#101 - HAPPY NEW YEAR! [off topic]

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND KISS MY BIG HAIRY SPIDER!

My best to you and yours in 2016. May it be rewarding, prosperous, healthy and full of smiles.

Don't be a quitter and make new year's resolutions. Be a winner and strive for your goals!

What will January bring from you? Are you in one of those places that become frozen tundra and everything goes into slow motion as people brace themselves against the winter chill? I am.

But what's in your planner? Have goals? Plans? Changes? Feel free to comment below.

My January begins with the development of a new company. Want to talk about change? I'm going from "Michael Jacobi's SPIDERSHOPPE" to Triggercontrol Tactical, LLC. It's actually a life theme for me that I am always driven towards something new. I have the spirit of adventure and the passion for travel. As I continue work on the launch of TCT, I prepare to travel some more!

My January's theme is EPIC ROAD TRIP!

• I will depart very early on Monday January 11 and return somewhat late on Monday February 1.
• I will drive 4800 miles and sleep in hotel rooms for 21 nights in a row
• I will train for a total of 7 days (a 2 day and 5 day course of fire) and shoot 2000 rounds
• I will walk about 50 miles over several days at SHOT SHOW in Vegas.
• I will play poker.
• I will post pix on Instagram on all 3 accounts: @ExoticFauna (scenery & travel) or @dailyhandgun/@triggercontroltactical (training/SHOT SHOW)

My route goes like this (just for my stalker friends):

Huntley, IL > Lincoln, NE > Glenwood Springs, CO > Vegas (2 days) > Chino Hills, CA; Prada Olympic Shooting Park (3 days, 2 days training) > Vegas (4 nights for SHOT SHOW) > Paulden, AZ/Gunsite Academy (8 nights, 5 days training) > Grand Canyon > Albuquerque, NM > Tulsa, OK > HOME, SWEET HOME

Then I'll be home and BUSY, BUSY, BUSY until Feb 28 - March 7 for the 14th British Tarantula Society Lectures. And, with that, we bring this blog entry closer to on topic (not that it's not still going to piss off someone who only wants to read "epigynal insertion of embolus"). The BTS Lectures and Annual General Meeting will be another magnificent trip to England (my 9th I think?). I love Bristol, home of my dear mate Mark Pennell. I will be under his needle for more Serious Ink. I'll have my bonus dad Joel along and we'll first spend one night in Dublin where I'll make return visits to Jameson's and Guinness. We'll have a car once we land in Bristol and have side trips to Wales, Stonehenge and London planned.

Then its back home to launch TCT, although I'll only stay sedentary until next training session back in the Prescott, AZ area in late April ;)

Tonight I will toast you all a Happy New Year with a glass of American crafted bourbon (Breckenridge) and a Cuban Cohiba from Costa Rica.

Cheers, MJ

#54 - SUNDAY, FUNDAY #4

Randomness...

Awesome evening last night in the twin cities. Thanks to Lisa Donahue for hosting the Minnverts gathering. Lots of old friends and some new faces like the Pickerings and John Kilner. Thanks to my buds Chad & Chase Campbell for the afternoon taproom tour in the Northeast neighborhood of Minnie beforehand.

Left early with boxes of spiders and made it to the Campbell Brothers residence by about 1 pm. On the way I stopped in Menomonie, Wisconsin because I had made the mistake of deciding to stay somewhere that would give me a head start home today and checked in to my motel. When I left Lisa's at 2 a.m. and drove the brutal 1.25 hours to get back to the dismal Super8 I was not happy with that decision. Fortunately I mostly stayed between the road lines and hit the bed after 3 and was back on the road by 8 and home at 1 pm. Then I hit my own bed until just a short time ago.

The highlight of the afternoon was Indeed Brewing Company. I selected a delicious creamy stout with an impossibly long name and it was amazing and, at 10% alcohol, a fun little tipple.

When Chad came down for my little gathering when the Pennell family was here in June, he brought some "Mexican Cousin", an extraordinary honey lager from Indeed.

I definitely was interested in visiting Indeed while in Minneapolis and it was worth the five hour drive north alone. They had a great variety of superb brews, cool vibe and a food truck parked outside for a couple yummy chicken soft tacos.

We had our beers and grabbed a growler of their Shenanigans and a 750 ml bottle of my new favorite stout to bring to Lisa's.

After Indeed we drove a short distance to Bauhaus Brew Labs. They had a nice location with a huge open air pavilion, but there were only four brews to choose from. I thought they had nothing on Indeed except space. But they were also packed with beer drinkers and the northeast taproom brewpub community seems thriving.

Photo of me by Chad © advan

D.I.D.D.C.N.W.Q.M.S

Chad "advan" Campbell & Chase "CEC" Campbell  inside Indeed Brewing Company.

B&W pic of Bauhaus Brew Labs

Bauhaus Brew Labs

Lisa lives downtown near the University and adjacent to an area heavily populated by Somalis. I had no clue they even had dark-skinned people in Minneapolis. I thought it was all Swedes out of Fargo ;) Just kidding ... great area and the weather was perfect. Most of us hung in the backyard where I enjoyed my brews and a fine Cohiba Cuban cigar while a bottle of Knob Creek 120 proof was passed around. Sometime after midnight, David Lawrence, the bros Campbell and I walked five blocks or so to this Somali dive that Chad said had the best gyros in the twin cities. They were really good and the falafel was the best I've had. There was entertainment too as drunken Somalis and a police presence made things interesting. The woman who operated the dive took care of us with some scrumptious lamb chunks and pita with loads of veggies and some fries.

I brought a Harpactira pulchripes to auction off. I sold enough tickets to cover the value of the spider and one of the kids who was there won it. Kudos to Chad for chasing after the kid and offering $40 and a Holothele incei in trade. Of course, Chad did the ultra-cool thing and donated the H. pulchripes back to the auction and this time it was won by Aaron Ebeling. Aaron seemed stoked to be the proud owner of the first "blue-legged gold baboons" produced in the USA. (Chad, contact him and give him some pointers, please).

Thanks again to the Minnverts for welcoming an Illinoisan. Mark Pennell will be visiting me again the first week of October and I'd like to formally invite all Minnverts people to my own gathering and invite all of you as well. Details will follow, but if you can make a little soiree out in the farmland between O'Hare and Rockford, come on out.

I'll end with a couple other random things ...

My readership has definitely taken a hit now that I am off Faffbook and not linking each individual entry there. It does my head in that people didn't take all of my nudging to bookmark, use Feedly or otherwise ensure they could keep up. It's a sad day if FB is life's answer.

I'll keep going though and I welcome any topic suggestions. I am happy to keep writing TALES FROM THE FIELD until I run out of stories. If you want an arachnocultural or herpetocultural topic covered please email me your questions/suggestions at spidershoppe@icloud.com.

I do still intend to do some more "memory lane" hobby history stuff and will reach out to Ralph Henning to do an interview as I mentioned before. He was there with me at the beginning of the growth of the American tarantula hobby and has plenty of stories to tell.

Last night the subject of Stan Schultz came up. I am sure I'll do a rant about that geezer some day. I called him out as a smuggler in an earlier "memory lane" blog, but I haven't expounded on why his "bible" is shite yet. Someone said that he's planning to write a SECOND crappy book that will no doubt also be overrated by hobbyists who don't know any better. His best bet is to hope I really don't give a shit by then. The rant is leaving me ... I'm just in too happy of a place these days with life changes and positivity. Hope you're well too ...

Until next time, MJ