Happy Sunday!

Good Morning All! I hope everyone has had a productive weekend! I attended the CASI Board Meeting yesterday at the Arlington Elks Lodge. I took lots of notes and I'll discuss everything tomorrow. Gary worked around the house yesterday...yard work, dirt work, fun stuff like that. He and the girls are enjoying "Private Time" at Waffle House this morning. I'm getting our brisket and ribs ready for the smoker and cleaning house. Ugh....

This is our first time to use a smoker for our brisket and ribs. I bought a Cajun Injector Electric Smoker (Yes...that was a shameless Bruce Foods plug there) for Gary for Fathers Day and we're trying it out today. There are a lot of recipes in the instruction booklet, so I know once we master it, we'll be wearing it out! I'm making my delicious potato salad (will try and use real measurements and take notes so that I can share it with you), baked beans, roasted corn and deviled eggs. Yum!!

HEB has a sparkling cranberry-raspberry water. I have been mixing it with my Crisp White box wine (Yes....I drink box wine, too) in my Bubba Keg for a very, very yummy wine spritzer. Wal Mart has a good selection of sparkling waters, too. Speaking of Wal Mart...I left my bag of carpet cleaner, and two large bottles of BBQ sauce on the turnstile thing yesterday. Man, I was pissed this morning when I couldn't find the bag. Gary is going to run in and pick up more.

Have a great day everyone! I'll get into the CASI stuff tomorrow. It's Sunday and my head just isn't into it. I really don't have a lot of terrible things to say; but I've got some opinions and I want to be able to spend plenty of time tomorrow relaying the actions that the Board took and sharing my thoughts. I really, really wish that more people would attend the meetings. It's difficult to get a clear picture of what really goes on during the discussions of the motions if you're just reading minutes after the fact. No....it doesn't change the outcome, but you can at least witness the differing opinions and points that the Board members make before voting. I still think that the CASI Board has a long way to go when it comes to communication and really "getting" the membership; however, they can't do it alone and as long as the members and cooks don't get involved, nothing will change. There were some really good decisions made yesterday that I think the membership will really be happy about. Jim Ezell has done a lot of work bringing new suggestions and ideas to the Board and everyone was impressed with his presentation yesterday. Like I said, I hope to see more cooks attending the Board meetings and voicing their opinions. I do feel that the Board is going to feel the loss of Tim Collier when he steps down this year. He is a smart businessman and the cooks are going to feel his absence. Tim isn't afraid to speak up and he's practical when it comes to spending money.

I'll talk to everyone tomorrow...I'm off to clean house and do laundry...fun times!

Kelly