History

Several weeks ago I saw Valet. make mention of Sydney Hale Co., a hand poured candle making company based in Virginia.  Valet. boasted the company as:

a family owned fragrance house making small-batch candles out of Arlington, VA in a variety of subtle, masculine scents at an affordable price. The wax is soy, made from American-grown beans, which means no soot or smoke and a less intense fragrance compared to traditional paraffin candles.

The Cocoa + Espresso scent is what brought me to the website, hoping to find reviews of the candle.  Alas, none were on the site and Google didn’t yield any results along the lines of what I was looking for.  Chocolate scents tend not to translate very well, although the essence of coffee and chocolate is an attractive one to me.

The Decision

Also present on the list of candles was Tobacco + Sandalwood.  Although I’m not a smoker, I do enjoy the smell of a good pipe being thoughtfully puffed on nearby.  Sandalwood is a scent that I don’t care for when it comes directly from a piece of the wood, however, I’m absolutely thrilled with the scent of The Art of Shaving’s Sandalwood Preshave Oil.

I decided I’d give it a go.  The cost after shipping was $27 which translates into $0.54 per hour of burn.

The Review

The first thing that I noticed is that the jar is as beautiful and classic as it appears in the pictures.  The second thing I noticed was that the smell is nothing like what I’d imagined.

The closest thing I know to describe the scent as is baby powder.  It’s a light scent that’s also sort of refreshing.  Although it’s not what I expected, it does make for a nice winter scent. (I’m big on dividing scents by season.)  Its light, reserved and mellow nature makes it a natural to keep in the bathroom, a room that’s usually too small and poorly circulated to keep a scented candle without being knocked out of your boots every time you walk into the room.

Will I buy another Tobacco + Sandalwood candle?  I don’t know.  But I do like it enough that I think I’ll try some of the other scents.  Possibly the Mint + Geranium or the Agave + Honeysuckle for Spring or the Sea Salt + Bay Rum or Grapefruit + Orange for Summer.

Who knows — maybe I’ll even get around to taking a gamble on the Cocoa + Espresso.

My 7-year old daughter’s favorite “lullaby” for me to sing is “I Knew An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly”.  When there isn’t time for an entire concert of lullabies I let her pick a song and finish with my permanent encore, “The Cuppycake Song“.  Inevitably her choice is “I Knew An Old Lady”.

Last night, by the time I reached “I knew an old lady who swallowed a horse”, she was prepared to cut me off and end with “swallowed a buck”.  Improv everywhere.

After the lady swallowed a buck (oh, what luck! she swallowed a buck!) I was shocked to find out that the lady had also swallowed a bull.  (She was so full!  She swallowed a bull!)

It will be interesting to find out what she swallowed between the bull and horse the next time around.

Also, take a minute to, in one breath, sing “She swallowed the bull to catch the buck, she swallowed the buck to catch the cow, she swallowed the cow to catch the goat, she swallowed the goat to catch the dog, she swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her…”

A trip to the New England states brought me to the back steps of Porches Inn in North Adams, MA.

Although I’ve been to dozens of boutique hotels, this one is unique among the unique.

Once a row of six boarded up and dilapidated Victorian-style row houses built in the 1880s, The Porches now is a row of rooms self-described as “retro-edgy” and connected by a long, comfortable porch complete with rocking chairs.

You can grab a book in the study and read by the fireplace during the snowy North Adams, Massachusetts months or, if you’re visiting while the Green Mountains (just a few minutes up the highway) are still Green, grab a book from the study and head out to the porch with a slice of fresh-cut slice of watermelon and a cold glass of lemonade from the pitcher in Reception.

Once the evening turns cooler, head to the sauna, pool, or meeting room where a big screen TV and surround sound sit.  During my visit this room was relatively unused and with only 47 rooms on the property, my guess is you can pretty much catch any Big Game on any given night in this room.

Overall, I had a great time at this hotel and could see myself coming here again for a 3-5 day trip to relax, take in the Mass MoCA, hike the nearby trails, explore the Williams College campus and just unwind.

Pictures: Here
Try: The Nutella, Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich at Brewhaha
Bonus: Best tap water I’ve ever had

It looks like a few people are having trouble figuring out how to use the newly added ping.fm support on the latest version of Twhirl (twhirl.org).  It would make sense to find a place to add your ping.fm account in the Account Manager, but that’s not how it’s set up.

To set your Twitter entries to automatically “ping” to your other social networking sites (Brightkite, Plurk, Facebook, etc.) follow these quick and easy steps.

1. Login to your Twitter account on Twhirl.

2. Open the Configuration for your account.

3. Click the Key to find out what your Ping.fm Desktop / Web Key is.

4. Login to Ping.fm if you aren’t already logged in and copy your Desktop / Web Key.

5. Paste the key into the field in Twhirl.

6. Save and you’re all set.

My favorite part is that the code is smart enough to tell Ping.fm not to post your tweet back to Twitter again, so there’s only one copy of your Twhirl post across the board.

Yesterday I took passport photos to renew my passport.  It expired in May.

I don’t have plans to go anywhere, but the last international trip I took was planned three weeks in advance.

That trip landed Kevin and me in Peru on New Year’s Eve enjoying a culture and a land whose beauty you can sense is thousands of years old; a much needed oasis from our long hours at the office.

We hiked Huayna Picchu in the rain, had multiple massages at $40/hr a pop, fed the llamas, sipped coca tea by the fire, and ate “real deal” Peruvian chicken while overlooking the ocean.

All born from three weeks’ planning.

The Itch

In the past couple of weeks I’ve been bitten by the travel bug again.

New York, DC, Cambria, and Boston, I love you — I really do.  But this time an American town just won’t do it for me.

I find that I’m American in loyalty, but vagabond in spirit; my stomach churning with the desire to see Kerger Park again.  Able to taste Zurich in my mouth.  Cairns, Australia filling my nostrils and the Mediterranean filling my dreams.

I suffer from theresickness; like homesickness, but rather than ache to be home, I ache to be “there”.

My name is Shaun and I’m an addict.

Sweet and Tart

I am a learner by nature.  I want to know the most important 10-20% about every topic there is.  Learning is one of life’s simple pleasures.

But to travel is to experience.  And experience takes the simple pleasure of learning and turns it into a rich delicacy unparalleled in taste and color and texture by anything else I’ve ever known.

I want to stare mindlessly into the Japanese gardens of Osaka while sipping tea.  I want to roam the streets sprouting from Florida Street in Buenos Aires.  I want to strain my neck looking up to see the top of the Eiffel Tower and I want to peer down from Taipei Tower.

To learn. To experience. To live and to see and to eat.

And so I crave travel.  And so my passport can no longer remain expired.