This past Sunday marked our annual company picnic. From what I'm led to believe it's usually a fairly large affair, but with this year being our fifteenth year of operation, it was an especially big occasion, with every employee, wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, child, and dog turning up.

Food and drink flowed freely, though, despite the weather being downright temperate compared to the last couple of weeks, the 88°/73% heat still kept a hard limit on the amount of either the revelers were willing to consume. Cigars and pipe tobacco were to be found on every table, shared openly, as is generally the case at the office.

Though activities were to be found everywhere, the highlight of the day ended up being Sykes's speech, a brief outline of the last fifteen years, and the place Smokingpipes.com holds in our niche (and 15 years ago far more niche) industry.

We here at Smokingpipes have had a great opportunity to work in a field that, despite its relatively modest size, counts amongst its customers some of the most passionate, intelligent, and dedicated people that anyone could ask for. Every day we get to come to work and do what we love because of each and every one of you.

So, while everyone who works here could make it to our picnic, we were really only a tiny fraction of all those who make what we do significant. Your absence was sorely felt.