Fathers Day...

Well it is not quite 8pm and no call from my son, which means his mother has made sure he can't use the phone. Like my birthday though my son suspected this might happen and wished me a Happy Fathers Day before he left. He is a great kid and I miss him but only another month and he will be back home.

Since we FINALLY spent my birthday money from my parents yesterday I used the stuff I bought to make us some lunch today. I was looking at some stuff for the computer but after DirecTV gave me the TiVO I decided to get something else but it needed to be something I would use more then a few times (I have a habit of buying games for the PS2 with gift money).

I was looking at a smoker but the one that I really liked was all sold out. I did find something that would work on my gas grill, a little smoker box that you can fill with the chips from your favorite wood. Place it on the lower rack in the grill and voila!

I also looked for a new grill (the actual grill you cook on) for mine as they had a ton of cast iron ones on sale. Of course my luck was in full effect and they were sold out of the size I needed for my grill and would not be re-stocking it this season. I decided though to not let that get me down and I bought a neat little 10" cast iron skillet for using on the gas grill. Since I have a glasstop electric stove I can't use one on it and have been dying for one. While looking at the grills it just hit me, I could use one on the outside grill so we took off on a quest to find one (ok, we went to another store since Home Depot does not have them).

I did grab a few other accessories like some wood chips, both hickory and mesquite, some new rocks for the grill (you should replace them every year!) and then we hit the grocery store to grab some stuff for lunch today.

I made a simple lunch, some steak which I marinated in my favorite Stout (that's a beer) which I prepped with a little cracked pepper, salt, Spike and some Canola oil. I let the steaks marinate for a few hours and then just let them go to Med Rare on the grill. For the veggies I made some yellow squash, zucchini and viadalia onions and coated them lightly with some oil, salt, cracked pepper and lime juice and then grilled them in the cast iron beside the steaks. Of course I had the smoker box going with some hickory in it and man it smelled (and tasted) kick ass.

I also broke out the sander I got for Christmas and finally sanded the 2 shelves for the bathroom. I figure after almost 6 months of just "hanging" there without any sanding or staining it was time to finish the project. Sanding them though really kicked my butt, which I did not expect. It only took me about 30 minutes or so for the 2 of them to be finished but that is more because I am anal when it comes to the finish on them as well as the edges which I wanted to round off a little. I used a fine grit paper to finish them and they came out nice and smooth and then I stained them using an English walnut stain.

Hopefully in the future when the funds are there I would really like to get some beadboard and finish the bathroom walls off and then change the vanity and light fixtures. I would like a stand alone sink, no counters or drawers and then just a simple light fixture like this. Not necessarily in that finish but I do like the brushed nickle look and with the beadboard I think it would look really good.

While we love the space our house offers but it looks like it was decorated by the Brady's (we actually have shag carpet throughout the entire upstairs that is like a burnt orange color, it matches the kitchen counter tops Bleeech....) and one of the things we planned on doing when we bought it was to change that. Of course my injuries prevented starting the work and then the money meant for redecorating went to medical bills. Someday though we will have the money to finish it off.