Winter weather reared its ugly head all week for Big Red's Crew.  Snow, sleet, winds and bitter cold made for one awful few days and it appears there is more of the same coming this week. Tuesday night was the Liberty-George Mason womens basketball game.  Since the Lady Flames are 15-2 and receiving votes in the top 20 each week, I assumed there would be a good turnout.   It was bitter cold and windy but that shouldn't effect a crowd for a basketball game.  WRONG!  About 800 fans and most of them were students.  I couldn't believe the lack of support from  Lynchburgers but there couldn't have been more than 50 townsfolks in the stands.  Needless to say, I just barely covered my expenses and was lucky to do that. Thursday in Fredericksburg, it started snowing at 9:00 am just as I began grilling steaks.  By noon, there was about 3 inches and I had to spend most of my time knocking snow off the tent to keep it from collapsing.  The dealer crowd wasn't as bad as you'd think, but they just weren't in a buying mood and we only went thru a little over one loin.  Another losing day. With the roads iffy and the worst of the weather between us and home, Peggy and I opted to stay an extra night in Fredericksburg which only added to my losses for the trip.  Oh, well.  Comes with the territory. Saturday was the first mens basketball game at Liberty since the kids got back from break.  Even with the cold and snow flurries, and since it was the home conference opener, I was expecting a good crowd.  At least for the first time of the week, I was right.  3,395 fans--a good crowd for Liberty basketball--and they spent well.  Made for a good night only about $10 short of our basketball record.  It was also the first time that I felt I could have used two fryers and will probably do that for the next Saturday night mens game that I don't have a double booking. This week may be one of the most important weeks of the year for us.  Monday is another mens game at Liberty, followed by our usual trip to Fredericksburg.  Saturday, Tank and Crew will handle a double header at LU while Peggy, Laura, Anthony and I will be at Richmond Raceway for the Fishing Expo.  What makes it so important has nothing to do with the show but with management of concessions at RIR.  My friends at TJ's Catering have lost their contract and Americrown, who handles all of the NASCAR and Indy Car racing concessions, is taking over and establishing their regional office.  The Fishing Show will be Noah and company's last event and Americrown's first.  We need to impress the new people and just maybe it will open some doors for us that have been closed in the past.  Like possibly races?  Since we've developed a good working plan for RIR events--cooking outside and serving inside--I also hope to be able to expand our schedule for events during the winter months. I sure hate to see Noah and gang leaving.  They are wonderful to work with and have really become more like family than business associates.  At least we will still be working with them at Fredericksburg and Belevedere.  And who knows, with TJ's finding some other income stream projects, we might get some other new bookings. I guess I'll have no choice but to be on my best behavior this week.  That should make Peggy  happy.  I'm sure she's dusting off the muzzle.  But, it should be interesting.