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Well, in my effort to avoid doing the things I needed to be doing today I managed to try 4 smokes that I have never tried before. Thought I'd share.

Started the day with my multiple cups of coffee and the baby (3 kings) Industrial Press that came with a sun-grown sampler I won awhile back. Tasty, quick, and complemented the java nicely.

Next, I finally gave up on trying to write. Decided I'd surfed the boards here enough for a little while so I planned to mow the grass which was getting a bit shaggy anyway. I grabbed my first Bad Frog, courtesy of a pirate friend of ours in California. Thanks Rick. I smiled the entire time. Gotta love them yard 'gars.

Just before dinner time, I grabbed a pretty girl named La Perla Habana. The natural toro and a Bass Ale while going over my lecture notes for tomorrow hit the spot.

Finally, not quite ready for bed I went to the humi and pulled out a Leon Jimenes Maduro robusto, poured myself a Knob Creek and sneaked back out to the patio (no the whisky wasn't to deal with the nuttiness). I guess I was feeling a bit philosophical because this was really one of those cigar smoking moments. I lit it unevenly in the bad light, but it evened out immediately. The cigar was smooth and flavorful with lots of billowing smoke. I glanced into the living room windows as my pregnant wife dozed and the war unfolded on the television. For a moment I thought "what am I doing bringing another life into a world with so many problems" but then I glanced out into the yard with the trees leafing out, the azealas in full bloom, a cool spring breeze and stars overhead and I realized that the beauty and wonder far outweigh the bad things.

I'm taking my group of students on a bird watching trip along the Texas Gulf Coast this weekend "Hope is the thing with feathers." Hope is also the children that will inherit what we leave for them. Our goal is to make it the best inheritance we can possibly provide. With these thoughts I came to terms with the idea of fatherhood.

Before I knew it I had a 4 inch creamy white ash that I tapped revealing a perfect smoldering cone. I took the last few drags and final gulp of whisky and came inside where I'm now giving you a stream of consciousness ramble.

Basically, it was a good day and I've got a new favorite cigar. Time for bed. Best, Bill

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i watched a program about birds and heard about an "alula" for the first time. i hope it comes up in a trivia game.

the only wild birds i get to watch are my hummers, some doves and the two blue jays that visit just to get (pardon the expression) my nuts.

AND, I'll bet it hangs to the left...

Say Rick, wasn't Alula Bankhead an actress in the 40s?

LMAO

It was great. The weather was cold and windy, but it's always nice to get out of the city. We left Houston in the morning and headed to Galveston, rode the ferry and drove north to Bolivar Flats, an Audubon preserve. Right on the coast, this site often has tens of thousands of birds but the winds were so terrible that the numbers weren't very good. We then headed to High Island, internationally known as a "fallout" site for warblers and other small tweeties crossing the open Gulf from South America. Again, bird abundances were not very high, but species diversity was pretty good. The nesting rookery is mind-blowing for first timers and was definitely the highlight among students. We finished up at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge and picked up a handful of additional species. By the end of the day my list was at 85 species. I'm taking a second group out next weekend so hopefully we'll have better weather and a higher species count. It is not unusual for my wife and I to have a list of 100+. I was supposed to take them to a study site of mine examining the impacts of feral hogs, but it is flooded (it is a floodplain forest). Swimming swamps with poisonous snakes is the fun I get to have in the summer (the six pack of beer helps too), but there is too much liability in taking a group of undergraduates into such an environment.

Re-reading Thur. nights post I realize I'd had a few drinks and got kinda melodramtic. Sorry if I over did it.

Have you ever been to Aransas National Wildlife Preserve, between Port Lavaca and Rockport?

LMK when you're gonna do it next time. Do you catch the ferry out of Port O'Conner? mr_reddochatyahoodotcom.