Chili Cookoff Trophy. . .1st Place!

The American Steel Motorcycle Club had their annual chili cookoff last Saturday and Rich won 1st place in the "Mild" category.

So I am finally NOT the only one who raves about Rich's cooking.  He thinks I'm biased but these judges were from the outside and no one knew Rich or had his cooking before.

Funny, one of the club members said that Rich shouldn't be allowed to enter any of these kinds of contests because he ALWAYS has great food prepared and so many new twists on old favorites.

One of my sister, Kate's, recipes was Weenies and Beans Waikiki.  I served this at one of the annual birthday club parties and people raved as it was different from the usual crockpot baked beans that usually show up at these affairs.  It was fun to hear that just a few simple changes on the usual can spark people's taste buds for the better.

And it's also good to know Rich finally gets solid proof of his cooking talents and not just my "biased opinion".  Now to get him on one of the Food Network challenges!! :-)

Hilarious Bad Parking Job. . .

So we were downtown to get some lunch and we found a public parking ramp close to our favorite place.

Alas, there was only one spot left before the handicap area began. Well,seems a certain person didn't know quite how to park even with another vehicle did a bad job.


As you can see, Rich parked within the lines legally.  This person was truly not even thinking straight as the other jeep wasn't parked THAT bad so as to need to park over the line.

Needless to say, Rich took this photo and noticed that the license plate was fully in view in case this person decided to wreck his car in any way getting out of this parking space.  It happened before and he had the license plate to track down the person to pay for the damage via their insurance company.  Take that!. . .you bad parking people.

We were chuckling at lunch wondering if the person was going to be ticked off because they obviously would need to crawl over the passenger seat to get to the driver's side.  What we couldn't begin to imagine was the note left on the windshield when we got back to the car.

Let's see if you came to the came conclusion we did about this note.

1.  It had to be written by one of the rarified, entitled youngsters these days as they seem to be the generation to use the phrase "tool".

2.  This was written on the back of a calendar for a pole dancing class.  So we are pretty much guessing this is a young woman.  What age. . .I'm guessing between 18 - 30 years old.

The part we are laughing about is what we were imagining her how she go into the car.  Then getting so mad she had to fumble around for a piece of paper and pen.  Then get out of the car or pull the car out of the space and then put the note on the windshield and get back into her car to go home.

More fun is Rich finding out WHERE the person who drove this car lives.  In Hudson, WI.  We were almost tempted to drive over and put a snarky response to this note in the mail box with a copy of the note hoping that another family member would see this and question their child's communication skills let alone driving skills.  But we didn't. 

We even fooled with the idea of showing up at her pole dancing class in the parking lot and putting a response to her note on her windshield.  Didn't do that either.  With our luck, we'd get caught and get arrested for stalking or trespassing or other things instead of the world seeing HER bad, but hilarious parking skills and not being held accountable.

Still, it was a gorgeous afternoon to be out and a fun and humorous end to the day.  Got to get those chuckles where we can. :-)

Let me know what YOU think.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Feel free to post them below.

Up the river without a paddle. . .

Out Sunday evening taking a bike ride when we spotted this poor deer struggling to swim what looked like being UP river. We must have scared him in our talk and concern as he started drifting out to the middle of the river.

Wasn't sure if the little guy would make it.  Then started feeling guilty about sticking around to see if he would drown.  Rich was teasing me something awful for that contrary feeling and lack of action.  Yeah, right, feel guilty for sending the poor thing down river and then want to stick around to see him go under.

Ended up he had a second wind and let himself be pulled down river away from us and then paddled like all get out to get back to the side of the river bank and up to the bike path.

Waited there about 10 minutes waiting for bambi here to decide if he wanted to swim again or go towards the tracks where there wasn't a fenced area.  Personally, I don't think it would take me that long to decide considering where he'd been the moment before and where he COULD HAVE end up.  Then again, what do I know.

Anyways, bambi went on his way and so did we.  Hopefully he didn't get hit by a truck further down the line.  That would have been a truly sad . . .or would that be ironic?. . .ending.

The Camel's Cousin???. . .

Okay, so I really had to laugh at these guys when we first saw them.

Rich and I were on a great motorcycle ride last Sunday.  The weather was perfect.  Sunny, breezy and perfectly blue sky.  Came up a sign outside of Stockholm, WI that said "Alpaca Farm and Store".  We couldn't resist.

Took the next small road up a winding hill overlooking the river.  Man, these guys had one heck of a view.  And lots of Alpacas along with several chickens, cats and a couple dogs.

And seeing these four-legged creatures only made me laugh because it looks like they are wearing some rather bad trimmed wigs. :-)

But boy are they soft!  Well, at least the products made from their fur were. :-)

Never Enough Food At The Fair . . . . .

The Great Minnesota Get Together (State Fair) comes to an end tomorrow.  I survived a couple of visits among the texting teenagers, rude parents who believe they and their strollers should be allowed everywhere, and elderly people with canes and electric scooters.

And there are always some interesting new things to see at the Fair . . .like the new food on a stick.  Which, for me, is not a big attraction.  But every now and then I catch something that makes me chuckle.  Like this food shack. 

It's always said that EVERYTHING tastes better with bacon, but I had to laugh when I saw this food shack.

I'm sure there were some other places out there as well that I may have missed.  Yet, this one is the one that struck my funny bone best.

I must have missed the Butterfly House the few times before I had gone to the fair with Rich.  This time we gave it a shot.  Always wondered how a place can round up butterflies and get them into one place like this.

Seems for some reason, most of us grown ups didn't attract many of the butterflies despite supposedly having this stuff dipped on a Q-tip that was to get the butterflies to come have dinner.  Yeah, right. 

Rich had a good point.  If this stuff was so great and used to attract butterflies, why aren't the little creatures gathering around the bowls themselves? 

Touche.

Oh, well, it was a pretty place and surprisingly for all the people being there. . .rather peaceful.  Even saw a guy asleep in the corner.  Hopefully they woke him up with the placed closed down for the evening.

Good night. :-) 

REI's Huggy Bear. . . .

A couple weeks back Rich and I went to REI to check out any sales on winter coats. It's been quite awhile since we had been to an REI shops.

Needless to say, talk about sticker shock. I guess I haven't bought a jacket in so long that I didn't realize how much the price of certain items has risen. Still, pardon me if I find myself back at the Burlington Coat Factory getting my favorite Columbia jacket for 1/2 the price I found at REI.

Still, there were some fun finds that make camping and travel a bit easier. So, that in itself was worth the visit.

Oh, and Huggy Bear. Okay, so I dont' know it's name and doesn't look anything like the character on Starsky & Hutch but this little guy was just too cute.