Queing and flooring

What a busy day! Today I got up later than I wanted to, around 9:30am. It's Sunday, but I needed to cook seven briskets and freeze them for a bbq benefit that's going to be held the weekend of September 15th. I originally wanted to be up by 6am. The biggest brisket was nearly 14 pounds and I didn't want to be cooking late into the night. Since I got up late, I went ahead and semi-fast-tracked my briskets. I've done it once before with great results and often wonder why I don't do it this way all the time. Got the fire going and rubbed the briskets. At 10:40 I put them into the pit. The two 13+ pounders and two 10+ pounders closer to the firebox entry and the the three smaller ones behind them. The temp was at 225, but I added two extra logs and opened the intake all the way. The temp rose to around 290 degrees and throughout the day I managed the fire and cooked between 275-325 degrees. Not exactly low and slow and not too high either, but I know it works. I foiled the little ones at 3:45pm. At 6pm the little ones came off and I foiled the bigger ones. I let them rest a little bit and then wrapped another layer of foil and threw them in the freezer. At 8:30pm the big ones came off. I let them rest and at 9:15 I sliced the largest one at the point and flat juncture to see if they were truly done (I go by the thermometer and feel, usually temp is between 185-195). It's temperature before pulling off the pit was at 185, and the thermometer went in very easily. It sliced easily and was very tender and juicy. Nice smokering, too. We sliced a few pieces off then double wrapped the two indvidual cuts. Snacked on the pieces and then wrapped the other briskets in another layer of foil and threw them into the freezer. All of the cooking took ten hours. The prep and finish included comes out to nearly 12 hours. Not bad since the cook alone would normally have been about 17-18 hours. I get to do this again next week. I think since it will probably be only 4 briskets, I'll use my Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) and the new WSM I got yesterday (woohoo!). Means less time tending the fire. That's a pic of my WSM.

Now while all this cooking was going on, my wife and I started working on our floor. We bought some peel and stick vinyl tiles to redo our living room and kitchen. We started on the living room since we pulled the carpet a year ago. The concrete floor was becoming an eyesore. We committed the ultimate sin in doing the floor by not starting in the center. I just went ahead and started at one wall. I can cut and trim when we need to to even it out (actually my wife will do that). We still need to lift and scrape the kitchen linoleum before we get to that side. Hopefully it all works out. I've been back at work this past week and school starts next week. So why did I wait till now to do this project? Go figure.