I recently acquired a BSF Media .22 Air Rifle (made in West Germany, apparently). It fires .22 caliber pellets, and is a heavy, accurate, awesome beast. I spent the afternoon constructing a target holder and backboard from scrap wood, and then firing this German monster at paper targets and the occasional plastic bottle and tin can. It is truly awesome to see how much damage a chunk of lead can do when fired using only air pressure created by a spring.

While I was involved in the preparation for shooting and the shooting itself, I drank a 16oz bottle of Spaten Optimator. This dark, bottom fermented 'Doppel Bock' is quite malty, syrup heavy and sweet, yet it still manages to be an extremely refreshing, drinkable beer. This is a complex man's man's beer, and serves well as a accompaniment to shooting, fishing, eating meat and similar manly pursuits. I recommend drinking this as cold as you can get it, and fast, as the warmer this gets, the sweeter and less refreshing it gets. This stuff is %7.2 alcohol, so you'll only need a couple of the 16oz bombers it comes in to reach that happy place.

 Following the construction, shooting and beer,  I moved on to wine and cigars, choosing a nice bottle of Bodegas Iranzo Temperanillo (2005) organic wine and a nice La Aurora Robusto with a Cameroon wrapper that I acquired recently in my share of a sampler. THIS COMBO KICKED MY ASS. The cigar was super leafy-woody at the start, but about 1/3 of the way in, it turned to a woody, chocolaty, creamy extravaganza that caused me to smoke it a bit faster than I would recommend (more on this in a minute). It kept an amazing solid ash, with an almost parallel track of leaf lines down each side. The Temperanillo was a gorgeous, fruity, dry red wine with a very drinkable character. I smoked and drank my way through nearly $16 worth of luxury leisure goods in under an hour and paid the price. Once I was done expelling a good portion of the wine (and my dinner) into the bushes behind my house due to smoking a very high nicotine cigar waaay too fast, I realized that even a tobacco fiend like myself has to be careful, some of these cigars are hiding quite a serious amount of nicotine under their innocent looking wrappers. I did go on to finish the bottle of wine, but the last inch or so of the cigar went unsmoked.

When I say tobacco fiend, I'm not sure if you understand what level of fiend I am, so I'll give it to you straight: I went through my backpack the other day, and found: 3 cigars, 4 tins of pipe tobacco, a pouch of rolling tobacco, a tin of Danneman cigarillos (a delightful smoke for when one wants a cigar, but doesn't have the time) and 5 tins (3 distinct kinds) of snuff. The previous list doesn't include the other 2 tins of snuff that I carry in my pants pockets, or the pouch of rolling tobacco that resides in my coat. This is merely the tobacco that I keep with me. I also have a humidor and various stashes of pipe tobacco in my bedroom.

When I say snuff, I'm speaking of nasal snuff, not "chew". As much as I love tobacco, I do draw the line at chewing, drinking or putting it in my ass.

The beer, cigar and wine were all good, and recommended wholeheartedly. Just be careful with that cigar, son, it packs a wallop.

--Christopher