"You know my methods, Watson."

At ease, you worthless sons of mothers.

Well, hullo there, blog-reading public. Tonight, I am smoking my favourite pipe. In it, I have packed some tobacco which I purchased today. It's a Peterson blend called "Sherlock Holmes." I'm actually rather unimpressed. Holmes is probably the most well-known pipe-smoking fictional character, and I'm really not sure why they decided to name this tobacco after him. It smells absolutely wonderful, a really great liquorice sort of smell. But, sadly, the taste does not quite match its olfactory presence. I can tell that there's a lot of Burley in this blend. For one thing, it says so on the tin. But it's also rather bland in the taste department, which usually indicates Burley. Burley is a sort of filler tobacco, it doesn't have much flavour, and is pretty light. That's all well and good, but this blend just isn't doing it for me. It's not bad, I mean, it burns pretty well, and the volume of smoke is nicely consistent, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't smell good, but the taste just isn't anything special. Plus, it's got some bite to it right off the bat, which is a turn-off. Not that I mind a little pinch on the tongue, but I'd prefer to be smoking some punchy Latakia if I'm going to go down that road. If it's going to bite my tongue, I'd rather it have something pretty strong in the taste department to back it up. I won't try to quantify the actual taste, since that's pretty subjective territory. I'll give it a few more smokes and see if it grows on me. At least I've got it packed it my Bulldog, which never fails to produce a good smoke. A good English pipe, the way it should be.

As I mentioned before, I've been writing lesson plans for that church history study. I've gotten the first one finished. It covers the inter-testamental period, the rise of the Roman Empire, and sets the stage for the ministry of Christ. No small undertaking. Darius III, Philip II, Alexander the Great, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Augustus... lots of dates and dead people in this round. Next up is the aftermath following the Ascension and the struggles of the early church, namely the introduction of the Pauline gospel, and the conflict between Peter and Paul over the role of Jewish tradition in the life of the church. Heavy stuff. The early days were rough going. It makes one appreciate aspects of orthodox Christianity that we sometimes take for granted. If Peter and some of the more pharisaic factions within the church had won out, we'd all be eating Kosher hot dogs and celebrating Passover instead of eating ham for our Christmas dinner. Kind of makes you think a little harder about how things got to be the way they are. Everything wasn't spelled out at first, and our fathers had to exercise a great deal of discernment to figure out exactly how the followers of Christ should live, worship, and carry out the Micah Mandate. I'm really looking forward to researching this period in-depth. Wait, I get to do this sort of stuff as a career? Whoa, awesome!