Thrills, Spills, & Grills

     I can not believe another school year has come and gone. When I look at today's date (June 4) I am amazed to think that we have been residing here in Cleveland for 2 months and a week or so. On one hand, it seems we've been here for much longer than that. It seems we've experienced quite a bit and when you stay at home with a baby all day long, naturally the days seem like weeks. On the other hand, it feels like time has flown by, already we've established ourselves and our lives here in the Ohio and with Alex now finishing school for the year, my school only a few short months away, and Mesia's career taking off like a leer jet (up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun), well it's amazing we've done so much in a short period of time. So, about our week.

     With Monday being Memorial Day, we took the family to our city's (Bay Village) Memorial Day Parade.
 It was small and fun with the parade mainly being comprised of boy scout troops, city council, and the high school glee club. There were a few cars that had a poster on the side of them informing us of who was in the car like "The Mayor" and "Veterans" and that was about it.
 No floats, just floating applauses from the kids on the street. No bells and whistles, just the lights on the city fire truck. No national commentators describing the scene, just Dad sneezing because of hay fever. Nevertheless, it was a fun little experience for the family. It was pleasant to be out by the week seeing the flags of our country, vets walking proudly down Lake Rd, and kids running out to get the candy thrown, it makes you wonder how some can not love America.
The afternoon was spent indoors because Mesia was filling out an application for a leadership program at work. It was an extensive and intensive application and it pretty much took the whole weekend. With Mom and Dad locked up at the computer, Alex decided to grab a friend and go play at the city pool--it was opening day. Evidently, that's all the kids do here in Bay over the summer, is sports and the pool, so they are quite used to it. Alex has learned the hard way that as she wanted to go everyday after school, the kids don't carry the same undying passion for swimming pools as she does. So she's been met with some disappointment to learn that not every human adolescent girl is half breed fish with web toes and gills. As for Mesia, we will keep you posted on her application.

     Tuesday was the beginning of a spill for Sam and I. That morning, she woke up with some sort of cold. From Tuesday thru Thursday, Sam had congestion, runny nose, cough and a fever. Yes--yes, the past few days have been very enjoyable. Naturally, as the parent home with her, I was jealous of all the symptoms she was having, plus I didn't want her to feel alone in experiencing them. So I ended up contracting the same thing. My cold stayed up in my head the whole time. I came down with it Wednesday afternoon and am just hitting the tail end of it now.  Lots of pressure in my sinuses and a sore throat made being super Dad, nearly impossible (notice I qualified the statement with "nearly"--of course I still pulled it off). Thursday was pretty rough though. I was actually pretty relieved that Mesia had her schedule rearranged to take Thursday off and work today. So I was able to relax a little while she took care of Sam. The reason why Mesia had her weekend rearranged was because her boss Todd told her to be in on Friday because the Secretary of the VA will be in to say Hi to the Tiger Team. Yes, that's right, today, Mesia got to shake hands with a bona fide bureaucrat!
       Secretary Shinseki, the man in charge of the whole VA, came and shook hands personally with Mesia. He and his posse walked around the Tiger Team office and got a feel for the job they do. It's always fun to meet a higher-up in Washington.....
  
      So yesterday being her day off, we took Sam to the library and let her show Mesia around the place. Sam showed her all of her favorite toys and things to play with and tried to get Mesia to break out of her shell and play with her. Here you see Sam beckoning to Mesia to crawl through the caterpillar tunnel--Oh Sam...

     While Mesia was learning how to match colors and textured objects, Alex was on a field trip at the Cleveland Zoo. I guess it was one last fun field trip before school let out for the year. Unfortunately, we have no pictures, but Alex said she had a great time. And now, she is at a sleep over with a friend. It seems that she has reached the age where it's not fun to hang out with the fam anymore. For some reason, friends the same age are much more exciting. So Mesia and I resort to cold pizza and board games, mixed with some tears and conversation about memories of the Alex we once knew....Alex we miss you!

     So I know what you are all thinking right about now--and it's okay, I think the same thing. With Mesia steadily moving toward a career in Washington D.C., shaking hands and rubbing shoulders with president appointed administrators, and Alex enjoying the social and entertaining sites of Cleveland, hanging out with more interesting people than I, and Sam taking her milestone first strolls around the living room without assistance (which I'll post a video of over the weekend), you are left to wonder what I, the Sultan of the Blog have to offer? Well, let me tell you...

     So, against my advice, Mesia wanted to leave our barbecue back in Salt Lake because this home had one already. So turns out, the dinky grill here was successfully able to spontaneously combust while I had food cooking one evening. So we've been without a barbecue for a few weeks now and for all those that know us, you know that we would rather go without a car than a barbecue. So, we hit the Memorial Day sale at Lowes and bought a barbecue. Now, the story becomes interesting when you take into account that we only have a small car and no one we know has a truck to deliver the grill. Lowe's does deliver, but it costs a pretty penny, which as a young vivacious couple, we simply don't have. So, there was only one option (drumroll) we would buy it in the box and I would have to assemble it at home.
Has anyone reading this ever assembled a barbecue from a box? I can assure you, it's no erector set. The only thing that comes put together is the brand's name plate to the face of the lid. I had my work cut out for me.

Here's where I saw just how many pieces were involved....

Trying to read the instructions....

Assembling......

And Voila! finished product....

Best part is, I had 11 extra pieces! I guess they throw those in just in case they fall off or something.
Look at this V8, 4.0 Liter, dual exhaust, hemi powered grill! Taking our stakes from 0-well done in 4.8 seconds. You should see the torque on this thing.
By the way, the guy in the picture is our neighbor trying this puppy out. I agreed to let him since it only takes a few seconds to cook a slab!
Yes, it does take a key to fire it up.

So that's my equivalence to everyone else's thrills for the week. Naturally, my accomplishments are always the coolest. I mean look at the results and how happy Mesia is with her perfectly cooked steak!

We hope you all have a great weekend.

Love,
The Swans