Saturday we thought it might be fun to have my friends Larry and Nawal, and Mike and Tammy and their daughter over for a cookout. Prior to that though, I had to see a Dentist.
That was the one downer part of the weekend. I have never been very good with Dentists. I'm not afraid, I just gag like a child every time they try to take x-rays. It's all in my head, I know that very well, but every time I try I make a fool out of myself and get really frustrated. The technician held the film out and asked me to open my mouth, and as soon as it hit me I started choking. We only managed to get a couple of less than high quality images of the problem area, and a panoramic shot of all of my teeth. The panorama did not require me to open my mouth, hence the success.
In the end I got the same info I always get. We can pull the bad teeth or you can get a root canal and get them fixed... but given your choking tendencies you're not going to be able to handle getting them fixed. So I ask if they can put me under general sedation while doing the fix-it job and they say no. I ask if they can refer some one who will and they say no. So... pain killers it is.
I have another appointment in a couple of weeks with the oral surgeon attached to the office I visited on Saturday in the hopes that he can help determine which of my two potentially bad teeth are causing the current pain, and in the fantasy that he might have some luck keeping me from approaching the projectile vomiting point.
But wait, wasn't I just saying this was a great weekend?
After the dental fiasco Jen and I went to a farm stand and got some fresh veggies and corn on the cob. Then we went to a butcher and got some good steak and some good chicken breasts.
Then we went home and made the salad. I went out to the grill and cooked the chicken. I am not one of those guys who considers himself a grill master or anything like that. I was yelling questions through the window to my wife who is the real grill master in the family.
The chicken looked good. I took it off the flame and put it onto the grill's top rack so it could stay warm. Jen came out and put the steaks on and Larry and Nawal showed up. We were all standing around in the yard watching the grill when Tammy called me. I figured they were knocking on the door wondering where we were, so I walked to the front of the house. Alas she was just calling to say they were running a few minutes late. No problem, says I, and I went back to the back yard...
Where I see a column of black smoke rising from the grill.
Uh oh, thinks I.
Jen and Larry were standing in front of it working up the courage to open the top. When they did there was a full on five alarm blaze roaring inside. The gas was quickly shut off and the fire died down in no time. The steaks were a little blackened on the bottom, but they weren't too bad. The chicken, however, was burned to a crisp.
The grill was turned back on with the gas very low and the steaks were finished. We went in and ate, all wondering how bad the damage was going to be. The steaks were excellent. Jen was cutting her's with a butter knife, that's how excellent. The chicken was badly burned on the outside, but it was perfect on the inside. So a little scraping was necessary, so what. That's the price we must pay for a funny back yard grill story.
We then retired to the new living room and watched a couple of movies. First we watched Disney's Cinderella, for the two year old's enjoyment, and then Mike and Tammy had to leave to put the little one to bed. After they left it was all about The Godfather on blu-ray. We only got as far as Michael blowing away Solotzo and McClusky, but it looked great and we'll watch the rest soon.
That brought our excellent Saturday to a close. I failed to get a picture of the back yard conflagration, but I did manage to get a shot of this random cloud. Yeah, Robert is a dork. Deal with it.
On Sunday we had nothing planned so we slept as late as we could. In my younger years the phrase, "as late as I could" would have meant something like 3:00pm. These days it was more like 11:00am.
When we finally got up we decided to have another cookout. At first it was going to be just the two of us, but then we agreed to send out invites to my family. John and Mary and Sarah already had plans, and Lisa and Ken and Patrick were busy working on their new house. My parents were free but were a little concerned about the predicted thunderstorms and the flood watch that Jen and I had managed to not hear anything about. My parents decided to hold off on agreeing to come over while Jen and I got some more steaks. We were going to cook out even if a hurricane hit. A few hours later we checked the forecast and it said the rain would hold off until around 9:00pm. We called my folks and set dinner for 5:00.
The act of grilling was a little less eventful this time, although we did have more flames. It wasn't the hell fire Saturday had been, and there was no black smoke, but there were some good sized flames. The greater concern was the 30 minutes or so of almost constant, non-stop thunder. Fortunately, the first rain drop hit me as we were taking the steaks off the grill. By the time we got to the back door it was raining a little, and by the time the steaks were on the table it was a full on torrential downpour. My parents came in at about the same time, and we sat down to eat successful cook out number two.
After dinner we sat at the table gabbing for a while and then my parents left. Jen and I spent the rest of the evening sitting on the new couch spending time together just enjoying each other's company.
I've said it before but I must say it again. My wife is extraordinary. She's amazing. She's wonderful. She's everything I have ever wanted in another person. I love her. I am the luckiest man alive.
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