an amazing surprise!

You know how, in movies, when people are surprised by things, they actually audibly gasp out loud? And how this very rarely happens in real life? Usually, whether we admit it or not, we kind of halfway know things are on their way. Engagement rings, surprise parties, birthday presents - these are things we often expect.

It's when things happen out of the blue, on a random Friday morning - these are the things that elicit true, omigosh-i-can't-believe-it gasps.

Backing up a bit - you may have gathered, from this blog at least, that I do quite a bit of grilling. I am the only person in the neighborhood that stands out on my deck in the snow, yes, the icy, slushy really cold Central Pennsylvania SNOW, grilling steaks in the middle of January. You just can't beat the flavor of something grilled over direct heat - it conjures up summer from me and some days, sunk deeply into the Seasonal Affective Disorder that invades Happy Valley like a plague in those long, daylight-deprived winter months, I really need a little bit of summer. Consequently, I grill A LOT.

Scott and I have had our grill nearly as long as we've had each other. A gift from my amazing mother-in-law, the grill has served us beautifully for many years, but in recent months it's been, shall we say, on it's last legs. That top rack, so perfect for toasting hamburger buns and slowly grilling vegetables? Yeah, it's disintegrating into charred powder all over the deck. And the ignition button hasn't worked for about 2 years, meaning one of us must crawl on our hands and knees under the grill with a lighter, stick our entire arm up a little hole, and ignite it that way. I've nearly lost my eyebrows several times. And lastly, the grill in it's old age has turned fickle - most days it works fine. Others, it chooses to only emit the faintest glow of heat. Still others, it'll char a burger beyond recognition in three seconds flat.

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Alright, back to the surprise. Scott and I have been lusting over the Weber Genesis grill for several months now. Sure, it's pricey as all get-out, but it's a Weber, and those things last for hundreds of years (hey, wasn't Wall-E grilling on a Weber? I kid, I kid). I happened to mention this grill to my mom on the phone last week, in passing. Or so I thought.

I arrived home from work today, tired and bedraggled, and went to let the dog out the back door - and that's when I gasped. I'm talking a full-on, sharp intake of breath sort of gasp - because there sat the Weber Genesis, in all it's stainless-steel and black-enameled glory, right on MY DECK! How did this beautiful shiny piece of culinary machinery end up on MY TINY DECK?


My parents, who might be the most awesome parents in the history of parenting, decided to do something amazing for me "just because". My mom said I had sounded down in the dumps lately, and she wanted to lift my spirits. So she called the State College Lowe's, had them build and deliver the grill, and got my husband in on the act as well - all that so I could have an amazing surprise when I got home from work on a random Friday morning in July.

Pretty incredible, huh? A lesson to be learned today: do something for the people you love, "just because", this weekend. It will bring tears to their eyes.

Thanks, so so so much, Mom and Dad.



(off to grab some steaks and corn and veggies and anything else I can possibly think to grill tonight!)