Hello Monday!

I just now got home!! Man - what a wonderful, busy day! Thank God Tamara came today to help me stay caught up on orders. And no - I am NOT complaining! I've had so much fun the past two weeks for damn sure! I'm so glad I'm finally full time at Mild Bill's :)

Thank you to everyone who came to Thousand Trails Lake Whitney last weekend. As usual, it was a great cook off and it was good to see everyone back on the chili trail. We had 30 chilis and 9 beans on Saturday and 22 chilis on Sunday - even with the pouring rain that we have all been praying for! The weather really was wonderful - rain included! Thank you also to all of the cooks who pitch in to help make this cook off such a success year after year. If it weren't for the knowledge and butt busting of so many people, we wouldn't be able to have such a great time at Lake Whitney each year. On to the results:

Saturday Lake Whitney CCO Benefiting Christmas for Kids
30 Chilis

1. Gary Brignon
2. Angie Duke
3. Kelly Brignon
4. Gerald Casey
5. Dru Stewart
6. Blue Kriska
7. David Manske
8. Babs Johnson (Got a point on her birthday!)
9. Randy Duke
10. Danny Strunc

9 Beans

1. David Manske
2. Frances Sullivan
3. Delores Sanders

Sunday TTLW Pod CCO
22 Chilis

1. Jason Goains
2. Vicki Sanders
3. David Manske
4. Delores Sanders
5. Jim Trietsch
6. Tommy Kriska
7. Ramonda Casey
8. Mark Sanders
9. Angie Duke
10. Blue Kriska

Thank you also to everyone for contributing to the potluck dinner Saturday night. Drucilla made her famous dumplings and they were out of this world. I pulled my usual Lake Whitney drunk and drank a box of wine. Not my finest moment, I'm sure...but at least I didn't hurt myself when I fell down on my ass on the slick ramp. Hey - we all have our moments. My pancreas isn't too happy with me and it let me know but other than that, I survived.

We were excited to come home yesterday and not have to go to the store and do anything - especially Gary! What kind of sucked was that I haven't bought groceries in almost three weeks, so dinner pickings were slim around here last night. Thank God for bread, eggs, potatoes and microwave bacon. Shit....we ate like kings!!

Mild Bill's will be open for the Ennis Fall Festival this weekend. Gary is cooking in Kerens and I'm going to work at the store. My mom and Kary are coming out tomorrow to get the front of the store finished and ready for this weekend. Tamara and I are going to finish up on orders, organizing and bagging spices. I've had a fair amount of foot traffic since we opened and I'm looking forward to this weekend.

I've got some updates I'm going to be making to the website, so please be patient as I make a few changes. Something I want to share with everyone before it goes on the website is that I will be carrying FW Light. You'll know it when you see it - I promise :) I've got more pictures to add and things like that, but I want to get all of the information on the website so that when I'm ready to produce a catalog after the first of the year, someone a hell of a lot smarter than me will have all of the info they need in a digital form and will be able to crank them out!

Thank you again to everyone who has been so kind and supportive of our move into the spice business. The only difference is where they're coming from....the service and quality won't change one bit!

Have a great night everyone...mama's tired!

Spreading joy, kindness and the unmistakable aroma of cumin....

Kelly