Blues, Brews and BBQ

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We sure did!!! We went to Charlotte's "Blues, Brews and BBQ" festival on Saturday. We had a GREAT time. As you all know, Steve knows his food!! This is NOT the first BBQ festival we've ever been to, BUT it is the very first time we've been able to sample the entries in the competition!! Most places we've lived, you can purchase BBQ, but the competitors are not allowed to share their entries. Not so in Charlotte!!! All we had to do was stand in a relatively short line and get a ballot to vote for our favorite entry in the competition. This was a "People's Choice" festival. Needless to say, Steve was in "hog heaven".....(pun intended)!!

This is one of the things I LOVE about Charlotte. There seems to be some sort of downtown (in Charlotte it's called UPtown) festival almost every weekend. They close down numerous city blocks and just have a PARTY!!! We've been to a number of these various festivals already and plan to keep on attending.

Unfortunately it was 90-degrees on Saturday, so we didn't stay down there very long. Especially after Steve went to his office in the morning and was planning to work in the yard most of Sunday. There were lots of Blues Bands throughout the area and a main stage that was to begin cranking out the music after dark.

We were able to visit about 30 booths and sample their entries into the competition. We decided our favorite was a group from Woodstock, GA. Their BBQ was really moist and delicious. They also had a very old yellow lab named "Dixie" after the Dixie Speedway in Woodstock!! Of course, we love the name and the speedway!!!! Since we didn't stay into the night, we don't know if our choice was the winner or not, but we had a GREAT time anyway.

Steve worked very hard in the yard on Sunday. The heat really bothers me these days, so I was relegated to being the "Water Boy". I tried to keep him hydrated, but I don't think I was 100% successful. Since we are still under drought conditions, we can only water our yard on Sundays, so Steve put the sprinkler out in the front in an attempt to soften up the hard, dry red clay. He then ran the lawn tractor with the aerator attachment all over the yard. After he aerated, (or in Chris's neighborhood "air raided") he spread seed and straw. We have some grass, but lots of bare spots that we are trying to propagate. This is probably our last attempt at a lawn for this season. If it doesn't take this time we'll just wait until Spring.

We're glad to hear that Katie and Bryan made it through the hurricane without any problems. I'll be visiting very soon, when Baby Maddy makes her debut. I know I'm not as excited as Katie is, but I'm pretty darned close!!!!

I hope everyone makes it through the dog days of summer. I'm so glad we are all able to keep each other posted on our daily lives. Keep on blogging!!!

Love to all........