We were out of town again this weekend. We were running the judging area at a chili cook off in Connecticut. First time at this location, which was a park along a river bank. It was a day long festival with six or seven bands for entertainment, a whole line of food trucks, and the chili cook off. It was a good cook off, but the day could have been better. It was hot, humid, and sticky most of the day. Not exactly comfortable for the cooks or spectators. We were under a pavilion near the water, so we were shaded from the direct sun, and there was some breeze all day, but it was still not very pleasant. And, just as we were finishing up the red scoring, the skies opened up, and it POURED! That, of course, chased a lot of the public away. The cook off was pretty much wrapped up by then, but the festival was still going on until evening. The organizers were a bit disappointed, but certainly understood that you run into these things at outdoor events. We had a great time with all our chili friends, and look forward to the event next year.
About the bands- some good, some not so much, some just what the heck? The first band was supposedly an 80’s band, but their choice of music was, umm, odd. At one point, the lead singer was telling the crowd there would be bands playing all day and that “we are the worst band you will hear today.” Unfortunately, he wasn’t kidding! They launched into “The Time of My Life” from Flashdance, and neither one of the singers had the range to sing it, and the duet part was- well, lacking in the harmony parts is being kind. And then they tried ABBA! Yikes! The second band was pretty good- soul and blues, mostly. The next couple were ok, but nothing spectacular. Then came the really weird. These guys started out with The Beastie Boys, ran through a few other weird things, into Elvis, and then Vanilla Ice! What a mix of stuff! We didn’t stay much past that band, so I don’t know what was on later.
When we got home on Sunday, we did a bit of dinner prep, and then we took Lambeau for a long walk on the Derry rail trail. He’d been cooped up in his crate a lot over the weekend. Steph stayed at the house to take care of him, but she does have to work everyday, so he had to spend a lot of time in his crate. We figured he could use the time outside and active. He was better than I was afraid he’d be, and not as good as I want him to be. But we did know that we need to get him out to more places like that, so he gets used to more people, dogs, and other distractions. We are going to try to make the effort to do just that before we go into a level 3 obedience class. He just needs to learn a little bit of control and calmness, and that he can’t play with every dog he sees. It will take some time and effort, but I am confident we’ll get there.
On a completely different note:
We are heading into the second week of my book giveaway. If you missed last week’s post, I am giving away paperback copies of my short story collection, Six of One: A Collection of Short Fantasy. You can enter on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/105732-six-of-one-a-collection-of-short-fantasy
The other way to win is to add a comment to the original post here:
https://makropp.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/monday-mania-psst-want-a-copy-of-my-book/
And say you want to win a copy. If you tweet or post on Facebook the link to the that blog post, and use the hashtag #6of1giveaway, you will get an extra entry for each of those, as well.
Both contests will run until the end of the month, at which time I will send out the books.
======================================================
Six of One: A Collection of Short Fantasy by M.A. Kropp is a set of short fantasy stories. Meet wizards, imps, gangster angels, and frogs in this group of varied tales of magic and mischief. Escape from the everyday into worlds of fantasy with Six of One: A Collection of Short Fantasy.
Download a free sample or purchase in your favorite ebook format at:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/354855
Also available at:
Amazon: (Now also in paperback)
Apple iTunes Bookstore
Barnes and Noble:
Kobo:
And So On... 