A Chili (then not so chili) Weekend

So this weekend presented the annual neighborhood Chili cook-off. Yep. And our first, as we have almost been here a year. So we (Les) RSVPed to "compete" and slung together a fantastic pot of chili in the hour or two before the showdown. "Showdown" because it was evident immediately upon entering the neighborhood community center that these people are SERIOUS about the annual chili cook off. Each year, the previous year's winner fasts for three days before the comp! So we stepped up, entered a veggie pot and ripped out a few sets of push-ups for the crowd. Always poised to intimidate.

Lesley notified me early in the afternoon that the judging was based greatly on presentation and I needed to paint something. Oh, well super... no pressure, no. So I stopped all that I was doing and shifted to pot-o-chili presentation mode. We wound up tag-teaming a little sign on the crock pot (which I am not sure why we have as I dont think we have ever used it) while Alder napped. Here it sits on the table amidst all the other extravagant and bully presentations.

You would not believe some of the facades and decor that were prepped for other crock-pots!! I wish we would have captured that in some photos.

It turned out to be lots of fun - more than I would have thought honestly. We were amazed at the turn out. Must have been 120+ people there! I got to meet alot of the mom's from the neighborhood playgroup that Les frequents, and we both got to meet alot of the dads of the moms from the playgroup. Alder was mesmorized by lots of flashing lights, conversations and children playing. Stayed up way past his bedtime. Les enjoyed hanging out with friends I didnt know she had. I located the habanero-est pot of chili (a vegetarian which won the spiciest award) and made that my dinner, strategically, knowing that the best pot would come home with me.

So lets see, since we spent Saturday being somewhat busy, we took it easier today. While Alder napped in the morning Les and I both settled into the monitors to work some... ugh. When he woke we fed him and ourselves and went out to enjoy the sunny, near 50 degree weather. I have nearly finished pulling all of a patch of rampant forsythia out of our backyard, hitting it here and there and today I think I crossed a threshold: the backyard looks different. And I released a wild strawberry bush (Euonymus americanus) that we have found several of in the yard. The biggest one we have found yet!

Alder got to hang out on the deck in the sun and chew on stuff. Today was the official gum-break for tooth number 6. Numbers 5 and 6, top incisors, are HONKERS. Its no question that he has been a fussy slobber faucet for so long. So on that note, Alder got his first handheld food, aside from little pieces of banana and such, today. A little barley teething biscuit, which he loved. Its amazing how we take for granted the tools we have in our teeth. We just toss stuff in our face, chew it up and swallow it back. It was obvious watching him that this had to be learned. Alder used his teeth like a mechanical grinding wheel or sanding block - he just braced his hand, clamped around the biscuit, against his chin and pushed his little enameled sprouts back and forth. Doing just dandy that way. He was in heaven.

We went for a collective run absorbing the end of the day's heat. We wondered how many arguements had ensued in our neighborhood today due to the many cases of rank ass following the previous night of chili mixing and beer drinking. We (Les, me and Tsuga), perhaps for that reason, fought for the lead the whole run while Alder took first place yet again bundled up in the stroller, with hands freezing cold and soaked in saliva.