a detour

The instruction manual says 35-40 minutes to assemble. HA! What a joke there. Or maybe it is just the two of us attempting it---we skew the stats. I read and follow directions while DJ is a "git 'er done" kinda guy. Can you see that we have very different styles of approaching a project like this??

I was inventorying and identifying the parts when he started on the frame. So far so good, we thought--- until we stood it up. That thing was more crooked than a dog's hind legs. Turns out on the re-reading and review we found that he had parts reversed and the wheel side is different. And so it went---put it together and take it apart because we messed up. I was looking at the spanish version half the time just to help him ID the screws, washers and such while he read the book, LOL.

We started this assembly process on Sunday afternoon. Monday's snafu was that the knobs would not go on with the mark in the right direction. I told him repeatedly that I thought he just had the valve/hose thing upside down. No, he says, that can't be it. Fine, don't listen to me! I was not in the mood to argue about it any further. You couldn't really tell one way or the other from the manual photo either---he could have been right. Finally, 6 hrs later and after looking at two stores floor models, he must have figured "what do I have to lose?" and switched it, LOL. There was nothing wrong with the knobs. All together we have made 3 calls to customer service.

Fast forward to Tuesday. He needed some verification about a step with the venturi tube for the side burner first but that was resolved quickly. He finished up with attaching the lid just before lunch and we wheeled it outside. We all were thinking it was part of the landscape by then. Skyler was messing with the drip cup to see if there was anything in there for him.

So the grill is outside and he is trying to hook up the tank. Now he tells me that "it isn't working". I can see that there might be another call made to Customer Service. Just in the time I was typing this, he found the problem and it IS working. Praise be! It threads down differently than our last one and he must not have had it seated properly. It passed the leak test, even better.

Bear in mind that we only got a new grill since the old one needed both grates replaced, and a new ignitor and the cover replaced. By the time you start adding that stuff up in replacement parts you could have a new grill. Yeah if you have three days to put one together, LOL. Now I suppose we need to figure out how to disassemble the other one so we can dispose of it properly----but I won't bring THAT subject up for a while.


I have gotten the bday Button Up bound, which I cannot show you yet. I took the last stitches in my Welcome Button Up last evening. This one hangs when you don't have the monthly or seasonal ones done---I will do the February and March ones at the end. Two finishes for the counts----woohoo!

I made a crab pasta salad for supper already this morning so it is smooth sailing this afternoon to get busy on another quilted top. The spring piece or the "Mom" wall hanging is next up. I'm no dummy and am saving that quilt sized quilt for last since it is likely to take me about 3 days to finish it.

Oh, I dug around in my notebooks and found the pattern source. She had used one called "French Blue Medallion Quilt" from Connecting Threads in tropical colors. If I recall correctly her local quilt group or some local quilting friends did this as a mystery quilt?? Or they may have planned to do it as a mystery quilt at a retreat and needed someone to test the directions first. She'll tell me.

BUT she had also made re-sized version making it rectangular instead of square for her Merkitty challenge quilt shown HERE. Knowing this helps me to date the wall hanging and the challenge quilt to circa 2007. Long enough of a wait, in other words.

So I best get the fingers flying-------I hope you have had a good day.