Made it home from BBQ Fest Thursday, the first day open to the public. Here’s a look at some of the highlights:
This is a turducken, a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey.
While at BBQ Fest I had several people express interest in being my new BFF (BFF of the Month to be announced June 2). Let’s have a look at the candidates:
Lizzie
Suzy
Stephanie
Three very good candidates. I’ll point out that of the three, Stephanie was the only one who had a tube top on, and she earned extra points by pointing out that she was wearing it incorrectly (covered by a sweater), but had to for comfort’s sake (it was 60, windy and spitting rain). Suzy also pointed out that she can rock a tube top, but she didn’t have one on.
I had a regular blog reader say to me, “You kicked your [now former] BFF to the curb, but then you brought her back!” I told her no, I did not reinstate my former BFF to BFF status. “You totally did! You gave her a wristband to your BBQ booth!” said my blog’s reader. Giving her guest access to my team’s booth absolutely does NOT mean she’s my BFF again. It just means I don’t totally hate the girl.
Speaking of my former BFF, here’s a pic of Bicycle Bobby asking his neighbors Shawn and Lana from Big Foot “WTF were you thinking when you hired her to bartend?”
Some more party pics:
Otto getting down
The Nuh-Uh Dad and the Nuh-Uh Sister getting down. Amazingly, I did not get a single pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating. I think she was hiding. The Nuh-Uh Sister’s friend Amber: “When I met the Nuh-Uh Sister, I was bathed… baptized… in the greatness.” Um yeah whatever.
Our VP of Development and VP of Marketing from work. I learned that our latest marketing strategy is to hire Erik Estrada as a celebrity spokesperson. I also learned that our CEO wanted to order lunch from the Majestic Grille and searched for the restaurant’s menu on Google. What site came up #1 in the search? Hint: Not the Majestic Grille’s site.
And then we have this:
Not even going to attempt an explanation.
Yoko holding a Nestle Crunch bar big enough to feed the entire team.
The day started out slow, as members of the team constructed a wooden floor for the booth. I invoked my “no physical labor” clause and sat and watched and ate BBQ. About the time the floor got finished, it started to rain… chilly rain, wind, and 60 degrees was no fun. About 7 PM the bad weather moved out and the place got slammed. I got torn in several different directions at once, with people calling my phone trying to figure out where the hell our tent was, potential sponsors to introduce to the team captain, and having to work the door to try and figure out who was an invited guest and who was trying to crash the party. By 10 PM the place was rocking and we were all partying and dancing. Whoever picked the late-evening music last night did a great job.
Around 11:30 – right before the park closed – I realized I had hit my exhaustion point. No ’80s night at Raiford’s for me last night. Still, though, I feel I have nothing to be ashamed of, considering I had started drinking at the other 11:30.
So this morning I stepped on the scales to see how much weight I had gained since BBQ Fest began two days ago (counting friends & family night). Total weight gain so far: Minus 2 pounds. Looks like the fact that I was on my feet all day negated all the food that I ate.
Here’s an updated 2008 BBQ Fest photo album. Now at 292 pictures total – the ones from last night are at the end. Both the camera battery and spare are fully charged, so I’m ready to take more pics today. Also need to get the phone fully charged, so I can answer “where the hell is your booth” questions all day.
Found out that the Cooker’s Caravan will run Saturday from 10:30 to 2:30… previously I thought it would only be running Thursday and Friday days, not good for people who have to work. The Cooker’s Caravan is a guided tour of selected BBQ booths and you can sign up across the sidewalk from booth R-80. We had some Caravan tour guests in our booth yesterday. Our cook Willie taught them how to cook pork shoulder, and they enjoyed our rooftop deck for a while.
Don’t forget to visit our team sponsor, Circa by John Bragg. You can make dinner reservations right there on the site, no need to call in. If you’re a fan of Scotch, John has what I believe is the largest collection of different Scotch varieties of any Memphis restaurant, and he can tell you all about them.
Latest forecast I’ve seen… high 72, low 50. I’m sick of cold weather! Normal for today would be high 80, low 61. At least there’s only a 10% chance of rain today and tomorrow.
For those of you who haven’t seen my former BFF T-shirt, I’m thinking about wearing it today. For one thing, it’ll go well with my red sunglasses. Also, it will serve as a reminder to me that I will not settle for inferior quality BFFs anymore. Attn my former BFF: I’ve upped my standards. So up yours!
I’m running out of guest wristbands, so I’m going to have to be extremely stingy handing them out today, if you don’t already have one. Sorry… I’m not sure I can get more at this point. I thought I was down to 9, but then I did laundry and found 2 more in the washing machine. Amazingly, they held together and the ink with the team name and number didn’t fade.
Guests: The party may die down a little bit earlier tonight than it did last night, because our cook Willie has to prepare the shoulder that will hopefully lead us to a World championship on Saturday. If they ask everyone to start heading out please respect the fact that they have serious work to do. Luckily I have access to a booth across the sidewalk where there will be a party going on, and 3 extra wristbands to get people in.
Will probably start the day at the Saucer around 11 as I did yesterday, then head to Tom Lee Park around noon. See you down there.