It really is summer...

I spent a fair amount of time outside on my deck, something that I haven't done that much even though it is an incredible perk of living where I do. Of course it is a lot nicer out there when it isn't ankle deep in water...

So today I cleaned and did laundry, but then I sat outside with a book for an hour or so. Then, I did something that I have talked about doing but which I made myself do today. I bought a grill, so for the first time since 2004 I have a grill. It makes sense, of course, to have a grill. If nothing else, it will make me use my deck. Oddly enough, every store is closing out their grills. According to them, summer is waning, though I simply refuse to concede that. Now if I had a truck, and about four friends, I could have bought a very very nice grill, one large enough to grill for the neighborhood. Since I have neither, I had to look for a smaller, disassembled grill, and I eventually found one.

By this time, it was about 5PM, and I had to put the !_@$(&)*@#$ grill together before I could enjoy that first burger off the grill. It was slightly easier said than done. The grill came with directions, of course, but it might have helped a bit if they weren't in Spanish. Honestly. I finally found English directions on the web. I thought I might do it intuitively, since what male really ever looks at the directions anyways? I had to, though as it was far from intuitive. Two hours later, and one skinned knuckle later, it was done.

And what a meal. A salad (really, I ate a salad), grilled sweet onions, baked beans, a couple of exceptional burgers, and of course wine from a box. Does it get better than this? This fancy repast was for one, but it was still a pretty good meal. Of course, every thing is better off a grill. Now I want to grill all the food that I eat at home. So can I grill yogurt? Cereal? Eggs? Frozen pizza? Hot pockets? Danish from across the street? Ham sandwiches? Well, I might be able to do that. But the meal tonight was great, and it topped off my pretty good day, and now I can take my slightly sunburned body off to bed.

Tomorrow I head to St Joe, Mn, for St. Joe Rocks. I doubt that it is all that rockin' but it will be nice to be outside. On Monday, I head to Crosby for a 4th of July parade. It's kind of a fun parade as it starts in one town and ends in another. That sounds more dramatic than it is, but it has to be worth a blog post.

One photo is of my meal, the other is of my bowls. It just seems that there has to be a definitive bowl picture out there somewhere.