Fathers Day Festivities

Sure, it may be stereotypical, but a barbeque is a great Fathers Day present.  My Weber has been dying for a while now.  I've been waiting for it to stop working once and for all.  But, rather than let it cough its final smoke-bomb of a death, Pamela and the kids decided that I should get a new grill for Fathers Day.  I did my online research and decided to buy a new Weber.  But I made the mistake of going into Barbeques Galore to see if they had the grill I was looking for.  Rather than leave with my Weber Genesis Silver B, the guy talked me out of a Weber altogether.  And he talked me into a Capt'n Cook 4 Burner.  I felt like a tool being so profoundly influenced by the Barbecues Galore sales guy.  But he had charcoal shmootz all over his face, so how wrong could he steer me?

As foolish as it may have been to get sold on the Capt'n Cook by Mr. Shmootz Face, it was even more foolish to not pay the thirty bucks to get it assembled.  Thirty bucks!  That would have been the best thirty bucks I'd spent all year.  But no.  I decided that I would spend my Fathers Day constructing a grill by myself. 

Thirty dollars.  Given that it took me about 4 hours to put the grill together, I was valuing my time at less than $8 per hour.  And that isn't even counting the time it took for me to drive back to the barbeque store to get the additional bolts that I needed because mine somehow mysteriously disappeared (I still don't have all the right screws -- one is missing on the back splatter tray).  But I will say this, it was very satisfying to finish my project and stand gazing at my beautiful new grill knowing that it would provide my family with overcooked hotdogs for many years to come.

Four hours and a new pair of shorts later (I was supposed to go to a friend's pool for the afternoon but had to build a grill instead -- ok, I also had to keep my daughter company in the bathroom while she felt sick) and I stood next to my many-thousand BTU belching grilling machine ready to get to work.  Here's the Capt'n Cook in Grillus Flagrantas.  Ain't she beautiful.

As a side note, my friend Jeff Clavier also was looking for a grill for Fathers Day.  He posted about that quest here.  While I was looking at little Webers and the like, Jeff was looking at Turbo-Mother-Of-All-Grills sorts of beasts.  Here is the one that caught Jeff's eye at the Barbeques Galore.

I didn't want to say anything, but do you think Jeff may be compensating for something?  To each his own.  My new 4 burner will do me just fine. 

Happy Fathers Day!