Happy Halloween all.  Hopefully everyone has their costumes ready to go for a big night of trick-or-treating.  Not us though.  We kind of gave up on Halloween;  Too much of a nuisance.  Plus, we’re still on a diet so we can’t have candy around the house, you know.  Maybe we’ll give out carrot sticks or something.  Actually, we are planning to leave the front door open and the porch light on, and then when kids ring the doorbell the dogs can rush the storm door and scare the crap out of them.  We’re going to take some snacks over to the neighbors house and watch out the window and laugh.  Come on over, it’ll be a hoot.

Well we had a pretty busy weekend again.  Friday I started things off by going to Kennedy’s with Brice and Martin, for their “grand re-opening” event.  Personally I’ve never been much on Kennedy’s anyway, and their “temporary” location doesn’t do much for me either.  But, what the heck, gotta keep the local shops open.  Supposedly they are re-building on their old location, so if that ever actually starts the construction should provide a diversion, as it’s right outside the window from their current spot.  (The sorta-historic Kennedy’s burned down last winter, if you don’t remember.)  We hung out there for a while, and then picked up a pizza (so much for the diet) and met up with the girls at home.  I spent the rest of the evening kicking everybody’s butt in dominoes.  Nobody was very sure on the rules, but since I won they must have been right.

Saturday we had some friends in from Nebraska, Army buddies of mine from “The Big One of ’91”.  Tom and Tammy come up every and then, but the last time Dan and Denise visited us was for our wedding, so they haven’t seen KC in a little while.  Since it might be another 15 years before they make it out this way I wanted to do it up right, so I decided to take them to the Brooksider.  Spare no expense, I always say.  We introduced them to everybody down there, had some delicious chicken wings and nachos for lunch, then hung out watching the Huskers get their weekly beat-down.  After that, we hopped a bus down to the Plaza so the girls could take a mercifully short shopping break.  When they were done, we took everybody on a short tour of the Plaza, showing them all my favorite spots.  Since I don’t really like anywhere on the Plaza, this made for an extremely short tour.  My recommended spots consisted of Tomfooleries and the ‘Falloon, both of which went over pretty well with the group.  Actually I had very good tenderloin sandwich at Tomfooleries;  I’d even say it was good enough to merit a trip back some day.

Sunday we spent the better part of the day cooking.  The Nebraska crew came over for breakfast, so I made a big pot of biscuits and gravy and some fried eggs.  (Yeah, the ol’ diet ain’t going so well.)  They had to start their trek home around 11:00, and after they left I went to work boiling a chicken.  It’s been said that I am easily amused, and to that end I would say that boiling chickens is one of my favorite things to do around the house.  There is just a lot of “bang for the buck” out of a boiled bird.  You get a couple of quarts of broth that you can do all sorts of amazing things with, especially with soup-weather right around the corner.  And, you get a bunch of shredded chicken meat that you can use in countless fascinating scenarios.  Case in point, the Martins came over for dinner and voila’,  chicken burritos!!!  Wow, does the fun ever end at our house?  Donette made all kinds of good stuff to go along with the burritos too;  beans, salsa, pico de gallo, etc.  We cheated and had frozen guacamole though.  OK, that’s about all the text I can stretch out of a boiled chicken, I’m done.

Wow I am spent.  My bleeding edge lifestyle is catching up with me, and quick.  We started our weekend about Tuesday last week.  I went out with a few guys from work, for a standard issue “going away” gathering.  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings, which I actually kind of like, although I rarely actually go there.  Then on Wednesday, we went out with the girls that rent the house next to us.  Two of them were celebrating their big 24th birthdays, so we met them down at the ‘Sider for happy hour.  Apparently when you’re 24 you have a different concept of “Happy Hour” though.  We take it as a rather literal translation;  4-5 o’clock, or 5-6, maybe 4-6 if we’re feeling particularly energetic.  They seem to translate it into more of a “Happy Evening” or something along those lines.  We took Thursday off and rested up, and then Friday night the same girls had a party at their house.  We figured since they were going to be outside being all rowdy and generally disturbing the peace, we might as well head on over and have some fun.  Sort of the “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” tact.  Luckily their parents were there, so we had somebody to relate to.  I think their parents were actually a bit older than us, but I didn’t want to ask and find out differently.

Saturday was yet another party.  There was a benefit in Liberty supporting autism, so I went uncover with the Red Buffalo BBQ team and helped them cook the food for it.  Luckily it didn’t rain for once, so all we had to contend with was the 30 mph wind gusts.  I pretty much spent the entire day up there, cooking and enjoying the day.  The benefit started around 5:00 so that kept us busy for a while, but after everybody ate we enjoyed the party for several hours.  It was a “casino night” theme, but the only betting we did was on the mice races.  If you’ve never seen those, they just had this big plexiglass box, and they put in a bunch of mice and see which one reaches the end first.  It was definitely a hit;  mostly with the “10 and under” crowd.  Not sure what that says about me…  They had a big silent auction too, but I got outbid on everything I wanted.  I was particularly keyed in on a “weekend in Omaha” package, but my boss’ little girl outbid me.  I was gonna drop the hammer on her, but wimpy Doni said I should let her win it.  So, I let her have her stupid ol’ trip.  I stuck my tongue out at her when nobody was looking though.

Sunday was my “down day.”  Ran out of gas.  Down for the count.  Rest and recovery.  I watched football all day, and that’s about it.  I did mow the front yard, which took about 15 minutes, so I guess that counts for something.  And, since I was on the PC all day watching my fantasy football teams anyway, I put together some pictures from the American Royal finally.

Whew I’m spent.  Mondays are hard on me.  We didn’t even do that much this weekend;  I guess it just doesn’t take much these days.  I started off Friday at the good ol’ Brooksider.  I haven’t been there in a few weeks so I dropped by for happy hour to see if everybody was there.  And, what do you know, they were.  Same people, in the same room, at the same table.  I like consistency.  I stayed an hour or two, then came home to relieve Donette of her dog-sitting duties so her and Dakin could go out.  They went to the Brooksider too, and watched the Disco Dick show.  They must have like it… They stayed out rather ridiculously late.

Saturday I actually went and kicked around the gym a bit.  Third time last week, whoa!  For our evening entertainment, we went to the 810 Zone and met up with Ed & Kim, who were in town for the Bengals game.  This is the third year they’ve gotten together with a big group of friends and family from Cincinnati and gone to the game.  Anyway, they were all down on the Plaza to watch the UC game.  As for us, we watched the MU game, although it was more interesting watching the Cincy crew watch their game… that was the real spectacle.  That was the first time I’d been to the 810 Zone incidentally;  And I would guess it’s probably the last time for a good while.

Sunday we had good intentions of heading to Arrowhead and tailgating with Ed & Kim and their merry band of hooligans.  We just didn’t have it in us though.  Stayed out too late Saturday night I guess.  We just couldn’t drag ourselves to the car.  Instead, we stayed home and made some rather tasty lentil soup, and watched the game from the comfort of our couch.  We met up with them after the game though, at the Falloon.  They still seemed to have a little energy in them, despite the pummeling the Bengals took.  Speaking of pummelings;  I lost to Donette in stupid Fantasy Football, by 120 points.  OUCH.

Well that’s not much of an update I suppose, but it’ll have to do.  It’s early and I don’t think I’ve fully woken up.  Let me be.  And yes I know there aren’t any new pictures.  Sigh.  I had good intentions though, that should count for something.  I don’t have any poll material either.  What can ya’ do.

The BBQ season is now over, as least as far as competitions go.  I don’t think the cover is ready to go back on the smoker just yet, but we’ve done our last all-nighter for the year I imagine.  (I hope…)

Things kicked off Thursday afternoon with the not-so-fun part of the long weekend;  Everything had to be hauled down there and set up.  Last year I managed to show up just when this part was getting wrapped up…  Remind me to wait until a little later in the day again next year.  I weaseled out of MOST of the hard stuff though, so I’ll live.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the unseasonably hot weather, trying to convince ourselves how much we liked our new spot they stuck us in this year.  It was one of those good-news-bad-news situations.  On one hand it was a huge spot, and we were on the end of a row again, which helps when you are setting up and tearing down.  But, we were right in the middle of several other huge “party booths” which made the traffic situation a little ugly.  It’s not like we were given much choice about it, so I guess we’ll just have to get used to it.  We partied well into the night, (by our definition anyway,) and then retired to the camper to be gently lulled to sleep by the sound of the constantly passing freight trains, which were a few hundred feet from our spot.  (Put that in the “bad news” category.)

Friday was the “party day,” which defines the Royal weekend for a good percentage of our team.  In fact, I’m not entirely convinced that at least half the team knows there is also an actual BBQ competition after the party is over.  At any rate, it does take at least as much work as the competition, if not more.  We spent a good part of the day setting up the food lines, putting out chairs and hay bales, and just general set-up, not to mention slicing and chopping a few hundred pounds of smoked meat.  I also managed to sneak off to the hotel room that Donette had rented for the weekend, which was conveniently located downtown.  I took a nice little nap, then headed back to the site later in the afternoon.  Our party turned out remarkably well.  We get a little more prepared every year, and as a result things go just a bit smoother with each event.  Mind you, I generally get a lot of this information second-hand, as I have a tendency to run out of gas well before the party is over.  My nap paid off this year though;  I actual saw the band and everything.  All-in-all the party was a success.  Our food got good reviews, and I think we actually had enough for most if not all of the people that showed up.  The band was a hit again, and Zim did a good job managing the riff-raff at the door.  And, to top it off, we set a new record with our annual fund-raising effort, collecting almost $1200 for the Mid-American Burn Foundation.

Saturday was, for the most part, a rest and recovery day.  Usually the actual competition is Saturday, but this year for whatever reason they moved it to Sunday.  (Another good-news-bad-news situation.)  We cleaned up some of the damage from the night before and basically just sat around baking in the record-setting weather.  Donette came down and rescued me for a while so I didn’t melt.  We had lunch at Tanners and watched some college football, then it was off to the hotel for another nap.  She hauled me back down to the booth around 6:00 that evening to get ready for “game time.”  In another of the constant upgrades, we had a flat-screen TV set up this year, so we spent the rest of the evening watching the MU game and fine-tuning the meat schedule for the next day.

Right around midnight, we had the cooker warmed up and the first meat went on.  Brice and I spent all night in lawn chairs, tending the fire and watching horrible infomercials.  I’ll say one thing, that job was a lot more comfortable this year than most, due mostly to the weather and the TV.  I put on a jacket around 3:00, but it never got cold enough for jeans.  The infomercials were excruciatingly bad, but it gave us something to stare at, even warranting the occasional chuckle with their over-the-top cheesiness.  The rest of the group got up around 6:00, and we were in full ‘que mode by 7:00.  I really don’t know what is more exhausting, the party on Friday or the competition itself.  By the time the last entry got turned in at 2:00 that afternoon, I was thoroughly spent.  Luckily, by that time, our set-up crew had torn down almost everything, so all I had to do was crawl to the car and pour myself in the passenger seat.  Actually it worked out well;  We were putting the smoker on Martin’s hitch when the rain finally hit full force, so we escaped just in time.  Donette drove me straight to the car wash and gave me a good power-washing, (twice,) and the rest of the day was spent on the couch nodding in and out of consciousness.

So how did we do?  Well, not only was our party a big improvement, our BBQ took a vast jump in the standings too.  For my part, I took a “back to basics” approach which worked out well for me.  I’ve been on a steady decline in the standings the last few years so I tried to duplicate everything from our first year of competition, when I did at least mediocre.  I even made Josh come down and walk up to the turn-in with me like our first year, which may border on out-right superstition but it seemed to pay off in the rankings.  And, even more importantly, we handily defeated our arch-rivals, the Red Glove BBQ team.  Here are the official results, as summarized by Martin this morning:

Chicken – 242 out of 486 – Score 152 – Just a few spots worse than last year & had a higher score. An excellent first effort for Ballew

Ribs – 195 out of 490 – Score – 155 – An improvement in spots and score from last year’s strong finish

Pork – 56th out of 485 – Score 165 – An impressive few weeks for the Creighton boys. 3rd in Kearney and the highest finish and score ever at the Royal!

Brisket – 189 out of 491 – Score – 152 – Best brisket finish ever and an improvement of 234 places from last year!!

Beans – 88 out of 210 – Score – 153 – A strong finish and according to Brett if he could have gotten more smoker time he would have killed the pork team.

Sausage – 200 out of 373 – Score 151 – An improvement in score and spots from last year – There was also a high enjoyment factor watching Belanger apply the jelly

Team – 116 out of 496

Triple Fat Back is on the move;  In the right direction for once!!

It’s Fall I guess, in the weather sense if not officially.  (When does Fall officially start?)  That means time for my favorite weather of the year, and time to start burning vacation, which coincide very nicely.

As such, I took Friday off to go on my first official “motorcycle trip.”  My bike isn’t really set up for touring, being supremely uncomfortable and having no storage, but I’ve been slowly collecting enough gear to make it feasible at some level.  That’s my nifty set-up on the left there, complete with my hillbilly saddlebags, i.e. a backpack and a handful of bungee cords.  No, I wasn’t trying to be artsy-fartsy with the black and white picture, I just don’t know how to work my camera very well.  Somehow I keep setting it wrong.  Anyway, I took off Friday afternoon, destination Hermann, MO, where my friends the Red Buffalo BBQ team were doing a ‘Que competition.  I’m not too keen on the Interstate, so I went up 50 highway to Jefferson City, then cut over to 94 for the rest of the trip.  I had my iPod stuck in my ears for amusement, and the trip went remarkably fast.  When I turned onto 94 I found myself right beside the good ol’ Katy Trail, and I had a good laugh remembering that hellish trip.  It looked a lot better at 60 mph than 12 mph, I can say that for sure.  All-in-all, I really enjoyed the trip.  If you’ve never gone tearing alongside the Missouri river at 95 mph with the wind in your hair, listening to some DMB on an awesome Fall day, I highly recommend trying it.  OK, actually I am sure I never exceeded 70 mph, I have no hair, and I had on way too many layers of clothes to enjoy the weather.  But, I did listen to lots of good music and I got a little bit of air through my sandals.  Yeah, I know it’s a bit of a contrast to wear an armored jacket and sandals.  But, frankly the world would be a more beautiful place without my feet so I don’t worry so much about protecting them.  I got to Hermann around 4:00, and spent the rest of the day hanging out at the ‘Que contest.  The whole thing was pretty much a blast;  The ride, the contest, everything.  Fun stuff, at least for my boring world.

Saturday I got up and hung out a bit, but not too long.  I wanted to stay around for the competition, but at the same time I had absolutely no interest in riding home in the dark, so I loaded up and took off around 10:00.  It was another great day of weather, and there were literally dozens of motorcycles on the road, especially the 94 highway stretch.  I got lots of practice on my official wave.  I’m still fine-tuning it, but I’m pretty sure it’s one of the coolest motorcycle waves in existence.  It was a quite windy ride though, and I took a few more breaks than the previous day.  When I got to Lee’s Summit I turned north and headed up to Martin’s house, and by the time I got there I was more than ready to dismount for a while.  Martin had the big smoker fired up, and I spent the rest of the day helping him prepare a rather massive amount of food in preparation for the party next weekend.  Donette came up and got me that evening, and I left my motorcycle abandoned in his garage;  I don’t think my butt could have taken another 10 minutes on that seat.

Sunday I got out of bed and found myself nearly immobile.  Man that ride was a good time, but it took a toll on my old bones.  My back hurt, my shoulders hurt, and my legs wouldn’t straighten out.  I hobbled over to the couch, turned on the television, and spent the rest of the afternoon clicking through football games and watching my fantasy football teams.  We did venture out around halftime of the Chiefs game.  We headed up to the Martin’s to watch the second half and pick up my bike.  But, after we went out to dinner, it was kinda dark and the roads still looked a little damp, so it’s still there.  (Either that or I still wasn’t ready to get back on it.)