Small Town Life

There are some big advantages to living in the center of a small town. Everything is walking distance and because we are in the town center everything is here instead of somewhere else. It's our town's annual Winter Carnival this weekend. Dad even decided to enter the Chili Cookoff Contest! For hours he slaved away making the perfect chili. Using small cubes of tender steak. Using three different types of chili powder. Making an amazing puree of green and poblano chilis. Adding special touches like Mexican Cocoa Powder and fresh zest of lime. He had the contest in the bag.

The contest started at 8:30am. The results were just posted. Unfortunately small towns have a tendency to know nothing about culinary greatness. The hours dad spent (literally hours) cubing the steak into the perfect even sized morsals was wasted. The winner? A strewn together concoction of chewy beef and over cooked pork, all in different sizes. The flavor? Like a regular plain old chili powder. Dad is dissapointed to say the least. Of 9 entries he won no prize. No second place. No third place. Something must have been rigged. They just did not appreciate his gourmet masterpiece.Charlie's Champion Chili was nota champion. Next year he is going to enter again, reheating a can of hormel chili. I bet he will win.

The good news is that it snowed last night. Dad was up at 6 am with anticipation of firing up his anniversary gift, Suzie the Snowthrower. She started easily and handled like a dream. Clearing the driveway in minutes instead of hours. The neighbors all peering out their windows jealous with envy of Suzie. Or they could have been pissed that he woke them up so early. Regardless she did a great job a seemed happy to be out in the snow.

We also pulled Charlotte in her sled over to the Winter Carnival. We were a little early for the bonfire with hot chocolate and smores. And Charlotte is still a little small to enter the sledding contest. And dad didnt feel like playing snow golf or flag football in the snow. Those contests were probably rigged as well. So we just pulled her around in the snow. We found a small hill...took her to the top and WHEEEEEE down she went. Of course she wanted more. Dad began the first in what will be a lifetime of pulling her up the hill in her sled. A lot of work that is for sure. This time she flew down the hill even faster. Up again. Dad sweating and trying to catch his breath. One more run and that was it.

We are going to skip the Lip Sync contest tonight. Although Mom does a mean Shakira. Instead we are going to have dinner with Paul and Jena.