As previously mentioned, I think I'm smoking the meats correctly, but the results have been lackluster.  Gee...  Sounds a lot like my poker.  So we're going to the library today after lunch to peruse the barbeque books.  I'm not sure I want to smoke any meats this weekend when we have that linner party, but I just do as I'm told.

I owe you a few trip reports, but I'm not as enthused about it, since my ribs sucked.  It was nice seeing the in-laws. The weather was perfect, so we just hung out on the patio watching the kids play.  S (The middle "S" of the A-S-S family) made us some really good sangria so the day pretty much disappeared, as did the three pitchers of sangria.  The kids started playing with the hose, so I hooked up some of the water toys we had, including the Slip & Slide - yes - we are officially rednecks now.  Not sure if those commercials are on any more, but it just looked like so much fun when I saw those commercials as a kid.  When you open it, it's just a sheet of plastic with some holes in it for the water to leak through.  Fortunately, part of the lawn has a 30 degree slope, so I put it there and it was effectively a water slide.  The kids had a good time, and left the adults alone to drink, so it was a great afternoon.


We were going to buy this water slide for the summer, since we generally have a lot of kids over at our house.  But I decided against it after reading a few reviews.  Apparently, it's a mold & mildew magnet and is not made particularly well, especially considering it costs over $700.  So you may be saying to yourself, "but wait DFly!  That thing is enormous!"  The water slide is supposed to be like 20' x 20', but the photo seemed a little off.  Then I stumbled on this photo in a review of another product the company made:

I just laughed my ass off.  Apparently, this company has a habit of Photoshopping the kids to be super small on the outside of the box.  There's an old saying, "know one, know all" - so  basically, I know everything I need to know about the company.  Sorry - you're going to have to work a little harder to get money off of this cheap ass!

The Day 1 Trip report took longer than I thought, so I will continue tomorrow!