So finally a week of workouts worthy of a #cigarSaturday!
My aura of random nakedness continued with yet another old dude in the pool change area and woman who was unexpectedly apart of the #freethenipple campaign briefly outside of Canadian Tire. 
I also suffered through an older gentleman's deluge of fart death clouds on Saturday morning at the gym. I have no idea why the fans are always against me in these situations but my 4 miles turned into a scene from Stephen Kings  'The Mist' as I tired to focus my energies while not breathing from my nose.
On a completely different train of rant, I am almost to the tipping point on election candidate grandstanding that I can handle. I am not going to get into politics in this blog because, well, a person should be never discuss politics, religion or money amongst strangers, or family or anyone really, but holy crap, if all these people actually believe half the crap that is coming from their face holes were are doomed. I still believe in voting and exercising that right but it is really a lot of blah blah until that person/party is in office then its what can you actually do, and what wont you do that I am interested in, not what you may do, if you have any kind of a budget left to do it with.
Okay now on to something more uplifting, this weeks selection for #cigarSaturday.
So this week is bitter sweet, as I have a lot of family and work obligations coming up, so the scotch this week will be the last purchase for a while, i know boohoo right! Poor me and my slowly growing collection of spirits. haha
So for this last pairing i picked a scotch that was one of the first scotches that I ever tried. Cardhu 12yr. 
The first time i tried this scotch I was working at a bar that longer exists for a bar manager that was very knowledgable about wines, scotches and other spirits. I learned quite a bit about some of the finer spirits from him, and about bartending. 
Back then my goto was Dark Rum, and usually quite a lot of it on a night off. 
One night he convinced me to try some whiskeys. 
Cardhu was one of them and from what i remembered at the time I really liked it and thought it was oh so fancy drinking scotch.
I know it didnt end well that night, I will spare you the gruesome details but it would be many years before I would even attempt  brown liquor again.
So now that I am more mature ( mheh) I thought what a perfect bottle to pause in my purchasing with, Cardhu 12.
Cardhu is a much-loved single malt, Cardhu is an easy-going, charming Speysider. With clean, crisp oak and sweet malt.

On first taste it has a great sweet spiciness on your lips and you get a little tingle. There is a faint smoke on the finish, and really the perfect amount for me. I dont want to feel like Im drinking a forrest fire.
It is incredibly smooth, and drinkable. If you are just getting into scotches this is one to try.
So I paired it with a Don Thomas Maduro Presidente. Mainly because I wanted something with a bit of a bite, and presidente length you are going to get at least 40-50minutes of burn time, and I really wanted to have a sit and enjoy this combo.
Now while i typically like this cigar and have had it before, the price point being around 8$ by the way.
I did not overly enjoy this combination. The scotch great, the cigar great, but together not so much. I found the flavors were working against each other, and the cigar was overpowering the scotch.
Obviously I would have these both again, but most likely not together.
Saturday was another beauty day, lots of running around in the day time so even thought the picks this week were not getting along, still a blessing to be able to have a sit, a drink, a smoke, some tunes, and chat with the departed under a beautiful maritime sky.
Sean"BigBoyRunning" Ryan

Frosh week is ova.
As much fun as it is to see months of work come to realization, my 42 year old body, and mind, is happy that it was successful, happy that new events created led to an exciting and unique week, but am also happy that it is over.
For anyone that works in my type of business, University, College, or Students' Union, they know what i am talking about, and they get it. 
Especially now in the age we are in with social media, liability, risk assessment there are so many more details that need ( and should) be accounted for. To make it through the planning, is tough, to make it through 7 days of orientation week, with most days being multi-event, multi-location days, with many different services on an off campus being utilized it is incredibly difficult to pull it off and harder to do it really well. In my opinion we did provide one kick ass week of welcome and welcome back.
This is not a poor me blather, I am just trying to create some understanding for those that see the occasional picture i post, that behind the fun, there is an incredible amount of work that goes on. 
So sometime H.A.L.T comes out.
For those of you that have been through leadership training with Peake Experiences you know H.A.L.T. 
H.A.L.T stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. 
When you are in a leadership position, and the pressure is on, you are probably going to experience any one or sometimes all of H.A.L.T.
When you are experiencing any or all of the H.A.L.T you are going to slip into behaviours that are not that fun to work with, people can get power based, or competitive, or passive aggressive, or flakey, or any other ineffective style they may have.
I def had a few moments during the week where I was going through some of that. I dont know how you can help having that happen at time. My slipping into it always starts the same way.
For me the first thing to go is my gym/pool time. When my exercise goes, the diet follows shortly behind. I start to convince myself its okay to eat shitty because im not working out anyway, and i must be burning alot of calories because I am working long physical hours.
Once the physical activity, and diet go, then goes sleep. 
My brain can keep me awake with the most strange things, and not eating properly and no exercising compound that.
I start thinking about the event, what we could have done better, what we should do next year, what about tomorrow, who is doing what, will i get to see my family at all, I havent seen them in days, am I failing as a father, who should i vote for, is that a spider or are my eyes just playing tricks on me, i have to call mom tomorrow, havent spoken with her since last Friday, that has to be a spider, i think it moved, and so on and so on.
Before I know it, its time to get up and start another day.
So that for 7+ days it is easy to slip into negative behaviour. 
Aside from stepping away from orientation week, which i dont think i could ever do, I struggle with how to manage H.A.L.T type things in that pressure cooker.
So I am happy to be getting back to my regular schedule this week so I can go back to K.A.T.N ( kicking ass and taking names). hehe
Now while I did not get the required workouts in, I am saying eff it this week. I have been saving up for a scotch for a pay or so and after the last of my to-do list was completed on Saturday, it was time for a treat.
So please welcome, one of the scotches in my top 3 all time scotches: Dalwhinnie 15yr old Single Malt. I first tried Dalwhinnie in my bartender days in Halifax and fell in love then. It was like bumping into an old friend that i had not seen in a while when I bought it the other day.
Dalwhinnie is like drinking golden caramel in a glass. It has a very crisp, clean taste, has some great aromas on the nose of honey and caramel and a very slight smoke and spice taste on the tongue. Some seriously good stuff.
I paired this with a CAO Brazillian box press cigar. This is not a beginner cigar. It has a very bold flavor. It has around a $13 price point which is great, holds a great ash, and lit very easily. If you want a cigar that you can relax with, this is your huckleberry.
It paired amazingly well with the Dalwhinnie, I am glad that i bought a second one, so that i can try this combo again.
Even though there was a little drizzle out on the deck, it was so nice to finally sit, reflect on the week, and enjoy a sniff of scotch and a cigar in the company of my wife and former sweetheart and one of our pooches. 
It is also sad, because the weather is starting to turn, the sun is going away earlier and earlier and soon it will be time to take down the pool for another year.
This of course will not stop #cigarSunday, but still sad to see the end of summer for another year, it seems to get faster and faster just when you want it to slow down and enjoy it a little longer.
* Sigh* 
Next week, back at 'er though.
Lastly, shirts were finally mailed to a few of you that jumped at them, make sure you let me know when you get them so I can give you a shout out for taking on the free shirt challenge.
Sean "BigBoyRunning" Ryan