If anybody hasn’t stepped outside for a few days, I’ll save you the trouble;  It’s still hot.  Despite the lingering heat wave, we enjoyed a bit of semi-outdoor entertainment this weekend though.  We kicked off Friday at the ol’ Brooksider.  I headed down there directly after work (by way of the house to put some shorts on,) and took up my spot on the patio.  It was so hot there wasn’t even a waitress out there for a while, but they opened for business at five.  It actually wasn’t that horrible;  It’s shaded if you get the right spot, and the fans were moving the air around a bit.  After a while Donette and Johan joined me;  They’d spent the afternoon at the pool.  We hung out down there for a few hours, then headed off to dinner at Cantina del Ray, which was typically tasty.

Saturday kicked off with doggie class up at Petsmart.  After I finally found a parking place, (it’s right next to the new Trader Joe’s, which is still absolutely crazy,) we put in our hour of learnin’.  She did a little better than last week, although “lay down” is proving to be a bit of a stumbling block.  Who wants to lay down when there are treats flying all over, people walking by, kids wanting to pet you, etc?  Sheesh.  Matter of fact she never did lay down, not once.  Better do our homework this week.  After that we loaded up the car and headed <gasp> across the river to hang out at the Martin ranch.  I wanted to take Johan to one of our competitions, but that didn’t work out so the next best thing was toss some meat on the smoker and have a little party.  Actually, given the weather, I’d say it was a better option;  The idea of sitting outside all day was not very appealing.  Saved a lot of fuel too;  We didn’t have to actually light the smoker, we just set it in the sun and it ran about 250 all day.  We threw on two briskets, four slabs of ribs, a handful of chicken wings, and some jalapeno poppers for good measure.  It turned into quite the party, good times.  As an added bonus, Team Brisket might have actually stumbled across our next “tweak” too;  Look for a double-digit finish at the next contest!  (As long as there are fewer than 100 teams anyway.)

Sunday was a bit of a down day.  That BBQ took it out of me.  Poor little Teagan was shot too, so we didn’t have to worry about entertaining her.  I honestly am not sure I’ve ever seen her that tired, she slept all day.  Between kids throwing her ball and playing with the Martin’s temp-pup, she was flat worn out.  I did drag Johan down to the Brooksider in the afternoon so we both could feign interest in the sporting events of the day.  I have to admit I was a little surprised/dismayed to find the place was absolutely packed with people watching the soccer game.  Hey, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but could you do it somewhere else?  Luckily the regular crowd was there, (not that “lucky” actually…  wasn’t really very surprising at all,) so we had someplace to sit.  They had nearly every TV tuned to the soccer game, but they did throw the Royals game on one for us.  I will admit, the soccer game was exciting, especially at the end.  Passed the day at any rate.  For evening entertainment I watched Secretariat.  While well outside my usual genre, it was a very good flick.  I would recommend it to everybody, but then I imagine most have already seen it.