Black Diamond Cookoff

This is the second year we've competed in the Black Diamond Cookoff. This year the team was myself, Josh, Rob and Damon.
Similar to last year, I am under the impression that the judges are a complete joke. There were 7 teams competing in barbecue, and 13 in the chili cookoff.
I had the distinguished honor of finishing 13th in chili, which I find amusing. Last year I also finished last, and our team finished in last place overall.
It probably sounds like sour grapes, but anyone that knows anything about food that actually tasted our stuff could in no conceivable way say that our stuff was the worst there. Quite the contrary, in my biased opinion, my chili was very good. Now, I could handle not winning. But last place?
There were some chilis there that were made basically of hamburger and tomato sauce. My chili was made from scratch. While i would rate it a 5/10 on the spicy scale, it was easily the spiciest chili there - which may mean that the other folks are pandering to the judges, who must not like spice.
Frankly I'd rather keep doing it right and losing than make bland paste.
Oh well, we still got to cook, eat and drink all day in the warm July sunshine!

4th of July Camping!

So my grandmother owns a lot of land out at Ocean Shores. Katie, Josh and I were intending on going camping this weekend, but as all of the good camp grounds were already booked by folks more prepared than us, we decided to instead trek out to this property to camp out there.
What greeted us was about 150 feet of wooded brushlands, which took us about an hour to clear. I'm pretty sure most people would have just given up and turned back, but never to be detered by work or logic, we forayed onward!
Unfortunately all our work was for naught, as the next morning we were greeted by the Police, informing us that in order to camp on our own property we must have both a valid camping permit, and ready access to utilities - neither of which do we have.
Still, we managed to have one good day of camping. And over night it decided to start pouring on us, so we were getting rather soggy anyway.
Makes you wonder what this country is coming to when you can't even reside on your own property without the police harassing you.

Man Conquers Nature

Viola! Instant camp site!