BBQ

We finally—finally!—bought a barbeque. We’ve been living in our townhouse for over three years, and all that time I’ve wanted a BBQ, and now we finally have one.

One of the main things holding us up was that Andrea’s dad had a used one, that he had volunteered to give us, but we never got around to digging it out of his garage. So we finally went and picked it up on Sunday. (Actually, we went on Saturday afternoon and wiped and hosed it down, to get rid of the dust, and then picked it up on Sunday, after it had dried off.) Unfortunately, it turned out that it didn’t work. The burner wasn’t connected properly to the hose from the propane tank, and I couldn’t figure out how to connect it properly. Plus, it was pretty rusty in there. So we decided to go and get a new one, because I didn’t want to mess around with propane connections. Which, in retrospect, I’m happy about, because we also wanted a side burner, which the free one didn’t have.

I had been thinking about getting a Weber. That seems to be the cream of the crop, when it comes to BBQs. However, although Weber BBQs last forever, they are also very expensive. So, after much soul-searching, I decided that it wasn’t worth the money; even if a cheaper BBQ didn’t last forever, it would probably still be cheaper in the long run.

Once I’d made up my mind to get something cheaper, I actually thought about getting a President’s Choice BBQ, from Fortinos. For about half the price of a Weber, I could get a BBQ with a side burner. There was a good chance that it would be a piece of crap, but, on the other hand, President’s Choice is pretty good, so there was also a chance that it would be a good, lasting unit. But we finally gave up, and got a Sterling, which is even cheaper. Who knows how long it will actually last; I’m hoping it’s not a disposable BBQ! (Obviously, if we have to buy a new one every year, we would have been better off getting a Weber…)

Anyway, you probably don’t care about all of that. I got it put together on Monday night, which wasn’t as bad as I’d been led to believe. It took an hour or two, but very little cursing. (I did end up with one extra nut and bolt, which I couldn’t attach; the holes in two pieces of metal that it was supposed to connect together wouldn’t quite line up. But there were three other sets of nuts and bolts keeping them together, so I don’t think it will cause any problems.) I also couldn’t get the lighter button to work, but wasn’t overly worried about it, since we have a lighter.

I had been hoping to fire it up on Tuesday, and cook something. (I’d been further hoping that the “something” I cooked would be a nice, juicy steak.) Unfortunately, we had leftovers in the fridge that we had to eat out. And, since I’m an adult now, and I have to make mature decisions, we decided to eat the leftovers first, and maybe cook something on the BBQ on Wednesday. I did take the opportunity to season the grill, though, and I also figured out why the lighter button hadn’t worked. (I’d missed connecting a wire. And it’s a good thing I figured it out, because the wire was within the BBQ—or very close to it, anyway—and probably would have caught on fire or something.)

I’m crossing my fingers, hoping to be able to cook something tonight. (I’m also crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to cook it well—it will seem like a terrible waste of money to have bought a BBQ, if it turns out I have no BBQing skills.)