It isn't often that I have the chance to post some miscellaneous thoughts, but this seems a good time to do so.  As you know, I've just finished a week off so there is no report on the doings of Big Red. Part of the week was spent without access to my site and to emails due to changes and maintenance made by Jason.  Most of them, of course, are over my head so I just sit back and wait until he tells me things are OK again.  That finally happened late last night and all of the Houseofalls sites should be back up and working. The main change for me is that my site is now http://www.bigredfunnelcakes.com.  My emails are the same--chillie@houseofalls.com-- but may be changing later to @bigredfunnelcakes.com. As I've noted recently, again due to Jason, I'm trying to become more active in the social media world.  The whole idea for this blog originally, was to keep family and friends advised on what Peggy and I were doing.  Secondly, it gave me a forum to entertain a little.  While most of us who blog, twitter, or use Face Book or other of the social tools, are self-promoting to one extent or another, I didn't consider this a major function. As it has grown, and I've gotten more and more people following, that function clearly has evolved.  I booked a huge show in Maryland a couple of months ago, simply because one of the promoters read about Big Red.  This past weekend, one of the Twitter folks I follow, attended  a Rockies game at Coors Field in Denver, and reported back that they need funnel cakes.  With my current schedule for this year, I can't consider Colorado,  but who knows what might happen in the future. I spent a good bit of this weekend following the Masters as I always do Easter week. Because of my social network, I became involved with a bunch of golf folks including Stewart Cink and Morgan Pressel of the LPGA.  How could the fat funnel cake guy from Virginia have contacts like that?  Only because of Twitter.  Who knows, maybe this could lead to doing some golf tournaments.  You never know. When I was forced to buy tires a couple of weeks ago, I let my tire guy talk me into filling them with nitrogen.  Maybe I've been living in a fog, but I'd never heard of this. I figured I got sold a bill of goods, and thought very little more about it.  So, I spent an extra $5 per tire. Since then, my gas mileage has gone up.  Note:  no other work has been done on Sweet Pea, so its not from a tune up or oil change or anything else.  When I'm pulling Big Red, I'm getting an additional 2 mpg.  Doesn't sound like much, but over the course of the year, that will add up.  I don't know yet what difference it makes when not pulling the trailer, but I'm sure it will be more. This week, I'm heading into uncharted waters and quite excited about the prospects.  The Potomac Nationals baseball season opens Friday with a six game home stand.  We'll only be doing funnel cakes and lemonade, but it opens the door to the baseball world.  Since we've specialized in sporting events, this should be a good fit. We'll also be using our new wireless credit card machine for the first time.  Better than the old fashioned way we've been doing them.  Unfortunately, I don't have a laptop, so I won't be posting here until I get back to the farm and my computer.  I will be twittering info via phone to keep some updates going. The following week is another home stand for the Nationals and Race Week at Richmond Raceway.  This will be the first of (I hope) many Nascar events.  We're geared up for a huge week that week. After Richmond, we go to Bethesda, Maryland for the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, booked because of this blog.  20,000 in two days will cause the fat funnel cake guy to work his butt off. The rest of the year is equally as full.  We're busy right thru Thanksgiving.  Then, maybe a cruise? For family, Jean, Amanda and I went to visit mom yesterday at Heritage Green.  Horrible visit.  She's getting more and more confused almost everyday.  It was so bad, we came home, opened some wine, and spent the rest of the day drinking.  Oh, yea.  I did cook. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.