Let me say that, while I enjoy weekends very much (who doesn’t), I am usually not in favor of packing every minute of a weekend with activity. At some point, too much to do can result in some serious irritability on everyone’s part, and that’s never any fun.
This weekend was one of those weekends where literally every waking minute was filled with something from 6pm Friday night until 9pm last night.
Friday night, it was ribeyes and the Busch race from Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte. This track is one I’ve attended personally and is one of the five best tracks in NASCAR for racing. The race came down to a ballsy move by Mike Bliss, who made a three-wide pass thru the tri-oval with 18 to go to win the race. Bliss, who has no ride next year, was doing the classic “drive it like you stole it” kind of racing. The kind that NASCAR was built on for the last fifty plus years.
With much planned for the weekend, we decided to get to bed at a decent hour, as it was to be a looooooong weekend.
Saturday morning we didn’t have much planned originally. We were going to lay low until my mother in law showed up to babysit Lauren around 11am, so Molly and I could go to the Big Green Egg 2004 Eggtoberfest at 57th Fighter Group in Atlanta.
I decided fairly early that it might be fun to take Lauren and let her see all of the airplanes taking off and landing at the airport while her mother and I checked out the early going at the Fest.
While it was fun to be there when they were lighting the eggs and getting started, it was NOT fun to hear “ride airplane” or “why me not ride airplane” or “you ride airplane wiff me” or some other incarnation of the same thought about 3,500 times in 90 minutes. We had gotten there a little before 9am and left about 10:30 to go home and wait for the sitter, availing ourselves for a child-free afternoon of sampling both food and drink and meeting some fellow Eggers.
Let me just say how cool it was to see about 100 Big Green Eggs in various sizes lit, smoking, and smelling great with all the different foods that were being prepared. It was quite amazing.
We got back around 11:30 just as the first round of foods were coming off the Eggs. We also grabbed our first beverages about that time, which would more or less set the tone for the afternoon.
I cannot tell you in any kind of order what we ate, so I will recount here from memory some of the stuff. We had:
pulled pork bbq
meatloaf
moose kabobs
turkey necks
turkey
top sirloin
salmon (from cedar planks)
chicken breast
about 15 different kinds of bbq ribs
CAKE
rolled and stuffed flank steak
homemade Italian sausage
ABT’s of every kind (including one that was a sweet pepper stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese and wrapped in bacon)
pork loin
pork tenderloin
smoked chicken
non-smoked chicken
standing rib roast
wings
You get the idea. The creativity of some people while cooking on something designed over 3,000 years ago is simply amazing.
We also met hundreds (literally) of nice people. Finally putting a voice or a face or an actual name with a screen name is an odd thing, but it was a great deal of fun.
We met Smokey, Mrs. Smokey and Smokey Jr., YB, Mr. Toad, Mollyshark and her son, and many many others that I know I am forgetting. (Must have been the beer). We spent most of the day with WessB and Sally, Mad Max Beyond Eggdome and his daughter, Bobby-Q and especially Nature Boy (Chris). BobbyQ, the wife and myself more or less met right at Chris’ table where he was cooking on the XL Egg (and it is quite big) and selling his DizzyPigBBQ rubs. We tasted all of his rubs (well, I didn’t taste the HOT ones, but I’m a wussy like that) and I can honestly say that there is no need to try to make your own. These are the best and freshest rubs you can get anywhere. They are ground and packed immediately and they are as fresh tasting as if you made them yourself.
At one point, Chris was busy with some other customers, so my wife got behind the table and started helping out. One guy wanted three, picked them out, and my wife said “well, why not get the two flavors that most everyone are buying in addition to those three, especially since there’s a price break if you buy five of them?”
Sold, sold and sold again.
When it came time for the raffle, Molly won (as she usually does). While we didn’t win the mini Egg, we did win the BGE Grill tool set. Since I already had the exact same one, I gave that one to my brother-in-law.
We had to leave at 4:30 to get home to get my nephew to work. We said our goodbyes, thanked Nature Boy for his patience regarding the Dizzy Pig BBQ groupies he had to deal with all day, and were on our way.
We got home in time to get Nick to work (Molly) and to watch the second half of the Auburn-Arkansas game (me). Auburn was already up 30-7 at the half and led 38-14 entering the fourth quarter. the Hogs scored a semi-meaningless TD with 3:39 to go in the game to make it 38-20, but the game was all but decided long before that.
Two keys to the game were Jason Campbell’s ridiculous accuracy and Matt Jones’ injury. Campbell went 17-19 for 297 yards and three TD’s with no picks.
Jones, who has burned Auburn for about 900 yards rushing HIMSELF in his long career at Arkansas, injured a hamstring early in the first quarter that severely limited his mobility. The Tigers were able to capitalize on that injury and held the Arkansas offense in check until the game was out of reach for them.
Auburn is currently ranked number three in the nation behind USC and Oklahoma and they are 7-0 for the first time, I beleive, since the 1993 undefeated (but on probation) season. Auburn fans (especially me) are a pragmatic bunch, and we tend to be waiting for the other shoe to drop all the time. I am thoroughly enjoying this season though, as I know full well that years like this don’t come along…well, every year. Now, back to the weekend.
Saturday night, we watched the Cup race on NBC and some of the Red Sox game on Fox, although not much of the latter since it was about 212-8 in the third inning. Is it a good sign when your game 4 starter is in game 3 in the 3rd inning? I don’t think so.
After being encouraged by my wife to switch from beer to tea several times, we took our leave and went to bed at a respectable hour, though it may have been too late for me regardless of the actual time.
Sunday was also to be a big day. Thanks to my mother-in-law and Verizon, I got two tickets to the falcons game in row 29 on the 35 yard line and a parking pass for the deck that is attached to the Georgia Dome. I left for the day at 9am, leaving my wife to deal with the spawn and other folks for the rest of the day.
While I was away, Molly and Lauren went to see Shark Tales, took a bad nap, then went to our neighborhood’s fall festival. My mom helped alot in keeping the urchin in check while she was running hog wild and getting copmletely over-tired and exhausted, which we would all pay for later.
The game was a thriller, with the Falcons scoring two TD’s in the fourth quarter to win 21-20 over an inspired Chargers team. Kurt and I enjoyed comraderie and cold beers, which I did a lot of this weekend.
It took exactly two hours to get from my seat at the dome to my seat in my home, and I beat the family home by about 10 minutes. Lauren was exhausted and crying and whining thanks to an undisciplined few moments on her part that resulted in my wife having to physically remove Lauren from the moonwalk at the festival. My wife fell, with Lauren, and hurt her back, which didn’t help things any. (The wife is fine but very very sore).
We finally got Lauren to bed about 8:15 and she fell asleep almost instantaneously. We got in bed at 9:00 and fell asleep almots immediately as well.
Next year for Eggfest, someone’s taking the baby and we’re either getting a hotel room or a cab.
The Red Sox chose not to lay down completely this weekend and won last night on a two run bomb by David Ortiz in the 12th, so there will at least be a game five. Houston nutted up and beat the Cardinals yesterday as well, tying that series at two games a piece. While I initially thought that St. Louis would kill the Astros, now I’m not so sure. It’s a three game series, and the hottest team in baseball, The Astros, has more than a fighting chance.
Now, I must find somewhere in the office to hide so I can lie down and take a nap. I’m exhausted. Hell, I got tired just writing this.
Until next time…
What say you?