| I awoke at 4:00 am with a cough drop stuck to my tungue. I'd been sick
a few days and was going to be a long day. I had a contractor to meet at
5:00 am and for the most part the are always early. I got to work at 4:50
and they were waiting just as I expected. I took them out to the job site
to get them styarted a and back to my deck for coffee. I checked my voice
and e-mails. To many messages. By the times I was done with that I was
time to go check how the contractor I had in last night did with his job.
I was piss because they haden't finished a few things and I knew later
that day I had to get the job done. I did what I coud at this point and
went to check on the other crew.
Today was the day of the Sea World chili cook off. My theme this year was pirate chili. I saw where the tables were setup and this was the first time it was going to be outside. I said to my self 'this sucks'. At this point it was 8:30 and I still needed to finish with the contractor and get home and finish my chili and display. I the chili cookoff you can be judged on display and chili. I got home about 9:15 with a lot of work to do. When I got up at 4:00am I took the clili out of the fridge and put in the crokpot so it would be warm when I got home. The chili was still a thick broth and I need to add the meat and beans. i didn't want the beans to disintagrate so I always put the beans in last. As i went to do this I felt the side of the crockpot to see how warm it was, it was ice cold. Aparently I forgot to turn it on earler. I guess getting the coffe ready wwas more inportant. I rushed to dump the mess in a large pot and get the fire going at the sametime getting the empty crockpot hot. I added the meat and beans and it started to turn in to chili. Being sick for the prevous days took a lot of steeam out of doing a good job on the display. Luckly I had most of it done before I got sick. I had never built a ship that size so I still need to put on the rope ladders and the finishing touches. The ship was of the size that the crokpot would fit in the hold of the ship. I did as much as I could with the hour I had and ended up doing a pretty good job. The next problem I had was getting it in the car. I have a rule of not getting so elaborate with my display that I can't get it in the car and I was close. I was afraid that parts would break off on the way or even worse I spill the chili on the way there. When I got back to work I had about 45 minutes before the setup time of 11:00 am. The room I wanted to put my things in was having a meeting so I had to go else where. I found a room not far from the display area, plugged in the chili and about that time I got a call on the radio requesting me to do something so the timing was perfect. it took me about a half hour to setup and the rest is up to the judges. In past years they would sports and local news people do the judging. This year they had the food service management judge the chili. During the judging I run around aimlessly talking to the other entrants and starting to get hungry. I was looking forward sampling the chili but not having it burn my healing sore throat. I made it a point to taste all the entrants chili. Most were real good but some tasted so bad that I couldn't eat them. They announced the winners with little to no fanfare and after all the
sampling and gloating was done and it was time to clean up. I still had
unfinnish job to do from the moring and was looking forward to getting
it done and getting home.
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