This past weekend couldn’t have been better — well, except for my Home Depot experience — but I’ll even set that aside and claim the weekend was awesome.
First off, we’ve been blessed with the most awesome weather over the month of July. It must be in direct exchange for the never-ending winter we experienced. It’s just been beautiful.
I made good, continued progress on the deck and its railing. I’ve got as much of the railing up as I can at this time and have started on the arbor. I hope to finish off the arbor this next weekend and begin putting up the spindles in the railing sections — they are called spindles, right? Once I complete that, then it’s back to digging holes and pouring concrete to set the last 4 rail posts and then I can wrap up the railing. I’m estimating about 3 more weekends to wrap it up, if all goes well.
We capped the weekend off with another BBQ. Of course, I grilled both days over the weekend, Saturday was some tastey hamburgers (nothing beats a home-made grilled hamburger!) and Sunday I attempted my first cross-rib roast on the grill. I used an indirect heat method to grill it, placing a bread pan-shaped pan amongst the coals to act as a drip pan as well as keep the coals pushed outwards to the sides of the kettle. It went far quicker than I expected and before I knew it it got away from me and lept up to 167 degrees. To add insult to injury, seeing how quickly it was going we invited some good friends over for dinner to enjoy the roast. Well… after cutting away most all of the char from what used to be my roast, I busted out the hot dogs! Yes… ALWAYS have hot dogs waiting in the wings for such a disaster — it’ll save your butt every time.
So I know what I’ll do next time, beside pay closer attention. Once my coals are ready I’ll drop the roast on the grill, monitor it until it get to about 100 to 110 degrees — that should be plenty to nicely brown the outside of the roast, then quickly wrap it in tin-foil to finish it off and pull it at 140 degrees. Let it sit for about 20 minutes covered, then slice. I think I may try it again this weekend!
OK… so my Home Depot and grilling experiences could have poo-poo’d the weekend, but they didn’t. We recovered nicely from both and enjoyed a really nice dinner and conversation with our good friends. It made the entire weekend a success regardless of the other negatives ..AND.. our deck is one step closer to being complete.
So another week begins now and another busy one at work. Having biked to work 3 days last week, my goal is yet again to bike 3 days this week, likely Wed, Thur, and Fri. I’ve also started my One Hundred Pushup Challenge. So today was day one of week one and it seems to have gone well. I’ll let you know how I feel tomorrow — I KNOW I’m going to be sore!
I’m eager to burn through my week and get things done so I can get back to the deck and more grilling next weekend. So far, this has been one of my most enjoyable summers since I was a kid — I can’t wait to get outside these days. I haven’t felt like this since I was a kid playing baseball.
Enjoy your week… I’m going to enjoy mine!
Your weekend sounds great to me. I moved to Arizona last September and because it is so dry here, our condos do not allow any grilling. And I think I’ve even forgotten what leafy trees, like those I imagine surround your home, look like. I can’t complain too much though. The winters in the Sonoran Desert are great.
Still you make me miss home. My job http://www.dalecarnegie.com is great though and worth the move. Glad I ran into your site today.
Your weekend sounds great to me. I moved to Arizona last September and because it is so dry here, our condos do not allow any grilling. And I think I've even forgotten what leafy trees, like those I imagine surround your home, look like. I can't complain too much though. The winters in the Sonoran Desert are great.
Still you make me miss home. My job http://www.dalecarnegie.com is great though and worth the move. Glad I ran into your site today.