You’ve spent days getting everything ready for the first big barbecue get-together of the season. You’ve got the prime cut strip and porterhouse steaks, jumbo shrimp (10 to a pound!), marinated chicken breasts, buckets of cold salads and dozens of ears of corn. Everything else falls into place like magic - the house is clean, the lawn is mowed, the drinks and dessert are chilling, the weather is gorgeous and even the kids are cooperating (for a change). Then you go outside and get ready to fire up the grill. Oops!

Somebody forgot to do something. The grill! Were you expecting the barbecue elves to take care of things over the winter? You must have been very naughty, because they blew right past your grill and headed down to the neighbor’s house.

Yes, your barbecue grill may look hale and hearty - all that cast iron and steel and all - but it really needs to be pampered a little bit. Did you clean out the inside? Did you check to see if the burner ports are clogged? Did you look to see if there were spider webs (and spiders EEEK!!) inside the venturi tubes? Do you have a valve leak? Do you even have propane?

These are not the things to leave up to chance (or an elf). Before you even make your first foray into the butcher shop for your meat, make sure the star of the show is prepped and ready for the first performance. It’s going to be a long run, after all.