On Grills and the Fine Arts...

A chilly April morning. Overcast skies. Snowing just north of us. Yesterday it was 70ºF. Go figure.

This is a good time to sit inside with a cup of coffee and catch up a bit.

We took advantage of a beautiful sunny day yesterday to get outside and accomplish a few overdue tasks.

Most significantly (for me), I bought a new grill. I believe this is the third one I've owned since buying our house 16 years ago. I use and abuse my grills until they literally fall apart. 

That's true for most things in my life.

The first grill I bought, years ago, was a colossus: a four burner with BTUs the equivalent of a small sun. It also had one of those sidecar thingamajigs for boiling a pot of water or frying a pan of bacon.  It was a nice feature and a great selling point which I used exactly once. 

Yes, I paid way too much for it. I was caught up in the excitement of being a new home owner... I could grill when and where I wanted on the premises of my very own castle. The times demanded a manly man's grill. 

The good ol' days.

My second grill came with three burners, minus the sidekick feature. That particular grill starting falling apart two summers ago and I gave it grill CPR and put it on life-support which kept it going until this spring. It was a great grill and it raised my cholesterol level by at least 100 points. But yesterday I pulled the plug.

My new grill, about 1/4 the price of the original I bought in 2001, is a streamlined little beauty. A humble, but practical appliance which will suffice just fine and gives me more space on my somewhat cramped deck. (Funny, because when we built the deck in 2002, I thought it was huge).

So I am finding as I'm getting older, my grills are getting smaller. I hear it happens to everyone eventually.

In other news....

This young human makes me feel like I may have actually done something right in my life: 

Earlier this month, Ava's self-portrait watercolor was selected to go display at the Franklin Arts Center here in our little city. We weren't able to attend the grand opening since The Speaker of the House and myself were both working. We tried to go over Easter break, but the gallery was closed. 

Luckily, we were able to sneak in on a Wednesday afternoon, half an hour before closing time, to finally see her painting. 

In typical Ava style, she was a little embarrassed, but also proud to see her work on display with other drawings/paintings/sculptures by 11-15 year-olds. I must say, some of these kids are dazzlingly talented. 

At home, Ava's been working on wolf and cat drawings. She's come a long way over the last six months. She practices drawing (and writing) at least two hours a day. These particular drawings are sketched lightly in pencil so they were difficult to reproduce here, but I think they are pretty darn cute. (I asked her if I could share with everyone and she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess so. But let me pick them out.")

The top of the drawing says "Me in math class." She says she doesn't understand math even though she's getting an A. Whatever. 

These are characters from the Warrior book series she is reading. She imagines what the characters look like, then draws them. When I was 11 years old, I was drawing pictures of KISS.