mornings are the devil

But on the positive side, I did get to see my big brother OB this morning. He stopped by at 6AM, before work, to drop off my bbq! It is here! Woo! It's a Char-Broil Patio Caddie. Jeff loves his and while OB has upgraded to a car-sized Weber, he used to have and love one of these. It's propane and should be easy to use, even when je dine seule. So, yay!!

However, it was 6AM. OB knows I hate the mornings, so he was fairly amused as I blinked at him confusedly and walked into things. But I got a hug, and he's like a giant teddy bear, so that was nice. And then I peered at Hobbes (who was sitting hopefully near the kitchen) and stumbled back to bed to sleep fitfully.

I did not assemble the grill as I had ridiculously thought I would (at 6AM!!!). And damn Jeff. He spent the better part of yesterday smirking at my culinary ambitions. He's says it's going to be like a Bridget Jones's misadventure. And true, today will be a little crazy. I've invited Sarah and Kathleen over for dinner to celebrate the new grill. I bought most of the groceries tonight, will fill the propane tank at lunch (as soon as I figure out where), and will buy the remaining few ingredients that I forgot (of course) after my swim tonight. They're not sposed to be here until about 7:30, so I have plenty of time.

It's not a complicated grill, so I don't think it's going to be insane to assemble. And this isn't a fancy party, it's just some friends over to eat grilled meat.

I did finish cleaning the kitchen and getting things ready. I have some nice cheeses and crackers and apples for my guests to munch on while I finish tackling dinner preparations. We're goiing to have:

green salad with cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette
flank steak with salsa verde (from my new grilling cookbook)
roasted red potatoes with rosemary (will take 5 minutes to prep while steak's marinating)
caramel pecan brownies with mud pie ice cream (dessert's ready to go)

And a lot of red wine. Whoop!

eeek and whew

So far so good, right? OB brought the bbq over, and things were on schedule. I got to work, churned through some stuff, went to a meeting, then dragged Jeff out to lunch so I could get the propane tank filled on the way back.

We ate at Sofrito Rico which has rice/beans to die for. Then we stopped by U-haul. The U-haul that I called earlier and confirmed had propane.

They just ran out. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

And Jeff is such a genuinely sweet good-hearted good-friend, there wasn't even a hint of mockery on his face, when he said, "Oh no!!" But of course, last minute plans can have last minute catastrophes, right? We got back in the car where I tried to figure out when else in this day I could squeeze out some time (I have meetings all afternoon) to run and get propane. But Jeff? MY HERO! He remembered that there was a Hertz rental place just up the street and he thought there was a chance I could get propane there--and he was right!

We stopped and filled the tank amidst my bouncing and tackling Jeff with hugs. Seriously, what a relief, it was going to be a nightmare to have to deal with it after work along with swimming and running to the grocery store before getting home to setup the grill.

So the whole lunch adventure took longer than expected, but at least there's a very happy ending.

Also--I got my bread machine! I can't wait to use it! But, um, perhaps tonight is not the night to attempt it.