Since it was Halloween weekend, the competition had a best booth contest as well as a contest for best costume. My Wonder Woman costume, once again, impressed the judges and garnered a nice 3rd place finish and 2 free beers as my prize! Now, Wonder Woman has been a part of my Halloween costume repertoire for almost my whole life. I made particular costume in college where I didn't have access to a sewing machine. Being the crafty one that I am (I like to call myself Martha Villa, as I am crafty like Martha Stewart and very good with tools and building things like Bob Villa), I used staples to "sew" the blue skirt on which I painted white stars. I also spray painted some boots and added the white stripe down the middle. A yellow eagle sewn on a red tank along with some tinfoil bracelets and headband completed the superhero look. Here is a photo taken a few years ago...
Seamus got in on the costume action too! Since he is a Boston Terrier, he went as a Boston Lobstah and was a big hit!!
After another night of no sleep (it's my job to make sure that all the other teams are too drunk and tired so they can't cook...yeah, yeah, that's the ticket), Jim cooked up some great food. Turn ins were done and it's out of our hands at that point! We packed up what we could while we waited and had a little more of that Bicentennial Jack Daniels from 1997. Did I mention how amazing it was!
Wait, let me backtrack because I realize that I didn't give you the back story on the whiskey. In 1997, I was at the Jack Daniels Distillery and purchased (had someone else do it because I wasn't 21 yet!) a commemorative bottle. When we were at the Distillery this time, they said that bottle wasn't made anymore and it was worth about $400 on eBay right now and that I shouldn't open it. I could have sold it or I could have saved it for a special occasion...I think our very first trip to the Jack Daniels Invitational World BBQ Championships was a pretty special occasion! I made an executive decision and said screw it. We opened it and it tasted like a million bucks!
Now back to regular programming...the whiskey was, once again, amazing and was shared with good friends that have helped along the way. I decided that another costume needed to be worn for awards so I went with the German beer maid, or as everyone kept calling it, St. McFrankenboo Girl!!
We ended up 2nd in ribs and 10th place in brisket. Not our best showing, but after a whirlwind 4 weeks, we'll take it.
A very special thank you goes out to our friend, Scottie Johnson of Cancer Sucks Chicago, for gracing us with his BBQ presence and a 12 pack of Harpoon!! He has been nice enough to bring us Harpoon beer, since we can't get it in AZ, to 2 competitions. He truly is a generous man ;)
Now we don't know what to do with all of our free time. I mean really, what are we supposed to do with an entire week of nothing?! I guess I could clean the guest room, which, of course, is the site of BBQ tornado. Or, I could start packing early for the competition next weekend. Hmm, nothing to do and so much time!
