I hope that everyone is doing well. I really appreciate the guest blogs and hope that anyone else interested in contributing a little something will do so.
This is one of my favorite times of the year. The seasons have changed and the first waves of really cool weather are starting to come through, football is in full force, the cats want to spend more time in your lap, and the holiday festivities are in full force.
Friday we lit the first fire of the season. Regretfully, I lit the first but didn't open the damper for the fireplace. This created a little fun in the house as the fire had been going for several minutes before I finally realized the mistake. Of course, by that time, the house was half full of smoke. At this point, we began the frantic search for a flashlight (so I could double check my ignorance) and to find a pair of gloves to protect my hand from the hot metal to open the damper.
The good news is that I managed to fix this little problem without burning myself. The bad news is that we had to open the back door, lower half the windows in the house, and turn on every ceiling fan just to get the smoke out of the house.
With that little disaster avoided, we managed to have a perfectly uneventful evening until ... If you half close the fire place screen it creates a funnel effect that allows the smoke to escape up along the mantel. I managed to forget this little fact and for a little while smoke was escaping up the mantel until we finally realized that our eyes where burning for a reason. Once again, we found ourselves opening doors, windows and turning on fans (at 11:00 o'clock at night).
Its not bad enough that I managed to smoke out the house twice in one evening but I managed to make one more really stupid mistake. The smoke left a nice trial of blackening along its escape route on the mantel. Since I was stuck letting the house air out, I decided to go ahead and clean the mantel of the smoke discoloration. The problem is that I didn't consider the heating effect on the stone portion of the mantel UNTIL I touched the stone with nothing more that a slightly damp cloth between the stone and my hand. Being my third strike of the evening, I managed to say a few words before being reminded of the opened doors and windows.
What a night!! To top it off, I got to listen to my beautiful bride tell me about how her eyes burned, etc. I guess I really deserved it though.
Reality TV break .... Nick and Starr are the official winners of the Amazing Race. Who chose them to win?
Speaking of Friday, Jessica turned 18. I can't believe that we have a daughter that is 18 and graduating from high school this year. For her birthday, Big E and I bought her a hope chest. Now, not being a female, I don't fully understand the hope chest concept, but it seemed really important to Big E that we find one. As Big E explained to me that purpose of the chest, I finally came to the realization of why it is called a hope chest. Imagine the first fathers who built these chests for their daughters, why would they have done this? Without doing any real research into the subject, my guess is because the father was going to fill the chest with items and hope that some good man comes and takes his little girl. Of course, that is just a joke. We are really proud of Jessica and all that she has become and look forward to seeing even more growth from her in the coming years.
With that said, the battery is running low and I need to complete the laundry before I leave for Mississippi tomorrow. Have a great week.
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