I guess the brutal weather finally got here.  If it waited this long I guess that’s a bonus.  That’s my always-optimistic attitude shining through there.

We had a weekend o’ parties;  Can’t beat that.  We started off Friday down at the Brooksider, where they were having a party for our friend Ritchie.  He had just retired from Hallmark, with some ridiculous amount of years.  I had 25 years in my head, but the more I think about it I think it may have been even longer than that.  I guess you get to know lots of people working somewhere that long, because it may well have been the biggest crowd I have ever seen down there at 5:00 in the afternoon.  They had all kinds of good food set out, so that covered dinner too.  We stayed there a few hours, and then went over to our neighbor’s house for a party they were throwing.  These girls just moved in next door a short while ago, and I’m sure they were just giving us the “courtesy invite,” but we decided to actually show up for a few laughs.  It did indeed provide quite a few chuckles.  I’d say the average age was 21 – 23;  It was like a college flash-back.  We kind of stood on the edge and marveled at their skills until 11:00 or so, when they were circling up to head down to Westport.  As for us, we circled up and headed to bed.

Saturday we actually ventured out into the oppressive heat for a short while.  We walked the dogs, did a little shopping, and that type of practical stuff.  We also stopped by Jalapenos for a little lunch.  I mention that only because I decided to stray from my usual order (pork burrito) and get a chile relleno.  I had been to Fiesta Azteca Friday afternoon and had the same, so I wanted to compare their offerings while the memory was still fresh.  Jalapenos was good, actually better than I remember, but I still give the edge to Fiesta Azteca.  There is lots of supporting reasoning to this opinion, but I’ll spare you the details.  After all that excitement, and I really hate to admit this, we went over to John & Susan’s house for…  A couples baby shower.  Yeah, yeah, admit it, you’ve been to one too.  I have weaseled out of several previous situations, but this one was conveniently located and I was promised that there would be absolutely no games or similar tomfoolery.  It wasn’t too miserable, considering the situation.  There was a ton of good appetizers, and none of the guys were too thrilled about being there, so we just kind of slunk off to the kitchen and ate.  We didn’t stay long either;  I had to work all night so we bailed pretty early.

Sunday was once again “brisket-practice” day.   With my notes from last weekend providing a solid base documentation, I fired up the smoker and went to work, again keeping a detailed brisket-diary.  The Martins came over and product-tested with us, and I have to say it didn’t come out too bad.  Definitely an improvement, which is my main focus at this point.  The bad part of all this practice is the associated obligation to improve on my actual contest scores though.  See, as it stands I can always just do poorly and then say “Guess I shoulda practiced some.”  Now if/when I score horribly, I will just flat suck.  OH THE PRESSURE!!!  Actually, after a little thought, I am fully prepared to fall back on my secondary “This isn’t the smoker I practiced on” excuse.