Baseball and BBQ

The Mariner's Future

At Peoria with Ron and Diane for the M's Dodgers Game

Storm Clouds on Sunday

Making Smoke

The finished product

We've been to a few baseball games, and will be seeing the Mariners / White Sox game tomorrow. So far I've been impressed with the Mariners hitting. If the pitching holds up, they could make some ripples in the division.
We barbecued ribs and chicken for 138 of our closest friends here at the park today. All went well, and the response was positive. Quite a few folks told me it was the best BBQ they ever had. We were pretty organized, as we had everybody served in about 25 minutes.
The weather's been a little strange lately. We went from the mid 80's last week to the upper 50's for a high yesterday. Thundershowers with snow in the Superstitions over the weekend. Tomorrow we'll be back to the mid 70's, and by Friday we'll be back into the upper 80's.
Kristin is coming in for the weekend on Friday. She's never been here before, so we'll be doing a little sightseeing and probably a short hike. She heads back to Austin Monday morning. Things will slow down a little then with only the BBQ for about 30 scheduled for April first.
Our rough plan is to head out sometime around the middle of April to the first of May. If we go to Austin as planned, we will get home between the first and the middle of May. With a little luck, it will be dry enough to play golf when we get home. Ernie

Warming Up Rapidly

With the arrival of March came increased daily temperatures with highs moving into the 80's. It cools down rapidly when the sun sets, and we've still been running the furnace in the mornings. There have been a few days (like today) when we will be in the 60's for our daytime high. We liken that to "Summer In Seattle" weather.
We are both just getting over the colds that we seem to get every year about this time. They came at a bad time as we have had company for the past week or so. Ron and Jan were down last week (Auburn, Wa.), and Ron and Diane are here this week (Tulsa, OK). We had everyone over on Sunday for a BBQ. Ron and Jan headed home yesterday (Tuesday), and Ron and Diane will head out on Sunday. Ron and I went to see the Mariner's / Reds game yesterday at Peoria. The temperature was in the mid 80's. We made a stop at one of the casino's on the way. We will all be going to the M's / Dodgers game on Saturday.
We took a short hike on Monday, and may take another short hike tomorrow. Ron has managed to come down with a cold also, so we'll leave the hiking option up to him. Unfortunately he doesn't golf because of an old shoulder injury. But I'm still getting out there 2 or 3 times a week. Joyce has been getting out as well, but not as often.
In 2 weeks I have my big Ribs and Chicken BBQ event where I will be cooking for about 100 people. Should be interesting as the most I've ever cooked for before was probably aroud 20. Then I've got one more event for friends here on the 1st of April. That will be Pork Loin for about 25. Busy, Busy, Busy.
We will probably be heading out of here sometime between the middle of April to the first of May. Most likely we will head to the Texas Hill Country to see Kristin, and meet her new (ish) boyfriend. We should be back home sometime in the first half of May. We're hoping that the weather will be decent at home, as we've become climatized!!!! Ernie