Super Busy Weekend

Saturday, I drove down to Winneconne - about 70 miles one way - to judge forensics.

I love this time of year.  I have 9 meets scheduled to judge for during February and March. 

I got to judge Prose, Solo Acting Serious, and Demonstration.  During power round, I judged Play Acting.  There were some very polished performances and some people, who unfortunately, didn't care.  Well, when you perform in front of me, effort means a lot, even if I don't like the selection.  If you have the greatest piece and then put no effort forth, you will not get a high score.

After judging, I met my "baby" brother in Oshkosh to take him out to dinner. (I say baby only because he is 14 years younger than me - but probably weighs in about 325 and is 6'1")  He kind of has the Grizzly Adams thing going on right now with the scruffy hair and beard, but we had a really nice visit.

Friday night, to back up a little, K went to the neighbor's and spent the night. Bug went to Grandma and Grandpa's house overnight.  Fixit, Bob, and I went to Burger King and went shopping.  She didn't know what to do with Mom and Dad by herself.

Then, on to Sunday.  Didn't do much besides babysit the smoker.  I was smoking the 3 types of Canadian bacon that had been curing all week.  Bob brought home a wild turkey breast from a friend at work, so we smoked that, too.  We also ground up a 4# pork rump roast that I had cut off the bone and cut into pieces.  From that, we added the spices and ran the meat through the sausage stuffer that Dad is letting us borrow.  We made our our sweet Italian sausage.  Recipe didn't have fennel - it's been added to the cookbook.  We cooked up the extra meat and used that in our spaghetti for lunch.  Very good.  I even did a reasonable job keeping the links even.

This could become addictive - and cheaper than buying brats and other meat.  Only problem, is that the house still smells like smoke, which gives me a headache.  So, even though it is only 25F outside and windy, we had windows open and fans going this morning.  (No, didn't smoke the meat inside, but just bringing it in the house - along with the racks and drip pan from the smoker filled the house with the smell.)  It gave Bug a headache, too.

Courtesy of the kids, I have a ton of pictures. I just need to get them uploaded from the camera and I'll probably do a picture-heavy post later.

By the way -   YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!