Sorry to all, but the technical content of the weekend was rather limited;  I have no material relating to any network upgrades, PC tweaks, or even random firewall policy changes.  Maybe next week.  My time was spent in the hellish wilds of Kearney MO, land of cow patties, trucker hats, and single-ply toilet paper.  I was there participating in TFB’s second BBQ competition of the season.  And, to tell you the truth, I am still feeling a little bit out-of-sorts from the whole thing.  Somehow I managed to burn, cut, or bruise a great portion of my already battered body, including a nasty slice right on the tip of my index finger.  I didn’t notice it so much until I started typing this morning…  Could end up being a career-threatening injury.

But, being a trooper, I will play through the pain and recap the events, if maybe in a slightly abbreviated fashion.  Martin and I got there mid-Friday, followed closely by Zim and the all-important camper.  We got settled in and the rest of the crew dragged in throughout the evening.  We actually had a nice little party, although the sub-40 degree temperature made things just a little chilly.  Of course, no TFB event would be complete without some type of humorous turn of events.  In St. Joseph this Spring, Chad provided the amusing story line. (That’s all I’ve got to say about that.)  For the Kearney event, the shocking turn came about when our arch-enemies, the Red Glove BBQ team, set up right across the street from our camp.  They were truly sneaky about the whole thing, even going to the length of signing up under the pseudo-moniker of “Bone Deep BBQ.”  (Just in case we were perusing the entry sheet daily watching for them, I guess.)  It was a good laugh though, and added a new level of drama to the entire competition.

We got our smoker fired up around midnight Friday, and the first flesh hit the fire at roughly 1:00.  (I apologize for being vague, but I just can’t be sure who might be reading this in an attempt at stealing trade secrets.)  Things progressed smoothly throughout the wee hours;  Not sure how much text I could possibly squeeze out of that.  Turn, baste, stoke, turn, baste, stoke…  You get the idea.  We passed the time with occasional forays over to the Red Glove (a.k.a. Bone Deep) camp, and my co-worker Rick’s team who was up the street a bit.

Everything got wrapped up around 2:30 Saturday afternoon, as far as the “work” was concerned.  The results were announced promptly at 4:00, and you could have cut the tension in the air with a 12″ slicing blade.  (Much like my finger.)  They asked if we needed any additional security called to stand between us and the Red Gloves, but we assured them we were professionals and would act as such.  Red Gloves scored the first punch early and big, staggering us hard with a first-place finish in chicken.  They followed that up with another body-shot in the form of a fourth-place rib entry.  The TFB team was reeling, but then came back strong when Falhstrom and Bryse’s pork entry placed third.  That was it for the ribbons;  We had to go to the scorecards for the final results.  Team TFB ended up taking the honors, by a scant but decisive four spots.  (Eighteenth to twenty-second.) I don’t think our resounding victory really surprised anyone, given our clear history of defeating them, but I will admit the dual ribbons had us a bit shaken.  As for my brisket, it came in a somewhat disappointing 20th.  Not bad, I guess, but I must admit I was hoping for a little better.  (It placed top 50% and beat the Red Glove entry, which are my main areas of focus.)  I was somewhat comforted by a string of perfect scores in the “tenderness” category, so it’s something to build on.

Sunday was a wash.  I spent the day up at Martin’s watching football and trying to recover.  Of course, we also spent a considerable amount of time discussing what we could have done different, should have done, didn’t do, blah blah blah.  The American Royal competition is right around the corner people!!