheard on the internet radio station that they wanted people to send in their pics for a "bald" contest. They would take your pic and make you look bald. The reason it was a "bald" contest is the DJ of the radio staion show is bald and Peter Frampton (who recently performed in Greenville, SC) is also now bald. They had Frampton sign a Squier Vintage Modified Series Telecaster SSH guitar and decided to have a contest for someone to win the guitar. Anyway, I thought it would be funny to send in my pic since they would have no work to do on me! I'm already bald! It was mainly a joke, but then I heard my name mentioned as a contestant on the second day of the contest. (BTW, the contest ran from Monday, October 1st through Friday, October 5th.) I somehow had made it through the first day without any help from any of you! After learning I was "in the contest" I requested your help. I told Connie that since I was a contestant, I didn't care if the prize was a bag of rocks, I want to win! Well, my request for your help must have worked because I somehow won! Here's the pic I sent in...




On Wednesday, October 10th, I traveled to Greenville, SC to pick up the guitar. The people there were very friendly and commented that they liked the idea that someone bald had actually entered the contest! Apparently it was close between one of the young guys and me throughout the "cut down period" until the last day of voting. Then, my requests for your votes really kicked in and I won. Thanks!


Below are pics of the radio gang and the guitar.

This is me with radio DJ and originator of the contest, Brian Blades:
I also won some of the new shavers especially made for shaving heads:

This is a bunch of the other ration staion people. Notice the other bald guy? The young girl in the front is Anitra Lively, the late night DJ who had the guitar signed by Frampton and had it in her house for the past 2 months! She REALLY did not want to let it go! I almost had to bring her back to Columbia with the guitar!

The guitar came in a nice soft-side case:

The guitar is a dark blue (navy):

Peter Frampton's signature:

Again, thanks to everyone who voted for me!

SC Sit Down No. 7/Oliva cigar event at Maduro Room

SC Sit Down Number 7 (October 6, 2007) was a small bunch of cigar lovers, but a hearty bunch nonetheless! The hardcore guys were here, and several drove a long way to be here! Wayne Spivey, aka Fonseca, drove down from North Carolina, along with Rebel John and Phyllis, as well as Casey McBrair. Of course, Charlie, aka Stogiesandhoagies from Rock Hill was here.

There was also the Oliva event at the Maduro Room in the afternoon. We caravaned over to it around 4pm. Nate, who used to own Paradise Cigars in Charlotte, NC is now the Oliva rep. It's been awhile since I've seen Nate but he hasn't changed a bit! Oliva is introducing their new Oliva V cigars and I had not tried one yet. Grady, owner of Maduro Room, was running some good specials for the event. Jim and I split a box of Oliva G torpedos, so we got our names in the hat for drawings a bunch of times. I guess it worked out because we won 3 times! Not bad for an afternoon's work!

Here's pics of the Sit Down and Oliva event.


First, the Sit Down bunch:

Wayne and Casey

Mitch and George

Mark Lewis

John and Phyllis

Jack and Jim (not Jack and Jill)

Doug Graul

Charlie and Jack

Connie and I

The original SC Sit Down bunch (6 of the 7)

Now, on to the Maduro Room and the Oliva event...

Guys gathered around the tv havin a smoke or 12:

World Famous "Twig"

Group pic:

Doug, Jim, me, Nate (Oliva rep), Grady, and Steve

Thanks to everyone who attended the Sit Down. Thanks to Grady and Nate for a great Oliva event. Nice day for Tiny Tim!

Make plans for South Carolina VIII which will be held on April 12th, 2008 at the Wild Hare Sports Bar. This is the big one folks, so you don't want to miss it!!!!