Tag: fireplace

Good old Murphy messed with my Friday workday. Too many meetings, deadlines, herding of cats, things of that nature. Nothing catastrophic occurred, but much absurdity reigned. I fairly ran to the van when my time came to leave work and head home to enjoy a long three-day weekend (my last paid holiday until Memorial Day in May).  As I drove west, I wondered if the sunset would blossom into something interesting, but true to form, as I arrived home, I entered the house and completely forgot about sunsets or clouds or moons or stars.

Terry had called me earlier in the afternoon and expressed his desire to have a fire in the fireplace.  The wicked north wind had been blowing incessantly for a couple of days, leaving our great room feeling chill.  I rearranged some furniture safely away from the fireplace and then started carrying in armloads of wood.  Since we hadn’t had any fires for over a year, the wood in the wood pile was very light and dry.  I did not anticipate having any trouble starting the fire.

While the split logs began to crackle, Terry and I defrosted the remaining filling from the chicken pot pies we’d made earlier in the week.  Rather than making a crust from scratch (like I normally would), we opted to use a tube of refrigerated ready-to-bake croissants instead.  Even though it took less time, we both preferred my pastry, mostly because the croissants were too sweet.

The MGM channel aired the movie Valkyrie last night, which we recorded while making dinner.  We started watching the movie while we ate our improvised chicken pot pies.  Even though we saw this in the theatre back in 2008, I always enjoy rewatching a movie at home, where I can pause and scrutinize a scene or a frame meticulously.  As an example, I loved the detailed recreation of the interior of Hitler’s Berghof home in the Bavarian Alps, none of which survived the end of World War II.  And except for Tom Cruise (who has never been a favorite actor of mine), the international cast of characters delivered outstanding performances.  We reluctantly stopped watching at the one hour thirty-five minute mark so I could get my cardio workout done before I got too sleepy.  I did much better at Rhythm Boxing, but I still can’t beat Terry’s score on Advanced Step.

I fed the fire for a couple of hours, but eventually Terry warmed up enough that I could let it die down to coals.  A pleasant evening and a great way to start the weekend.