Damn if the weather hasn’t changed almost instantly in the mornings and made me ready for chai. Panera makes an iced chai that I got one day this warm weekend, but it was sickly sweet and too much. This morning I’m making my own chai from this blend that I got toward the end of last winter. It is still good and is gearing me up to be able to accept that leaves are indeed falling off the trees, thus changing my drinking habits.

Most people spend the Labor Day weekend grilling food, swimming one last time before the neighborhood pool closes, and soaking up some sun. I spent it with a gooey substance dripping from my eyeball, sleeping after taking Benadryl, and taking my boys to the Abraham Lincoln Library for a lesson in the consequences of hatred. It was a rip-roaring, helluva fun time weekend.

What I wanted to do was write about these fantastic hot dogs that a nice lady named Britt (if you have an interesting name, I kinda always want to know about you and be your friend) gave me after my visit to California this summer. She assumed, since I was writing about California, that I was a Californian but alas, I hail from the Land of Lincoln. Still, she let me try the Hoffy Extra Lean Hot Dogs and, as a Chicagoan by birth is expected to do, I like hot dogs. There was only a short time in college after I read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair that I became a vegetarian. That lasted a few years and then one day I drove by a Burger King and the smell was too much for me to put off anymore.

I was sick for three days after eating that double Whopper.

The hot dogs she sent were, without a doubt, the best I’ve ever tasted. I tried them without the obligatory mustard and onions (my current preference) though I get a hankering for a Chicago Style hot dog once in a while and give in to temptation again.

Normally, I’m only sick for a day after a Chicago Style hot dog.

Hoffy Extra leans taste like real meat, they’re not fatty at all, and those suckers are enormous.

So big, in fact, that I posted it here for you. See! Enormous! Huge! And really really good.

Too bad I didn’t grill them up for Labor Day while enjoying some last few minutes of Summer Sun. Instead, we had open faced onion and beef sandwiches with buttery potatoes and watched “Bull Durham” with my mom. That movie has some of my favorite lines ever, excellent music, and not one damn hot dog can be seen in the whole movie.

What kind of baseball movie is that?

*you used to only be able to purchase them in SoCal, but now there is a website to order from with a good introductory offer. Click here for details.