Hot wings, warm memories

Five years ago today the weather was unrelentingly steamy, a lot like today's 89 degrees. About this time I was waking from a nap, 41 weeks pregnant, exhausted from a busy day walking around a charity chicken wing cookoff and getting a flat tire on the way home. Within hours I would realize I was in labor. Arabella would be born the next afternoon.
I was past my due date and I did a lot of walking and had some stress with that flat but I teased that the "special" wings from Legends bar put me in labor.
Legends wasn't at this year's wing-off, held last weekend. But our favorite bar, Archie's, was. We love love love their Corona wings.


In past years, when we had more patience, we dutifully sampled two wings from each vendor standing in line after long line, cast our ballot for our favorite and went back to our favorite with more tickets for a whole dozen.



This year, we divided our tickets and chose four of the nine vendors -- knowing we were going to vote for Archie's anyway. We brought all of the wings back to the pickup where we sat in the bed and ate.

Perhaps it's all Arabella's wing-off experience since she was in utero -- look how clean my baby can pick a bone!


Happy early birthday, my little chicken picker!

UPDATE:
Winners of the 2008 Chicken Wing Contest held in Morgantown, WV, benefiting Ronald McDonald House
Judges' Choice: Jersey's Subs
People's Choice: Bucketheads (I have a feeling it was more the hot pink string bikinis on the servers than the wings that brought in votes. It was odd because their line was really short during the time I was there.)
I am glad however to see both winners are independent, local businesses and not big national chains like BW3 and Firkin & Fox.

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