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April 25, 2005
"Don't mind the flames boy, that's seasoning."
I'm a charcoal guy. Always have been, always will be. In the 5+ years we've been together a charcoal grill has been fine for me.
Fabulous Babe on the other hand, always the practical one, has wanted a propane grill. She's the cooking afficiando and not having to wait for a fire to get to a proper state would be nice.
It's not that I'm one of those odd religious zealots about propane. I don't use the "propane tank will blow up and destroy our house" excuse. I just like the fire and smell. Other than that I'm game.
Our old grill barely survived the move from Seattle. When it finally began to fall apart I found one at Target a year ago marked down from $150 to $25 that was to be our last charcoal grill. It annoyed me however and proved to be awkward to work with. Around October it went curbside on Friday, bound for the land fill.
This past week I sat down with a soda and called Weber. Their 800 number staff are simply excellent. We talked about who would use the grill more, our style of cooking, etc. By the end of the call I had narrowed down our choices to a couple of grills.
I went upstairs with my notes and consulted with an almost asleep Fabulous Babe about what she preferred on the grill:
"Socks."
Teaches me not to consult my beloved honey boo when the lights are off when I walk in the room. I woke her up a bit, got some answers I could use, and went back downstairs to the laptop. (Where much of this is written after she totters off to bed.) Off to Amazon.
I use Amazon for a lot of price comparison. Where I used to favor Home Depot for tools now Amazon is looking better and better. Mostly because I hate sales tax and shipping charges. It's not like I am ever in a hurry to buy things so a wait isn't a problem.
An hour later I had narrowed it down. This years models, with as far as I could tell the same features as last years, were sky high price wise. As much as I love my wife I wasn't spending $2000 on a grill. Shipping on these things is nuts too: $150 up.
I settled on a grill that I thought was perfect for our family. It doesn't have the 57,600 btu that the others had but 47,000 btu should be fine for two adults used to measuring handfuls of charcoal. It doesn't have the smoker or built in rotisserie but I can't remember the last time I smoked any meat or need to spit roast a hog. We're 4 burners not 6 but we do have the side burner which will make brats nicely.
Best of all? Free shipping! Woo hoo!
I'm expecting to be assembling this thing Thursday or Friday. My only experience putting a propane grill together was with my friend the Astronomer. (Who's still available by the way. Better hurry.) That experience was marred by his horrid now ex-wife who stood worthlessly by complaining about our a.) speed of assembly, b.) a minor scratch on the hood of the grill, c.) our technical skills in regards to the assembly and d.) everything that struck her while she stood by during the course of the 3 hours I was there.
I'm still of the opinion he needs to be nominated for sainthood for taking that woman off the market for as long as he did.
Wish me luck.
Posted by Jim at April 25, 2005 11:24 PM