[ My friend Becky Murphy is pinch hitting for me today as her Chipper Things blog and WacoFork share content. We're pumped to bring you the 1st annual ChipperThings/WacoFork Chest Tournament on Sunday. You should play. No excuses. ]

Alas! The much anticipated Waco Fork and Chipper Things 1st Annual Chess Tournament is almost here! My friend Chad and I decided to set up a casual tourney for those who love to talk trash to the queen.

Dear Oso Burrito,

It was good seeing you again today.

I know I don't make it around to your neighborhood at Taqueria El Crucero as often as we both might like. But I like the way we can always pick up right where we left off. You're so consistent. I always know what I'm gong to get from you and that makes me feel at ease. So, thank you.

We'd like to welcome Bangkok Royal to the list of enhanced listings on WacoFork.

This is the latest development in a trend that I couldn't be happier to see. A little more than a year ago, we launched this site with the idea, among other things, to provide an advertising space for restaurants. Some restaurants have taken advantage of it and we can tell that it has helped direct customers to their tables.

A little more than a month ago, the construction foreman at the Quaker Steak & Lube site told me to expect to see that restaurant going up quickly.

He wasn't fooling.

The blog we posted on May 3 includes a picture showing bulldozers and dump trucks doing dirt work at Legends Crossing. Today the place has walls and a roof and discernible doorways.

I reported last week that Cafe Homestead penciled in the date for its next farm-to-table dinner. Well, they've altered their plan, so disregard the previous info.

But they have the menu and price in place now, so it's all a go.

Cafe Homestead will be hosting a Brazilian farm-to-table dinner on June 30 at a cost of $45 per seat. Judging from the menu, it's a bargain at that price.

I bought a bike a few weeks ago.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't have anything to do with anything I would write here. Except that when I asked people where to get a bike they gave me a couple of suggestions, including a new place called Outdoor Waco. I ended up buying the bike from one of the big box sporting goods stores because the bike was cheap and I have no real intention of becoming a cyclist. I just kind of want to ride a bike every now and then. I'm not a 21st-century outdoorsman, though I do have a beard and like to spend time outside.

Since I last promoted the 1st annual ChipperThings/WacoFork Chess Tournament, the thing got real.

In several ways actually.

For one thing, we've had about a dozen early commitments from players, including a couple of legitimate expert bracket favorites. We invented a way to break the entries into expert and novice brackets using something I'm calling the Personal Player Rating, which means each player will rate themselves on a scale of 1 (you're fairly certain you know how all the pieces move) to 100 (you can play a game without looking at a board). One of the early entries rated himself an 85 and another has played games without a board in the past.

One of my favorite phrases is "the word on the street is ..."

It implies a pretty high level of being in the know as well as being sort of urban-cool and mysterious at the same time. I have a good example today. The word on the street is that Which Wich is going into the Bosque retail strip that currently features Starbucks and GameStop.

We have a new restaurant in town. It's called BJ's Brewhouse and it has lots of big screen televisions and an extensive beer selection and a menu the size of a dictionary and a dessert that's worth a trip there all by itself.

In fact, there's a video about it on our blog page, so for more information about BJ's Brewhouse, go watch it.

But right now, I want to give a little attention to one of Waco's oldest restaurants. Because brand new and fancy and flashy is fantastic, but it doesn't automatically equal greatness. Consistent greatness equals greatness.

BJ's Brewhouse invited us to one of their rehearsal nights. We said "Sure, as long as we get a pizookie."

Thanks to the brand new staff, who seem to have things running smoothly. BJ's Brewhouse has an extensive menu, which includes a tasty selection of their brewhouse beers. We sampled several of them with dinner and they received a thumbs up from one of Waco's most discerning beer snobs, who will remain nameless.