Did the climber this morning. Felt pretty good. I did not do it at the higher level this time. I may try to step it up for the second half of tommorrow. I need to try and get to that level on a regular basis eventually.

I barbecued another brisket this weekend. It came out fantastic! I even made my own bbq sauce to serve with it. It only took four hours and was worth every second of it. I originally thought that it would take closer to 5 hours but 4 seemed to do the trick. Here is a tasty pic to show you all what you missed:

I have really seemed to catch some sort of bbq bug. A couple weeks ago I watched what seemed like a bbq contest marathon on Food Network. On one of them they described what makes something authentic bbq and the cooking process,as well as what the difference is between "grilling" and "barbecue" is. I thought to myself "I can do that!" so I did.

Our grill is actually pretty well set up for this type of cooking. It came with two metal baskets that you can use to cook with indirect heat. The main grate also has sides that flip up so that you can add coals to the basket as needed. I used one of them and got about 10 coals really good and hot. I soaked some hicory and apple wood chips for about 30 minutes. Once the coals had ashed over I dropped a small bunch of chips on the coals and added one or two new briquettes, put the meat on the grill, slapped the lid on and started the wait. About every half hour I would add more wood and few more briquettes. This "hot smokes" the meat and gives it a great flavor. The cooking temp for the majority of the process was between 200° and 250°. The final temp of the meat was 160°

Overall yesterday was a very good day! Yesterday mornign Bean wanted waffles for breakfast. So we went down stairs and made some cornmeal waffles. It was a spur of the moment decision to make those rather than normal waffles but was definietly worth it. Cecilia measured out all the ingredients and helped me mix everything together. When the first one was done we both took a taste as a test of our work. She declared the recipe a success and we finished cooking the batch. It was a lot of fun.

For those wondering what a cornmeal waffle tastes like think of sweet cornbread made with some maple syrup in the batter. Only a little lighter and fluffier like a waffle. I think these are my new standard waffle. Especially if I have my sous chef there to help me. Owen is just about able to help with the process as well! I can imagine some great breakfasts to come! I just need to get them started on omelets next.

Of course all this food is probably why the scale tipped to 207 for a second this morning before settling at 206.8. Definitely worth it though.

I got through about 12 minutes on the climber this morning. I am a bit tired and stiff. Especially after doing the climber at a higher level yesterday. I walked for about 15 minutes after that and sat in the sauna for a a while.

I upped the climber to level 5 today. That may, or may not, have been a good idea. It was pretty tough but I made it through. With a nice walk at lunch I should be pretty close by the weekend. Of course Cecilia and Owen will most likely help me with some cardio later as well.

I ran a little today after deciding that the climber was not for me today. I really didn't feel like doing the climber. The run wasn't that great and so I stopped. I'm not really sure where the weight went, but I'm not questioning it either.

I was pretty stiff this morning from mowing the lawn so I just sat in the sauna today. It's rained a lot this morning and is supposed to rain on and off all day. I'm not sure if I will be able to to walk at lunch. It's a shame really, my "book" is getting good right now.

Guess the BBQ is catcing up with me!

I'm not sure if I'm happy about this or not. When I stopped for coffee this morning I saw "Wacky Packages"™ stickers! I had to buy a pack. I present them to you in my grainy camera phone's goodness.

It appears that some marketeers out there realized the comedy gold that was this creation of the 80's. As I said I'm not sure if I'm happy about seeing these or if another part of my youth has died a quiet death.

It was another great weekend. On Saturday we went down to the Jim Edgar Fish & Wildlife preserve to visit with Granma and Granpa Gary who rented a cabin there. Bean and Owen had a great time. Cecilia ran A LOT. Everyone was pretty beat afterwards. We had a nice relaxing day Sunday. I hot smoked a half a rainbow trout and a brisket. They came out good. I went cheap on the brisket and bought one of the corn beef ones. I should have forked over the extra cash for one that wasn't half-way to being corned beef. The rub I did was pretty tasty though. I will try it again this weekend. The fish was excellent! I am now a BBQ master

Ok 208 isn't bad. I can live with that. I was barely able to make it the 20 minutes today though. Owen had a very rough nite and did not sleep well. He better have all the rest of his teeth this morning! I am very very tired.

I decided to skip the scale today. Probably a good idea with all the grilling and stuff this weekend. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

This was a GREAT weekend. I spent lots of time with the kids and Jennifer. The kids seemed to have a very good weekend too. I have decided that now BBQ is complete without the addition of hickory chips. Everything tastes better if you add them. We grilled delicious organic stakes from Wettsteins in Carlock. MMM MMM MMMM.

Shakespeare was great on Friday. I was very happy that both Bean and Owen behaved well for Grandma and Grandpa Gary.

I didn't do much of the work stuff that I had planned to over the weekend. Oh well. There is always time to do that stuff at work.

I had the sushi and noodle special yesterday and it did not seem to add that much to the scale. Phew! I plan to take a good walk today so that I can have a Turtle Bar at Shakespeare tonight. MMM MMMM MMMM Turtle Bar!

Busy Busy Busy today.