beer, cakes and races....

 I did go to German Fest today with the express purpose of watching the Wiener Dog Races.  While waiting for the races to start, my friend and I ate hot dogs (which seemed wrong at a wiener dog race but still quite tasty) drank dark beer, and shared a chimney cake.  If you haven't tried one, I highly recommend it.  It was fun to watch the long slender roll of dough get wrapped around a cylinder, rolled 'til it was flat, coated with butter and flavoring (we chose cinnamon sugar) then baked in a special oven.  It was delicious, and one was plenty for two people.  I recommend them,  But about those races, they started out with, I think, 64 contenders, racing two at a time, gradually eliminating all but the fastest four, then the final two.  It was almost a photo finish between the last two, very exciting.  I wish I could say that all the participants ran their very best races, but that was not to be.  The rules were simple.  The dogs were released by their owners on the count of three, raced down one of the two long runways, and whoever got to the end first, won that lap.  The other rule was that one minute was the maximum time allowed.  If the dogs weren't runners, which ever dog was closest to the end when the minute was up, won that lap.  The dachshunds came in an amazing variety, long hairs, short hairs, black, tan, red and even some spotted ones, which I have seldom seen.  Most of the dogs moved right along and some were really fast, but the comic relief came from the non-starters who just couldn't be bothered and those who started strong but stopped along the route.  This last happened more than you might think, because early in the race, one of the contestants had stopped to pee about ten feet into the runway, and many of the dogs who came after, stopped, as dogs will, to sniff the scent.  Dogs will be dogs.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures worth sharing, too many people, but it was a fun afternoon.