Not a bad weekend, all things being relative.  Actually my entire week was shot down Tuesday when I went to the orthodontist, presumably to get my braces removed.  They hadn’t really said as much, I just had it in my head based on a few clues.  For one thing, it was my last payment.  It stands to reason that if I am no longer giving them money, they never want to see me again;  That’s the way it usually works.  Secondly, I’m really quite tired of them.  Done.  So, based on these reasonable assumptions, I packed my celebratory beef jerky and headed off.  Well, it didn’t work out;  Guess the jerky will have to save for a while.  Dang.

Friday after work Donette picked me up and we headed over to Raytown to check out the BBQ contest.  Our friends Red Buffalo BBQ were competing, so we hung out with them and walked around a bit.  Rick threw a few slabs of ribs on for munching, and they were pretty awesome.  He inspired me to give my own horrible ribs another go, so when we got home I took a few slabs out of the freezer.  We pretty much called it a night when we got home.  We picked up a copy of Gran Torino from the Red Box, popped it in, and that was it.

Saturday I got up and set about dealing on the ribs.  Since my last attempt was such an unmitigated disaster, I effectively started over.  Babybacks instead of spares, different rub, and less heat & less smoke, on the advice of my good friend Alton.  Meanwhile, Donette was continuing her monumental undertaking of trying to stop our 75-year-old crappy stone basement from leaking.  Unfortunately, my constant attention to the firebox kept me from assisting with this project.  While we were both engaged in our respective tasks, our old neighbor Rick came by to visit.  He actually still owns the house next door, and has been renting if out for a few years.  The current tenants are moving out though, so he drove up from Chicago to do a little “between renter” maintenance.  His partner Lucci was with him, and their dog Bondai.  Bondai & Gabe are buddies from way back, and they acted it;  They pretty  much ran each other ragged, which doesn’t really take much for Gabe.  While we were chatting with them they foolishly let it slip that they were going to a BBQ at their friends Ann & Jen’s house, so we invited ourselves over to that event.  Hey, they live close by, they were que’ing, and we didn’t have anything else to do;  Worked out perfect.  (For us anyway.)  So we packed up our ribs and headed over there, and actually stayed rather late.  The ribs?  Eh, better than last time.  I think I’ll save the hickory for the brisket and switch to apple or something next time.

Sunday for some reason, Donette uncharacteristically got up at the crack of 10:00.  Since she was up pre-noon, we decided to celebrate with breakfast down at Sharp’s.  That’s a pretty good start to a day right there.  I’m pretty sure we could do better at home, but all things considered I’d just as soon have my breakfast brought out to the table all cooked and ready, with no effort on my part.  And so, stuffed with johnny cakes and biscuits & gravy, we headed back home and hit the couch to await the predicted storms.  Well the storms never came;  It actually looked pretty nice out.  We didn’t want to risk it by stepping outside though, so for the most part we just watched TV and played on the computer.  We watched “Fletch” for the bajillioneth time, caught the Royals game, and a few other entirely forgettable movies.  Donette did make a quick run to Costco and picked up a few more slabs of ribs;  Since this last round at least gave me a base to work off, I’ll call them version 2.5 I think.