Last of the BBQ ...

The winner of the Needleworker's Mystery Basket Give-Away is Charlotte. Congratulations Charlotte!! I'll be emailing you privately as to shipping. (I will post a picture of the basket contents after it is shipped. I want Charlotte to be surprised by the contents.)

Took a break from all things craft related today and went and judged at what I think will be our final BBQ competition of the 2011 season. This was a second tier contest in the Sam's Club National Barbecue Tour. Unlike the regular KCBS circuit competitions, the Sam's Club events are a special tournament-style series of competitions.

Sam's held 40 local contests around the country beginning in March. The contest today, in Laurel, Maryland, was a regional event featuring winners from a number of those local contests. Today's winners will go up against the winners of the four other regional events, in two weeks in Bentonville, Arkansas for $100,000 in prize money. The entries today were first rate, as expected. A great way to end our competition year.

Mother Nature cooperated a bit in that it didn't rain until after the event. (Remember it has rained daily for the last 8 weeks or so.) When we left, it was only a light drizzle. I only hope the competition teams were able to pack up before any heavy rain came down. The temperatures weren't helping though. We suddenly got chilly here last night and it never went above 53 during the contest today. Even prepared for it with appropriate jackets, I got cold. We spent 4 hours simply sitting in the cool, damp wind so I was completely chilled through by the end of the judging. It has taken me hours to warm up.

I know in the realm of things, the mid-50s are not all that cold. They won't be once we get used to it but it came as a shock to our systems today when we were in the 70s yesterday.

I find little things like this depressing as it just tells me winter is coming and I absolutely despise winter. On the upside, I do love the smells of Autumn and when we got home, I found it comforting to smell that someone in the neighborhood had a fire in their fireplace. Now, if I just had some mulled cider to drink this evening...