My friend Liz had a group of us over for a First Annual 4th of July BBQ at her place yesterday, and the whole planning of the thing exposed just how much my friends and I well, �lack� in certain areas of skill and experience. First, there was the buying of The Grill. Liz and Lucy set out to purchase The Grill last week, with Liz exposing Lucy to her first trip to a local hardware/everything store. It�s not one of the big chains, but there are quite a few of this certain store in RI, and it�s a little crazy that Lucy has never been in one. While I�m not a frequent customer myself, I do get in there from time to time. As Lucy found out from her maiden voyage, where else can you find tires and grills in the same aisle as candy and toys? Nowhere, I tell you. Anyway, they made their purchase and then Liz set out to assemble The Grill. It was just a small table-top grill, but Liz was chagrined to find that there was actual assembly required, as in involving screws and such. She thought she would just snap it together. Oy. (Even I knew that one. I may not be very domestic, but I can be handy when it comes to putting things together. Seriously � come check out my desk sometime. It�s a thing of beauty.)

After The Grill was successfully assembled, we all received an e-mail regarding who wanted to bring what in terms of food/drinks/tableware. This led to a series of shaken fists after people kept jumping on what others were going to bring. Well, mostly between those of us who are cooking-impaired (ME), lazy (my brother), and overwhelmed (new baby!). I was also asked nicely NOT to cook in a follow-up e-mail. Heh. In the end, everything fell together nicely once it was established who was bringing what. However, then we all fell into Feeding An Army Mode. I have no idea why, but I think only one of us brought the proper amount of food for the number of people coming. The rest of us brought enough to feed the whole condo complex. Lucy is one of the few �cooks� among us, and she just went crazy, making potato salad, a gazillion chicken wings, and dessert. There were 6 of us. My brother brought 16 hot dogs. There were 20 hamburgers. Fruit salad, pasta salad, chips and salsa, chips and dip, cookies, cupcakes, a cake, a pitcher of Cosmos, beer, two 2-liter bottles of soda, four 12 oz. bottles of soda, three 2-liter bottles of lemonade. Once again, there were 6 of us. But hey, the Too Much Food thing happens. This didn�t really make us look too bad. No, we left that to The Grilling.

It was determined shortly after our arrival that only one out of the six of us had ever grilled before. How is that? Why don�t we know how to grill? I still don�t know why, but the one experienced griller was not on the appointed Grill Team. Liz and Lucy, being host and co-planner were in charge of the grilling. In retrospect, I�m thinking that decision may not have been the best one, but we weren�t sure that Experienced Griller Guest was coming, so alternate plans had been made. The Grilling led to these comments:

�Is it lit?�

�I see fumes, but no flames. Why are there no flames? Shouldn�t there be blue flames at least?�

�You weren�t out here to remind me to spray it first! Is that bad?�

�Should there be that much smoke coming out?�

�How do you know when to flip it?� �I don�t know.� �How do you know when it�s done then?�

�Does gray mean flip?�

�Whoa! Are the flames supposed to be that high?�

�TURN IT DOWN!!!�

�I�m going to become Michael Jackson in the Pepsi commercial in a minute.�

�She�s trying to turn it back up! KEEP IT ON LOW!�

�Don�t worry, your eyebrows will grow back.� �Don�t even joke about that!�

�My plants are going to catch fire! The tree!�

�Tell her to put the cover on to cover the flames.� �What?� �PUT THE COVER ON!!!�

�MY PLANTS!!! WATCH THE PLANTS!!!!�

Yeah. It�s pretty safe to say that none of us are going to be winning the title of Grillmaster any time soon. Here�s Lucy fighting off some of the flames after we had gotten them under control a little:

The flames were about twice as high as this. I have no idea how a grill that small made flames that high, but we did it. Next year? We�re hiring a griller. Either that, or everyone will be bringing a dish along with a fire extinguisher.


before & after





2007-09-26 - Follow Me!
2006-09-30 - Site Move & Favorite Entries
2006-09-25 - Evil Easter Bunnies & Rock Climbing!
2006-09-22 - Shameful-Purchase Hiding & A New Dentist Plan
2006-09-19 - Birthday Picture/Video Diary & The Wheelmobile





Copyright 2003-2006 by Sockgirlie. Stealing is wrong.