Give and you shall receive

A knock on our door the other day from our sweet neighbors, Richard and Kathy.  They are our fun loving Texas transplants that live across the street and put up with our dogs, multiple cars, and general chaos oozing from our house on a regular basis. 

They entered themselves in the 1st Annual Livingston Summer Fest Chili Cook-off!  Kathy politely asked if Peter could help her with a "propane tank" at her house, as she had never cooked with propane.  The other side of this means that we apparently look like propane-cooking kinds of people.  This is true.  When Pete went over to help her, he sees that she was trying to cook 3-gallons of Texas chili using one of those itty-bitty coleman stoves with the mini bottles of propane (like you would use to turn on a little lantern).  Seeing this, he realizes something HAS to be done.  We are Howell's.  We have BIG stoves and BIG equipment to get jobs done. 

So Pete manages to find our "camp stove"and tank in the madness that we call our "shed." God help me.
  

And takes them the appropriate size propane take to cook 3 gallons of Chili for an afternoon -  we expect them to slay the chili opponents.

Chili cook off results - Richard and Kathy come in THIRD ... out of four competitors.  Two shouts for a valiant effort!

Now, the exciting part of this story for US is that Kathy, as a thank you, brought over a gift certificate that she won at an auction.  This "gift certificate" isn't for a free Blizzard at Dairy Queen... No, this is for a "one hour cutting horse lesson and dinner for four" at the T-Square Ranch!  Big deal folks!  Check out this "ranch" here.  It is owned and designed by one of the best architects in the country - Jonathan Foote!  

This will be so much fun!  Now, who will we take with us on this fabulous outting? 

Thanks Richard and Kathy for the completely unnecessary "thank you" gift.  It was just an obnoxious propane tank.