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It’s a major undertaking to try and perfect the BBQ recipe for beef brisket. Miss Jenny and I have the Mango-Chipotle Baby Back Ribs and the Carolina-style Pulled Pork down, but the brisket is tricky and I’m burning a lot of pellets on the Traeger grill trying to perfect it. Cooked up the best one yet last weekend after making a brothy injection and patting on two dry rubs in between a coating of mustard. Smoked it, wrapped it, sprayed it with butter, let it rest and 15 hours later we carved it up. Tender, great texture, but the flavor wasn’t quite the rich beef melt-in-your-mouth I’m looking for. So, it’s back to the drawing board for fine tuning ingredients and time and temperature to get it right. Then I can serve it up for the poker boys and have an Indian summer BBQ with friends and a great bottle of 2008 Merlot from Solis Winery.

Just a quick couple of random thoughts off the top this morning. I went to the Gavilan men's basketball game Wednesday afternoon, and aside from keeping stats, I also kept tabs on the fans in the bleachers - all 50 or so of them. The game started at 3 p.m., but before that gets used as an excuse, contests that start at 7 p.m. get about the same response. And beside, I see plenty of people out and about at 3 p.m. when I make my afternoon coffee runs. So, time of day defense doesn’t cut it.

I vividly remember the day she adopted me, me driving home with her 5-month-old paws on the dashboard, face tilted downward and pressed against the windshield. I remember wondering if I had made the right decision: Was I ready to take on a dog? We’d had family dogs when I was young, but I was an adult now, living on my own. She would be all mine.