Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Otis...

Aretha's version might be the most well known and might even be the standard, but Otis' version is the original and the BEST.  YMMV.

Today was one of those "throw the windows and door open" kinda days.  It was a "two cigars, three beers on the verandah" kinda day,  which also meant we went to our personal music collection and let Pandora have a rest.  In doin' so we leaned heavily on the nine volume Stax/Volt "Complete Singles" collection.  Ooh, baby, baby... does it get any better than this?  Well, yeah... it could get better, but not by much.

BRAC

Point-counterpoint from the Usual USAF Source.  First:

No Warm and Fuzzy From Senators on More BRAC: Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday raised concerns to the Pentagon leadership over the Obama Administration's proposal for two new BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015. "Finding further reductions in consolidations in our overseas force posture should be our first priority before another BRAC round," said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, during the oversight hearing on DOD's Fiscal 2013 budget request. "I have serious questions whether we save any money from a BRAC process," added Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.). Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he'd oppose more BRAC since the US military is being reduced "to an unacceptable level." Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he understood the lawmakers' concerns as a former Congressman whose district had to absorb a base closure. "I recognize how controversial this process is for members and for constituencies. And yet it is the only effective way to achieve needed infrastructure savings," he said. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was one voice expressing favor for consolidation, saying "it's appropriate to consider another round." (Panetta prepared remarks) (Dempsey written statement)

Then... day before yesterday... from the same source:

 A Serious Proposal?: Although the Pentagon is expected to ask Congress to authorize another round of BRAC in Fiscal 2013, it's not likely that the Fiscal 2013 defense budget proposal released on Monday will include funding for it, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. There are upfront costs associated with closing facilities or bases, he said, noting that BRAC 2005 cost the Defense Department about $39 billion to execute. "In many cases, there are still environmental assessments you have to do, and the local authorities will insist on you fixing up the property so you can hand it over and it can be redeveloped for other purposes," said Harrison during a budget discussion on Feb. 8. He added, "So, another round of BRAC is still going to cost you money, and as far as I can tell, they have not budgeted for that, so it does make you wonder how serious of a proposal that is." The net savings from BRAC 2005 are estimated at $12.5 billion, in today's dollars, over 20 years, said Harrison.

So, let me get this straight.  The gubmint spent $39 billion dollars to save $12.5 billion dollars in the most recent BRAC round and they want to do it again?  Why am I not surprised?  I think Sen. Levin makes an excellent point: why the hell are we keeping all those troops in Europe?  I get Korea, there's a threat there.  But Europe?  Let those freakin' socialists defend themselves from whatever it is that's threatening them, even if it's themselves.

Home Owners

I stole that line from NHL.com... but it's true: the 2011-2012 Red Wings are the SOLE owners of the NHL's record for most consecutive home wins.

The final score was 3-1 and it was never close... Joey MacDonald had the Stars shut out until the final 30 seconds of the third when Dallas scored on a deflection.  But no matter. We had the win.  From NHL.com:

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings have done something that no other NHL team had done before.

By defeating the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena, they became the first team in League history to win 21 straight games on home ice – and by the looks of things, they might keep winning here for a while.

No longer are they tied with the 1929-30 Boston Bruins and 1975-76 Philadelphia Flyers, who both won 20 straight games in their own barns. That Bruins team, technically speaking, won 22 straight between the end of that season and the start of the next, but the NHL doesn't carry over wins for records purposes – and nobody in Detroit cares much about such technicalities now.

The Wings have outscored opponents 84-31, including 31-9, during the streak. They've gotten two points in all 21 home games they've played since losing 4-1 to Calgary on Nov. 3 -- the streak began two nights later with a 5-0 victory against Anaheim.

There's been a lot of talk among hockey pundits about how this record should come with an asterisk, as the Bruins and the Flyers didn't have the benefit of the shoot-out.  There will always be naysayers, but the simple fact is the Wings have done something no other team has ever done, and set a record that's liable to go unbeaten or unmatched for a long, long time.

Well Done, Wings.  Very well done.

Heh - Pedantic Grammarian Edition

Stolen from the Shoebox blog:

Don't laugh.  You have NO ideer how many times I've seen this since I started reading blogs.  And don't get me started on apostrophes.  Just don't.

Linkage (And a Short War Story)

Blog-Bud Jim's 20th anniversary is comin' up... on the 29th of this month (yes, the 29th)... and he's re-running a series of old posts describing how he met his beloved, how he proposed, the wedding, yadda, yadda.  It's all great good stuff and you would be well-served to go read.  I know that a lot o' you Gentle Readers already have Jim in your RSS feeds or other blog-reading apps but I'm also pretty sure some of you haven't been to his place.  So go.  EVERYONE loves a love story and theirs is a great one.

Apropos o' not much... part of today's post was Jim's description of his proposal, about which I said this:

Well, there was - I'm sorry to say - nothing so glorious about my proposal.

Sez you. I'm of the mind that ANY proposal, given the gravity of the situation and the life-altering outcome(s), is glorious. So there's that.

I don't remember how I proposed to The Second Mrs. Pennington. We had a three-year courtship and I think it was mutually decided sometime in our second year that yes, we would marry, but she had to finish school first. College, to be clear. She already had her junior high diploma.

That said... I DO remember giving her the engagement ring. We were spending the summer together in Plentywood, Montana (between her junior and senior year) the year before we married and I had recently inherited my grandmother's engagement ring. The lawyer handling the estate mailed the ring to me (yes, via USPS) and I had to sign for it at the post office on my way home from work one day.

I get home to our walk-up flat, climb the stairs, and toss her the package, sayin' sumthin' lame like "your ring came today." And the earth moved, and NOT in a Good Way. Long story shorter: I was sent downstairs and told to "come back and do it RIGHT." I did, she did, and we enjoyed 20 years o' wedded bliss until it all blew up.

True story.  "Doin' it right" meant me getting on bended knee and formally asking her to marry me, with a suitable presentation of the ring.  I was also required to meet with TSMP's father and ask for her hand in marriage.  That didn't go so well, but it's prolly better that we not discuss the encounter.  Suffice to say her father did consent to give her away, but only after offering to buy her a car and send her to grad school if she'd walk away... right as they were getting ready to walk down the aisle... and that's the TRUTH.

A Blast From My Past

The Usual USAF Source featured this pic today as part of its ongoing Air Frame Series:

Air Frame: Dawn breaks over the flight line at Yokota AB, Japan, Jan. 31, 2012. (Air Force photo by SSgt. Samuel Morse)

Yokota was home station for me from 1975 - 1977 and I have great memories of that period in time, chief among which is the fact Tokyo is where The Second Mrs. Pennington and I met and fell in love/lust.  It can be colder than the proverbial well-digger's ass at Yokota in January and through the majik o' these here inter-tubes I see the low on 01/31 was 21 degrees.  That would have made for a brisk early morning walk from TSMP's apartment to the train station, were I still living in Former Happy Days.

I can almost smell it.

YES!

They did it... Wings 4, Flyers 3.  So you can add the 2012 Wings to the '29-'30 Bruins and the '75-'76 Flyers as record holders for the most consecutive home wins.  The Wings will OWN the record if they beat the Stars this coming Tuesday.  We shall see.

―:☺:―

In other news... I was channel surfin' after the game and hit on Ron White doin' his "You Can't Fix Stupid" routine, of which this is a piece part:

White is MY kinda guy, what with the cigars and scotch while doin' his routine.  Not included in the clip above is his bit about his scotch of choice... sumthin' to the effect that the scotch he drinks is the same stuff that people who shall die penniless drink.  I can relate to THAT, the point bein' that there's no sense in economizin' when you've got one foot in the grave.  Why NOT drink the best, eh?  You go, Ron.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Liz Story...

I dunno why it is but I almost always associate gray winter days with Liz Story's moody piano pieces.  Today is such a day... gray, overcast, cold... and we are trapped indoors.  So we dug a Liz Story cassette out of the archives and put it on the stereo to provide the soundtrack for today's beer and cigar extravaganza.  The music fits and it fits all TOO well, in a number of ways.  The cassette in question was recorded by The Second Mrs. Pennington at some point in the way-back, what with Ms. Story bein' a shared favorite of ours.  I noted with no small twinge TSMP's precise handwriting that recorded the track names on this cassette, "Wedding Rain" bein' one such.  It rained the night of our nuptials... rain that provided a memorable soundtrack to the first night we spent together as one in the eyes of God and man.

The things she left behind continue to haunt me.

Naming Conventions

Our favorite former Nasal Radiator (now flying The Israeli Lawn Dart in his new civilian contractor gig of adversary fighter pilot), on the subject of the USS Gabrielle Giffords:

I have only this to say about that: The Army should start naming tanks, and the Air Force tankers.

Take some of the load off, please.

Heh.  Nice try, Cap'n.  We occasionally name our aircraft... as a matter o' fact I think every single B-2 and C-17 have names painted on their fuselages.  But the suspect naming of naval vessels... like the USS John P. Murtha and the USS Cesar Chavez... is ALL on the Navy.  Or rather, the current Secretary of the Navy.  And some good people are tryin' to fix THAT.

Aiiieee, Part II

I decided not to run errands yesterday as it was too damned cold to be out and about.  Well, "too damned cold" as applied to an ol geezer who has the R-factor of your average tin garden shed; cold weather and skinny people just don't do well together.  That said, I prolly should have done my shopping yesterday, coz here's the current view outta my front door:

And here's the forecast for the rest of today:

Monday looks good though, no?  We're not out o' any o' the important stuff anyhoo... there's plenty of beer in the fridge and the humidor is fat.  I did have to break out the emergency creamer for today's coffee... that powdered krep that is in NO way a substitute for half and half, which we're out of.  Sigh.  I guess we'll just have to suffer.

―:☺:―

It should be an interesting night at The Joe tonight.  Some words about that from NHL.com:

DETROIT -- The purists have already spoken up.

They say that even if the Detroit Red Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night at Joe Louis Arena for their 20th straight victory on home ice – tying the NHL record shared by the 1929-30 Boston Bruins and 1975-76 Flyers – it should come with an asterisk.

They argue that because neither of those old Bruins and Flyers teams had the advantage of winning games in overtime or shootouts, their home winning streaks are still more impressive and more "legit" than the current run the League-leading Red Wings are riding.

If that logic bothers the Wings, however, it's near-impossible to tell – not because they're so focused on joining the NHL's history book yet again, but because they seem so nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

[...]

Still, what his team is doing on home ice this season really is a big deal in terms of historical perspective.

Even if they lose on Sunday and fall one win short of tying the NHL record, what the Red Wings have accomplished to this point – simply stacking home wins and concentrating on the next one – is nothing short of amazing. Purists are correct that Detroit has had the advantage of winning games in overtime and shootouts, but their opponents have had the same opportunities to end it.

You KNOW I'll be there... front and center... tonight.  Well, front and center of the teevee, anyhoo.  

LGRW!!

―:☺:―

And then there's this... from The Freep:

Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom receives a Ski-Doo Renegade snowmobile from the team to celebrate his 1000th game in the NHL at the end of practice at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday. / KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DFP

Tomas Holmstrom wasn’t sure what was going on at the end of practice today when the doors to the Zamboni entrance opened while the players were still on the ice. 

But suddenly, a loud noise was heard and Henrik Zetterberg rode in on a brand new snowmobile – complete with the number 96 on the side. 

“I couldn’t see what was going on,” Holmstrom said. “Turn around and there’s a snowmobile out there and then I started reading the sign. Nice. It’s mine.”

A sign on the front of the snowmobile let Holmstrom know the gift was for reaching 1,000 career games.

Pretty cool, eh?  Number 96 did all 1,000 of his games with the Wings and did all of 'em the hard way, too.  There ain't another guy in the NHL who's a more formidable presence in front of the net and who takes as much abuse... night after night, game after game... than Homer.  He's one o' my heroes.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Freddie and the Drillers...

Actually not; Occasional Correspondent and Blog/Biker Buddy Lin sent this along.  I watched this three times thinkin' I might see myself on my old Honda CL-350 (circa 1968) or in a moto on my DT-1 based motocrosser.  Alas...

Aiiieee!

Winter's back...

I HAVE to run some errands today, too.  But I'm thinkin' I won't go out until late this afternoon.

Larger Than Life

Alternate title: more cigar art.  Here are a couple o' few cigar bands from the last three or four days worth o' consumption.

The post title refers to the fact the bands are about twice normal size.  I kept the file purposely large so you can see the detail on the more elaborate bands... which is to say the Ave Maria and the Man O' War.  Some bands are pretty plain, while others are pretty danged elaborate.  All of the bands are made of embossed foil-on-paper with the exception of the La Herencia Cubana, which is plain paper.  The band at the very bottom is a footer... Isla del Sol sticks have two bands.  I think they're all beautiful, as well. 

In Today's Mail

Snail mail, that is.  Ain't these pretty?

That would be two boxes of Drew Estate Isla del Sols, one in the Churchill size and one in the robusto size... 40 cigars, all told.  You may notice these sticks arrived just in time, as our inventory was down to about four cigars.


I post these pics only to illustrate the beauty of the packaging, one of the reasons I so dearly love my cigar hobby.  Or addiction, you choose.  But you KNOW I could quit anytime I want, right?  S'true.


All that said, I dearly love this blend from Drew Estate.  Say what you will about infused (flavored) cigars... purists reject them, newbies love 'em, and some folks are ambivalent... but this particular blend simply cannot be beat as an after-dinner cigar, especially when accompanied by a couple o' fingers o' single malt.  It don't get much better than that.


We shall now adjourn to the verandah where we'll attempt an al fresco Happy Hour.  It's cooler today than it was yesterday by ten degrees but there is NO wind and the sun is shining brightly, which makes ALL the difference in the world.  I think we might could pull this off today.

Blogger...

...is shitting the bed.  Again.  I get this gotdamned error when tryin' to access the comment page on certain Blogger blogs... not ALL of 'em: some work and some don't... and it's drivin' me up the freakin' wall.

Is it just me, or are other people havin' this issue as well?

Thievery

Stolen from Dan... mainly for Grandson Sean.





I've never heard a guitar player master harmonics and include them in a piece as extensively as Mr. Dykes does. That was the first thing about the man's style that caught my ear... the second is his amazing finger-pickin'.  Good Stuff, Maynard!


Thanks, Dan!

With Apologies To The Eagles

"I've got a dreadful, queasy feelin'" about November...  Santorum?  Really?  His own state wouldn't reelect him to the Senate.  There's some "electability" for ya.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're just in from a very brief stint on the verandah and it's jes a wee bit too chilly to enjoy ourselves out there.  So it's back to The Great Indoors, where we shall continue as we've begun.  We managed about four songs while we were outside, chief among them this:

Let's get it on, baby
This minute, oh yeah
Let's get it on
Please, let's get it on
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby
Stop beatin' 'round the bush
Oh, gonna get it on

Heh.  Ol' Marvin just might have single-handedly created a mini Baby Boom with this tune.  I don't think there was a single solitary bachelor who didn't own this song back in 1973... or young married guys, either, coz seduction doesn't end with the wedding... in most cases.  I certainly had a copy of the song, in any event.  And I think I put it to good use, even though some o' my wimmen friends just laughed when Marvin started in... with words to the effect of "Oh, BUCK.  Not that again..."


You can't please all o' the people all o' the time.

Broadening Our Horizons XLI

We liked that Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery so much we decided to try another one of their brews in addition to restocking the fridge with more of their Porter.  So today it's...

The Alström Bros really like the product from Deschutes.  They rated the Porter "World Class" and give the same rating to the Mirror Pond Pale Ale.  An excerpt from the review:

Taste: Smooth with a medium body, semi crisp malt(a bit bready) of sweetness and grain are the forefront. Then quickly comes a flare of fruit and ester that goes hand and hand with the very flavourful cascade slightly pungent hop bitterness and flavour ... the hop flavour has a sweet citric taste. A fair amount of residual sugars are left in the aftertaste and slowly let way for a drying finish of grain and hop oil.

Notes: A great pale a to be had here, any hop head would be pleased and if you love cascade hops this is your ale! This makes for a great lunch time brew.

This beer is pretty hoppy.  I'm not THAT into hops so it ain't really my cuppa.  It is pleasant and it won't last long in our fridge, that's fer shure.  But neither will it be at the top o' my list for future purchase, either.

Today's cigar is a Man O' War Ruination.  The beer and the cigar are damned near a perfect fit.

Two Shades o' Normal

I like the way Mr. Kelley thinks.  From The Usual Source, of course.

―:☺:―

In other news... We're 180 out from where we were yesterday.  I'm amazed at how unstable and erratic my sleeping habits are, i.e., yesterday we went to bed around 0430 hrs in the morning and slept until well after noon.  Today we're up at 0430, which is when we went to bed 24 hours ago.  Well, we actually retired at 2200 hrs last evening and woke up at 0300 this morning (it's 0430 and two cups later as I type).  It's the strangest thang... my eyes popped open at 0300 and I simply could NOT get back to sleep.  So we gave it up and got up at 0330.

Is this normal?  I think not.  But... it is what it is and normal is highly overrated.