I had the chance.  I had the opportunity.  It was right there.  All I had to do is reach out and grasp it.  But I let it slip right through my fingers.

What am I talking about?  Being the parent of a teenage daughter, rule number one is to embarrass her as often as I can, yet I failed at that.  I just couldn’t do it.

I was charged at picking up my lovely daughter after school last week.  I was also to drive her friend home as well.  I think that this is a good point of the story to mention that her friend is a male.  A boy.  A young lad.  Her “friend”.  I had him right there, with my undivided attention for the duration of the ride home.  All I had to do is reach out and touch someone, metaphorically speaking that is. 

But I didn’t.  I played it cool. 

Again, why?  When it was first announced that I was to pick her and her “lad” friend up, my daughter was horrified.  I mean she immediately began to beg and plead, “Anyone.  Please anyone, but him!  Please, oh please…”  Yea, I know.  Tugs right on the old heart strings, doesn’t it?

Well, in her defense, knowing me as well as she does, she had every reason to be afraid.  For one, I is a ‘Meadows”.  For another, for most of her life I have been scaring the be-Jesus out of her with my loud pronouncements of what I was going to do if I ever ran into her boyfriends.    I, of course began anew with the proclamations.  I made them loud and full of details, so I more than likely deserved the reaction that was served up by her.

After the initial shock wore off for her, she began a new tactic.  The “lad” was not her boyfriend.  He was just a good friend and there is now way she would ever date him or any other boy for that matter.  The Brown’s and the Indian’s would both win championships before she would date this boy.  Even I have to admit, that is going to be a long time.

Too late, my lovely lass, I am the chauffeur for the day and you are stuck.

BWA-HA-HA-HA-BWA-HA-HA

Of course I let the laugh hang out there.  It hung out there beating like a loud drum.  Reverberating from wall to wall, house to house and probably is still hanging in the atmosphere above Central Ohio. 

BWA-HA-HA

The day arrived and I made sure that I was punctual.  She walked out of the school building, head hung low.  Dead Girl Walking.  She stepped into the truck.  ”Where is the lad?” , I asked.  “He’s coming.”  And she looked at me one more time, with pleading eyes and then her head, slowly, began to hang anew.

And then the lad bounded into view and was full of energy.  He swung his back-pack into the bed of the truck and stepped into the cab with a smile.  I am pretty sure, my daughter had warned the lad of the impending doom that was about to befall him and he didn’t seem to have a clue!

“How are you, lad.  I am glad to meet you.”  says I to him. 

“Good, thank you.”  was his reply.

I then put the truck into gear and started to make our way out of the parking lot.  As we meandered our way through all of the cars and other students, my daughter slowly looked at me.  She starred me directly into my eyes.  It began to dawn on her that I wasn’t going to embarrass her.  It was not going to be the worst day of her life, ever.  I saw the sigh of relief pass over her face.  Her life, as she knows it, was not over yet.

As for the lad, he seemed oblivious.  He was just making some sort of white noise about the day at school. And as my daughter began to realize that I did not bring my civil war sword and that I was not going to quiz the lad unmercifully, she also began to spout forth white noise.  I just sat back and drove and watched the two interact on the drive home.

By the time we arrived at the lad’s house they were arguing like cats and dogs, like oil and water, like, like, boyfriend and girlfriend!

BWA-HA-HA-HA 

I had never intended on saying anything. The threat of embarrassment is often more effective then actually doing it.  And I know my women.  They can handle themselves.  And Beth stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park.  The lad never saw it coming!

BWA-HA-HA-HA

I love stories with happy endings!

Tags: Bethany

If you ever hear this, please be damn sure you meant to call that service.  Why am I wording that so strongly?  I am glad you ask because I give you the following story as evidence.

BERLIN (AFP) – A woman in Germany phoned police after hearing “suspicious noises” in her flat, but much to her embarrassment officers found the source was a vibrator, authorities said Friday.

The noise was so loud and strange, even over the telephone, that police in Bochum in western Germany decided to send a patrol car around to the “scene of the crime”, a statement said.

“Daringly, and with the occupier’s permission, one of the officers opened the drawer of a wardrobe where the noise was coming from.

“Underneath some clothes he found a very personal, battery-operated object which had obviously switched itself on… The tenant’s face abruptly changed colour.”

Police then “wished her a nice evening and left”.

Now, I don’t know about all of you, but I found this to be hysterical. 

You would have thought that the woman in question would have recognized the sound of her own…ah…toy.  Obviously that is not the case here.  So to her embarrassment, she now finds herself on the web and even here in Toph’s World.

I really like the sentence in the story, “Police then “wished her a nice evening and left”.”  When you know quite well what they were doing when the got back in the police car.  That is right, ROTFLMAO. 

Nice…

No one does this better than the cat. 

As you can see, Tecumseh is in his, shall we say, his best laid back moment.  I would love to just “chill” like this.  No cares.  No worries.

Of course, I would love to be able to lay across the arm of the couch and not have it break the arm off as well.

None the less, he is the epidemy of cool…

Tags: Tecumseh

I really enjoy these guys video’s so how can I not share them with you. I give you Pomplamoose covering Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”.

These guys do some really unique covers and originals. Give them love or ignore them. Really makes no difference!

I am often asked about what it takes to become a good chef.  Is it classes?  Do you need great recipes?  Is it good ingredients?

Well, yes to all of the above.  But that isn’t what makes a good chef or even cook.  I learned cooking from the best.  And that was from my grandmother.  Her method of cooking, I still employ today.  I took what she taught me and made a career out of it.  She taught how to use “dashes” of this.  “Dollops” of that.  “Pinches” and “dabs” and “smidgens”.  All great measuring units.  She also taught me a golden rule of cooking.  “How long do you cook it?”  The answer, “Til it’s done.”

She taught me to taste the food.  Not just eat it.   Not only do you use the best ingredient, but you taste the ingredient.  A good chef can taste a recipe and immediately tell you that you need a pinch of salt or pepper or lemon juice and the plate will immediately taste better.  A good cook will know what the plate will taste like without even having to taste it.  Because they know.

Good cooking is has just as much to do with memories as it does recipes.  When making soup, what was the best tasting soup you ever had?  What made it so good?  Do that.

If you are making macaroni and cheese, what was the best mac and cheese you ever had?  What made it like that?  Do that.

I constantly preach to my poor victims, oops, I mean sous chefs that in order to become good, you must learn what each individual ingredient in your dish tastes like.  Know what spices are. Know what herbs do.  Know what happens when you mix them.  For example, why does basil and pepper go together?  Because the taste is good!  Remember that.  Do that when you cook.

The other thing to remember is that mistakes are okay.  Some kitchen disasters turn out some of the best dishes.  And some are just learning experiences.  “Okay, I am not going to do that again.”  Do not fear the outcome and most of your dishes will be okay.  Do not be afraid to try new things.  just because you haven’t made something before, does not mean you can’t nor does it mean you will not succeed with that dish.

Bottom line, classes are great.  Best, freshest ingredients are a must.  But if you want to be a great cook, taste and memory are the keys.

Tags: chef, cooking

If I haven’t said “Thank You” for awhile, well, sorry…Thank You!!

Richard Rothwell, 97, of Catonsville, Md., talks with a U.S. Marine Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at Mount Sribachi on Iwo Jima, Japan. Dozens of U.S. veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, returned to the remote volcanic island of Iwo Jima to mark the 65th anniversary of one of World War II’s fiercest battles.

Now if you read the post before this one, you should have known there is more to the story.  If you haven’t read that post, please go do so now.  We will wait for you… 

<humming Jeopardy theme>

Okay!  Good.  Now we are on the same page.

So why should you have known there was more to the story?  If you think about it, it is not that far reaching that a bunch of seminarians stayed up past bedtime, praying for a fallen Pope.  Unusual, maybe, but not a stretch at all.  So why did I remember this night so well if it is not a stretch?  Well I am glad you asked.

What made this night so unusual is what Fr. Cadei said after we had started praying for the loss of a great man.  After he stood up in his PJ’s and headed back to the lectern, he had a very stern look about him.  Now as crazy as Cadei was, he was normally a very cheerful man.  I had only seen this look from him once before and that is when he was dragging me out of the chapel for reading “The Bastards”.  (You’ll need to search the archives for that story.)

So this was bad news indeed. 

“The Holy Father died today.” He began, “And all of you killed him!”

Whoa!  This is new!  I/we had been accused of many things in my/our short existence, but being able to teleport to Rome, kill the Pope and get back before lights out was something I couldn’t imagine, even in my youth.  So to say that this was a little weird, even for Fr. Cadei, is something of a understatement.

“You have killed the Pope-a (Italian accent) by your sins.  You have brought shame down upon the Holy Church by you ungodliness and wickedness.  Now we must pray.”

And he again turned, kneeled before the alter and began with the litany of prayers.  And we prayed. 

I’ll be the first to admit.  I am a sinner.  I am now as I was then.  But I don’t think that there was anyone there that night that had sinned enough to kill a Pope.  Not even collectively.  Even me reading “The Bastards” more than likely could not kill a Pope.  Besides, I had already done my penance for that sin.  To think that a bunch of pimple-faced seminarians had sinned enough to knock off the leader of The Holy Catholic Church is, well, absurd.

But then again, what did we know?   We had Fr. Cadei, in his most blazing and convincing form, yelling out prayers and asking the Lord’s forgiveness for the sin of murder that we all had done and evedently done very well because the Pope was dead and we were indeed the guilty party.

This is what I truly remember from this night.  Not the fact that I was kept up well past bedtime, praying for the fallen Pope, although it is indeed unusual, it was the fact that I, personally and collectively, was being accused of actually killing the Pope albeit metaphorically. 

I also have to admit, I stopped and thought about what I was about to do if I started thinking about Farrah Fawcet or whatever form of mischief I was about to perform after that night.  If only for a second or so.  After all, what if Fr. Cadei was right? 

Hmmnn…maybe the guy wasn’t so crazy after all. 

Tags: seminary

Pope john Paul I

Most of you will remember Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.  Even non-Catholics would remember him.  But how many will remember Pope John Paul I.

It is alright if you don’t.  He was only the Pope for 33 days.  Some say he was murdered, but that isn’t what this post is about.  This is the one Pope that I will not ever forget.  It isn’t because of what he did, how or why he died or even what kind of man he was.  It is because of what happened to me the night he died.

It was the beginning of the school year.  My sophomore year.  It was much easier getting into the routine and discipline of the seminary once you had the first year under your belt.  After two and half months of home life, I actually looked forward to the rigidness that is seminary life.  One falls into the routine so much that any interruption of the routine is always memorable.   Such an intrusion of the routine occurred on the 29th of September, 1978.

Now he officially died on the 28th, but I didn’t hear about it until the night of the 29th.  You must understand that back in those dark ages, there wasn’t Facebook.  There wasn’t Twitter.  There were only 4 channels on the TV and if you were lucky enough to have cable TV, which the school didn’t, you only had about 15 channels from which to choose.  For that matter, the Internet was not even invented yet.  Well, at least the Internet as we know it today.  There were no cell phones.  Only land lines.  There wasn’t CNN or 24 hour news.  And even if we did have any of these resources,  we as seminarians would not have had access to them nor been allowed to use them.  In any event we didn’t have these things, but we did have Fr. Cadei. 

At this point, you may want to go back and search the site for earlier posts about the good padre.  It is okay, I’ll wait.

Ah!  You are back!  So, yes, that Fr. Cadei!

Lights out at the school happened promptly at 11 PM.  No ifs, ands or butts.  The night of the 29th, however, was to be different.  Right before lights out, the school bell began to ring.  It was immediately followed by the loudspeaker blaring a message from Fr. Cadei, imploring us to come to chapel and be quick about it.  Serious stuff indeed and that of course set all of students abuzz with what this might all be about as we headed for the chapel.

As soon as the entire student body had assembled in the chaple, Fr. Cadei, blew into the room in his finest PJ’s and swept up to the lectern. He was always a man of high energy but on this night, he was blazing.

“We have suffered a great tragedy.” he began. “We have lost a great man.  We must pray.”  He then launched us into numerous Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s.  Being well trained in the fine art of following and reciting these prayers, we all followed although we were all wondering who the great man was.

Was it one of the priests at the school?  Could it be one of the priests who went to mission?  We were a missionary order and many priest who came into our lives at the school soon went to missions in the Philippians, Brazil and China.  Some of them had been martyred.  Was it a benefactor of the school?  Who was it, father?  Who?

After a untold number of said prayers, Fr. Cadei finnally stopped and took a breath.  We had been reciting prayers for over a half an hour at this point. And we were quite antsy as well.

It was then that Fr. Cadei informed us that Pope John Paul I had died.  He then launched into another series of recitable prayers and we dutifully followed. 

Now remember that I was a mere lad at this point and I could not help thinking, the Pope?  Really?  All of this hub bub for the Pope.  We were just getting used to the fact that he was “John Paul” not just Pope Paul.  And now here I was, way past bedtime reciting Hail Mary’s for a guy  that had been Pope for 33 stinking days?  Not that he didn’t need or deserve the prayers, mind you, but at midnight?  Prayers at midnight, led by a priest in his pajamas whom we all thought was, how to say this, nuts?  Eccentric may be better in hindsight, but at the time, nuts fit my thoughts pretty well.

We stayed in that chapel for another two hours.  Praying for a man that none of us, save Fr. Cadei, knew anything about.  We said a rosary, more prayers and reflected on the good man.  For over two and a half hours after we were supposed to be in bed. 

I didn’t find out until years after I left the seminary, that Pope John Paul I was found by a nun in the early morning of the 29th sitting up in his bed apparently dead of a heart attack.  It was because of this that we did not find out late that night of his demise.  And because the good church did not want the world to know that a nun had found the leader of the church, in his bed, we were forced into prayer for that man well into the early morning of the 30th by Fr. Cadei.

I do not remember going to bed that night, though I am sure we did at some point.  I do remember being very tired the next day.  I also remember trying to calm some of the freshman down a bit as well.  They were only in their first month of seminary life when Crazy Cadei led us on that late night vigil for a now forgotten Pope. 

They had so much to learn.

Tags: seminary

Just to let every one know that I have been working on more seminary stories and have some of them almost ready.  They have always been a popular attraction of the blog and I think Fr. Cadei and friends are about ready to come out and play again.  I am going to use a new title as well, “The Seminary Chronicles”  Why that title.  Because I like it silly!

Also, we have not had someone step up to the plate and give a rant for awhile so if you want to rant like Toph, feel free to contact me with your rant and then your rant can be posted!

Yes, it really is that easy!  And remember that you may rant about any and everything.  My goodness, what gifts Toph bestows on you!

And also, as always, if there are things that you wish to learn from me or want my opinion on, feel free to ask as well.  I may not have an opinion on your subject of choice, but that never stopped me from posting an opinion.

There you have it.  You may return to your normal programming now!

Robin Williams is a very funny man. Loved the guy ever since “Mork and Mindy”. Yes, I am that old. But I thought Toph’s World could use a laugh and who better to do that than Robin. This is one of his best, golf.

Language Warning!!!!! Lot’s of F bombs!

I fell like there is a void right now.  The pork thing is done.  I have nothing looming with any immediacy.  I am not under any deadline, or at least any big to do thing in the next week or so.  There is taxes, but that can wait.  There is the Cooking For A Cure, but that is still 5 months away.

Wait, I know what it is.

Ah yes, training.  I hate training.  Sue Ann is set up in the basement just beckoning to me…”Go for a ride!!!!!”  But that is so hard to do when I look outside and see nothing but snow and ice.  Yea, I know I have the trainer, but that is just a case of spinning your wheels. 

I am looking forward to the outside bike rides but that looks to be a ways away yet.  So that brings me back to the original thought.

Now what?

I know, weird, even for me!

Tags: Biking, strange

This fine young lad wrote this song for his friend and my nephew Ben Meadows. I was privileged enough to hear him perform this song the night of the wake for Ben. I’ll copy the lyrics for you afterward and this will be the last post on this subject.

The good friend’s name is Earle.  Sorry Earle but I don’t remember your last name.

Thank you, Earle, this is beautiful.  No one could have said it like this.

A Song for my Friend Ben Meadows. R.I.P. Buddy

I can hear you laughing
Dancing out in space
I can see you smiling
That silly, carefree face

I can hear you talking, but I’m not sure what’s said

I can feel our tears fall
Our hearts beat in time
We’ve been through it all
You’re sitting on my mind

I can see you laughing, only you know why

Maybe tomorrow I’ll see you
Maybe tomorrow we’ll be fine
Maybe the sunlight will hold us
For today, we’ll just say goodbye

I have felt your heartache
But it all makes sense to me
You found the best road to take
I know that finally

You can fly so freely, and sit beside the Lord

Maybe tomorrow I’ll see you
Maybe tomorrow we’ll be fine
Maybe the sunlight will hold us
For today, we’ll just say goodbye…

Damn it…that means I lost!

And I did.  I did not win or place in tonight’s pork contest.  But I did learn. 

There were only two judges tonight and for the most part, tonight was a cluster f…   however, that is what ever chef must deal with on most days.  The judging ran late, I was judged 25 minutes past my plate time, a judge did not show up and we were being given different instructions by the minute.

Okay, those are just excuses.  As a chef, that is more the norm than the exception.  We deal with that on a daily basis.  So as far as that goes, well, it was a normal night and I did okay with all of that.  Improvise and adapt.  Chef credo. 

Bottom line, I  lost…damn…

However the judges did come up to me after the event and explained to me why i lost.  Now, judges coming to you is very rare.  They normally move on quickly after a competition.  So for them to come to me was something I wasn’t ready for.

They both told me the same thing.  I had the best tasting plate.  I did not, however, have the best tasting pork.  Why the difference?  Well, we were being judged on our pork.  The rest is just filler.  Granted, I have never been part of a competition where the judges didn’t judge the rest of your plate, but tonight the judges rated the plate strictly by the rules.

So I agree, I did not have the best pork.   So it some sonsulation that the judges deemed it neccasary to explain to me and I will take that knowledge into future events and hope to be a better chef because of it.

Me?? A teenager??

I have indeed been remiss.  This past Saturday was my lovely daughter’s 14′th birthday.  With everything that has been going on, it was not the highlight that it should have been. 

Poor thing, that seems to happen to here every year.  Some years it has been sickness, weddings, school functions or something that keeps stealing her thunder.

Well my beloved, here is your birthday post!

That, and she sent me a scathing email about the “About Toph” section no longer being accurate since, after all, she just had a birthday.

Its gotta make you wonder who is the parent of whom?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BETHANY!

Boy oh Boy, is she going to kill me now!

Tags: Bethany

Tomorrow is the big day…again…squared. 

So after two weeks of snow delays and other events, I think we are going to be a go.  No storms in the offing and after talking with my team this morning.  We are ready and everyone knows the task at hand.  Now if I can do my part, well we shall see.  I am the weak link.

So stay tuned because in a little over 24 hours from now, I will either be ready to compose a post full of lame excuses for why I lost the competition or I will be blatantly blaring the big victory.  Time will tell.

Well if that isn’t a rating booster line that I just wrote! 

Come see Toph sink or swim.  

 Nah. No pregame nerves at all. 

It’s 2 AM.  I just drove for 12 hours.  When I started this morning, it was sunny and 55 degrees.  When I finished, it was 34 and the snow was still up to my ass.

The week itself was…I am looking for the words to describe it.  Surreal, majestic, heart wrenching, emotional, inspirational, body blow, enlightening, awe inspiring and most of all humbling. 

My brother buried his son yesterday. 

As a parent myself, I still can’t imagine.  Nor do I ever want to.

Again, thanks to all for your kind words and, again, I am very thankful.

That all being said, I may need to go to bed!

Old man winter cancels the pork contest once again today and they will try again in another week.

I am okay with this.  I don’t think that my head would be into tonight anyway as I prepare to make my way to North Carolina tomorrow.  As I mentioned, I lost a family member last weekend, so this will not be a for fun trip.  I am looking forward to getting away from the snow for awhile though.

I am taking a computer along with me and if I get time, I will try to post.

Thanks for all of the condolences.  I can’t express enough how much that means to me and the family.

Tags: Stuff

If the weather god’s permit, tomorrow will be the pork contest.  I am as ready as I will ever be, so I hope we are still a go.

I lost a family member over the weekend, so that will cause me to travel.  I guess what I am saying is that postings may be very slim over the next week or so.

That being said, I just might be posting a lot!  You just never know as I am taking a computer with me and may need to write for brain’s sake.

Either way, bear with me, it is going to be a long week.

I am taking the weekend off and spending it with my favorites!  Church, breakfast, shopping, hockey game.

I am a lucky guy!

Cooking For A Cure got a very big boost last night.  The annual event got a very big friend to help. 

The American Cancer Society.

Now everyone might think that C.F.A.C. already had the help of the Society, but in fact, that was not true.  All of the proceeds from the event went to the Society, but they did not take an active part in last year’s fund raiser.  That is all about to change.

The American Cancer Society has offered to be the partner of the “Cooking For A Cure”. This means that they will back the event and offer all of the resources that they have in order to make the event a success.  This includes getting the liqueur permit for us and offering the entire media outlet contacts that they have.  I am sure that there are so many other things that hey bring to the table that I do not even know about yet.  And to have them as a partner means instant credibility.

Wow. 

 I am both floored and on cloud nine at the same time.  To have such a big partner to fight that dreaded “C” is like having an army at your back.

With their help, I hope to double the attendance of the event which means we raise twice the amount of money for the Society.  Which, of course, is why they want to help.  And you know what?  I am cool with that!  All I can say is “Cooking For A Cure” will be a much better event with our new partner to help!

Just a few quick things I need  to say out loud.

The government in Washington has been shut down for almost a week.  Has anyone noticed?  I didn’t think so.  Me either.

Speaking of being shut down, do you think we and the East Coast could send some of this snow up to Vancouver for the Olympics?   Maybe Obama should go and see if he could get Washington a winter Olympic games bid.  Worth a shot.

That does seem to happen every winter Olympics.  No snow.  It is like the gods are playing tricks on them.  Just saying.

I almost forgot that the Olympics were starting this week.  do you think we will see new commercials or will they just re-run the Super Bowl ads.  I am hoping for new ones.  The Super Bowl ones were pretty lame.  Except for Betty White.  (see below)

Why does Nascar start the it’s season with the biggest race of the year.  They call it the Super Bowl of stock car racing.  Doesn’t that just make all of the other races kind of dull?

This wonderful looking guy here on the right is “Inuk” .  He is a guy that has been dead for a few thousand years.  I guess scientist found some of his hair and worked with his DNA and then were able to put together this artist’s rendition of what he looked like.  That gives our ancestors some hope.  In a couple of thousand years, when the technology for opening all of the flash drives and playing all of the Cd’s that we now store our photos on has been lost or no longer works, they can just  put a few of  our DNA together and WHAMO, instant family photo.  Better get some of my hair while you can.

So if Inuk had a dog nose, my guess is that they buried him with his dog.  How ironic would that be.  “Oops, our bad…”

I also guess Inuk had male patterned baldness as well.  There is a blow for the future generations.   They had 4 thousand years and still can’t fix the damn bald spots. 

I guess there is going to be a major offensive in the nine year war in Afghanistan and the military is letting everyone in on the secret.  Except for the actual date.  The Taliban has been saying thanks for the warning and with all of the time they are being given, they think they can whoop the US military.  Well, I don’t know about that.  The Germans knew we were coming during WW II and that didn’t help them either.  Also during the second world war, Japan knew we were coming.  That is why they gave up.  That and a couple of very big bombs.  God bless our military.

He smoked like a chimney.  Swore like a sailor, which he was.  And ran his boat in true captain fashion.

But what do I know.  Captain Harris died tuesday and was a regular on the show Deadliest Catch, which I’ll admit, I really enjoy.  Crab fishing is nothing that I would want to do and it sure takes a toll on your body.  I don’t even like winter in Ohio let alone on the Bering Sea.

Phil was quite entertaining though.  He’ll be missed.

The pork contest was postponed until next Tuesday, as expected.  I was ready and now we will have to sit and wait another week before cooking for the judges.

Again, just another reason to hate the snow storms.  I think we had a grand total of 16 people in the restaurant today.  Not that I blame them.  It was nasty out there!

But I think I will have to do a another practice or two with the pork.  Why not?  I can prefect it even more this way…

Tags: chef

Today is the big day.  The pork competition.  We had our last practice last night and things went, well, as expected which is a very good thing indeed!  We were able to focus and everything turned out just right.  Even the coulis!

But now, here is the thing.  We are facing our second round of the ever lovely white death.  Besides an empty house in the Mo Ho today (never a good thing) we might not be able to make it downtown to the competition!  I have not heard anything yet, but if I were a betting man, and I am, I would guess that we would not have the contest.  There were a few chefs coming from out of town like Findley and Cincinnati.  Who knows.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate snow storms.  Stop me if I have.

What?

Oh, thanks…I guess I have mentioned that a time or two..He He

Tags: chef