Grill Me

One of the nice things about Indiana in the spring is that there are approximately two weekends between the freezing cold of winter and the mosquito infested swamp of summer where you can actually grill out without it being at least a partially miserable experience. Since we're in that two week period and our poor old kettle grill has pretty much rusted away, we decided that it was time to get a grill.

To provide a little background on this adventure, one of the first projects that Erin and I undertook during our engagement was the assembling of our beloved charcoal grill. We have two distinct ways of working on such a project. I, as an engineer and detail specialist, read the directions thoroughly from end to end and work through each step of the project per the instructions. Erin's approach, as a creative thinker and risk taker, is to open the box, open up the baggie with all the little parts, and start bolting things together in what appears to be the shape of a grill, at least in her mind. I can remember sitting on the floor at about 10pm the night we purchased the charcoal grill, and by 11pm, the engagement was nearly off. Tears were shed. Methods clashed. But in the end, the grill and our relationship turned out just fine.

Recently the difficulty has been with actually cooking on our charcoal grill. I've had a hard time maintaining enough heat to cook at an acceptable speed, which has led to various insults being thrown about regarding whether it's the grill or the griller who is to blame. Since the grill has pretty much disintegrated in the elements, this seemed like an opportune time to cut our losses and move to a gas grill, which in my opinion, does not provide the flavor of the charcoal grill but does provide for a much more expedient grilling experience, and much less marital dischord over our burgers.

The assembly of the new grill, pictured above, proved to be only somewhat less of a marital crowbar than the previous grill assembly experience. I partially fault the company for it's misleading directions. This grill explicitly stated that the assembly time would be 15 minutes. You couldn't install this grill in under 90 minutes if you had a gun (or a wife with a sharp kitchen utensil) to your head. But almost four years into marriage, we made it through with only minor disagreements, and in the end, we're excited to use our new grill. Hopefully we'll get to do so this weekend, before you need a mosquito net and beekeeper's mask to step out onto our deck.