Evening Otterites,

Just winging a post for tonight and thought I’d start with an apology on behalf of Francis for not posting in some time. See he’s been working that second novel pretty hard, and now he’s started shopping them to agents. He’s hard at work and hasn’t had a chance to post. Robert too is pretty busy, quite a bit going on at his work (big upgrade a couple months ago) and a bit of a promotion to go with it, and then his writing projects are top of mind as well. That leaves old lazy Martin, who should be at work on his own writing project, to keep the blog going, but I’m pretty smoked by the time I get home from the office and I’m lucky to be able to focus on writing something here, which is also probably obvious from the sporadic nature of my posts.

Anyway, it doesn’t take much effort to grow facial hair, so while I’m being lazy in my basement, I’ve been growing a grand moustache. And I do mean grand. I’m using product on it to give it a sweet curl, and everybody my age thinks I look like baseball great Rollie Fingers. I’m really going for more of a gunfighter look (see photo of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday above) but Rollie was pretty cool too. Robert likes to keep a short beard, but I swear I think Francis shaves in his sleep. He’s clean shaven even on weekends! That’s dedication to the cause right there. He claims he wore a beard/goatee for a bit a few years ago, but I don’t remember that and won’t believe it until I see a picture. I’ve experimented with lots of facial hair looks, from Wilfred Brimley to full on Santa Claus, but I think I’ve hit on it now. Takes just a moment to put the product on it in the mornings and I super dig the look. Virile and masculine. So I’m running with it and hope to keep it going. I got enough product to last probably a year anyway.

We also made a visit to FOSAO (Friend of Snakes and Otters), our man Bret Maverick, out in New Haven this past weekend. He smoked some meat and vegetables and served up some seriously good bourbon. It was a great S&O night, and Maverick has some killer facial hair going on too. Francis was way outnumbered.

That’s all I got for tonight Otterites. I’m going challenge Robert and Francis to post something about their shave habits. Or least something making fun of mine. Plus hopefully more on Maverick’s hospitality.