You can't see it because I didn't take a picture ... in which I overuse the imaginary word "thingie"

I didn't take a picture because it looked too good to wait.

But I told you this summer was my "summer to learn to grill" right? So I've been buying things and bravely grilling them. I bought one of those charcoal chimney things, to begin with. That's a big help. I wasn't so good with the pyramid thing. I'm really pretty unclear on the whole how to regulate the temperature thing, but thankfully the only grilling mishap all summer has been that I flipped one burger exactly sideways, between the bars on the grill, and into the charcoal.

So anyway, back to dinner.

Tonight I grilled steaks! I flung together a marinade first ... and I did goof and forget to open the venty thingies when I first put them on. I do think in the 2 minutes it took me to realize the vents were closed that I "killed" some of the charcoal. But it was hot enough for long enough, anyway, to cook the steaks very tastily. They were juicy and tender and the family was quite pleased. I also grilled some veggies to go with, and the grill cooling off was a little more apparent in the veggie phase, but I found a "hot spot" to finish them off and they turned out good, too.

So ... no pictures, no recipes, but a happy experience. Too bad you missed it!

I do still have 2 slabs of ribs I bought recently, the last ones I cooked in the oven but I am toying with the idea of doing these on the grill ... I'm not sure.

In other news, I also built ... well, assembled ... some shelvie thingies. Those 9-cube things that you can get the bright colored canvas drawers for? Yeah. Those. I bought one 9-cube set the other day, and then decided I needed two. I put them across from the piano, in that funky little alcove/hallway/whatever area by the kitchen. Last year Buzz kept pulling down all the books and I got tired of it and I packed them all in big totes. But no one reads books in totes, and Buzz is getting bigger. So I tried to arrange the books in the cubie thingies and put some of the littler kid toys in the canvas drawer bins. It looks pretty nice, although I need to finish off the area before I can take a picture.

and then I need to get to work on the toy cupboard. the bins on bins in a cupboard is a great idea, but I have made the mistake of assuming, time and time again, that when someone cleans up they are putting things where they go. No, instead, they have just been shoving things in. So the good news is that things do get picked up and out of sight. The bad news is that the cupboard is pretty much an avalanche of totes and toys.

Maybe THIS time, when it gets done, it will stay nice?

I have one more neat thing to blog about, but you'll have to wait ...