BBQs and Bad Boys

The big moment finally arrived last night when Erik and I started to assemble the big monster of a BBQ I bought last weekend. At last I realized why the main part of the barbeque was so heavy, half of the boxes was stored inside the sucker! If I had known that I would have made the clerks at Canadian Tire undo it and store the boxes in the trunk. It would have been so much easier for me to get the big fellow out of my back seat.

While Erik was opening up the boxes I was reading the instructions and my heart sank when I saw how many pages actually WERE the instructions! There were 20 steps for the 20 different areas to be installed.

Now while I was studying the pamphlet and Erik was muttering about the parts we had the door to the sunroom open and Thumper, who had managed to get inside to have his afternoon siesta in the comfort of shade was now lurking on the back steps and I caught his green eye for one pregnant moment.

“Thumper, no, it’s bedtime and you cannot go out to play. Go to your room.”

He didn’t even pretend to understand me. I could see that he had that mulish look on his face. He was determined to find a way to manoeuvre past Uncle Erik and get out to frolic in the night. I sat down by the steps, sprawled comfortably while Erik gave me my little tasks to perform. Assemble the front doors by putting handles on. I now realize that my fingers are seriously not nimble any longer as I fumbled for the tiny little washers, nuts and locks. Try dealing with that and still give the evil eye to the little critter who is openly stretching his neck to assess the outdoor situation. I may not have mentioned before that while Thumper has accepted Erik somewhat he can still be pretty anal about passing him, especially when he knows he is being an escape artist. He was leery about leaping past me and then past Erik who was being quite loud as he assembled the BBQ due to the fact that he was being attacked by the pterodactyl mosquitoes that are breeding yet again.

Then the moment happened. Cherie distracted me by now making his appearance and trying to make his escape. What’s the word I am looking for? Oh yes, he was the decoy. As I ushered Cherie back inside Thumper made the leap, one, two, three and he was beyond Erik and running for his treehouse.

“You are so grounded when you come in tomorrow morning, you devil, you.” I admonished even as I chuckled. Erik, good uncle that he is said “Leave the guy alone and let him play.”

So here Thumper is this morning, whining that he wants to go back outside and I am being stern and strict. At this moment Thumper is pulling his wheezing trick, trying to make me feel sorry for him.

I tell you, cats these days are so spoiled. You’d think they were dogs.

Oh and by the way, who on this planet decided that the way to sell product was to have everything apart so customers could play at being an engineer? They should be shot.

The juveniles plotting strategy.