Roasting Cheese

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight, and had a fire in the fireplace. We did not have any marshmallows to roast, so Andrew roasted cheese. He got a slice of cheese (medium cheddar), put it in a skillet, and I held it over the fire until it was melted. He ate most of it, and shared a little with Mari, who was a little out of her head.

In other cool news, Susan went to a cookie exchange today, and brought home a bunch of cool cookies.

Also, I am enjoying cooking on a gas stove.

Also, we found a weird hole in our basement floor, about 18" x 24", that appears to be full of ash. Weird. I will have to ask someone who knows something about old homes. It does look like there used to be a gas line that ran to it. It had always had this huge wooden shelf over it, which is why we did not know it was there.

New Dishwasher

I am not sure why this is blog-worthy, but we bought a new dishwasher today. Ours stinks and while we were out looking for new bathroom fixtures we remembered how cheap dishwashers are, so we bought one. It is in Mimi & Papa's (Susan's parents) garage right now, waiting for me to come pick it up so I can install it this weekend. That should be an adventure.

• We also plan on putting up our Christmas tree this weekend, and taking care of a number of other things around the house.


• Tomorrow we are beginning our bathroom renovation and also reworking the archways on the main level of our house.


• It is cold, and snowy.


• I want to set up the stereo, but I am short a speaker. The good news is that I have my work PC hooked up to my Aunt Harriet's old stereo from the 60's, so I can get some good sounds there.


• Elliot is talking a lot lately.


• Andrew is getting up too early, but is still always a joy.


• Mari has been hitting a lot. We know it is just a phase, but we hope that it passes quickly.


• We still have a lot of boxes to go through. Most important is the box with our winter gear in it, and the stereo speaker.


• I set up a room in the basement as my office. It used to be a tuck-under garage, that was sealed off. It is cold, but I like it.


• Susan thinks that the skull hanging in the corner "does numbers for my office." I agree.


• I also found an old, fake, electric fireplace for my office. It has nice lights, but puts off no heat. Andrew thinks it is really cool. I think it is cool.


• We are trying to get our hands on some firewood.


• The hot and cold are reversed on our washer. I suppose I should fix that.

Our Stuff

Ace Hardware

There is an Ace Hardware that is between our house and Erin & Nate's, where we stayed for 4 weeks. I have stopped there several times to get much needed supplies for our house and always had a great experience. I feel like it is a cross between the neighborhood hardware store and Home Depot/Lowes. I will definitely be going there more often.

ABF U-Pack Moving

When we moved we rented a trailer from ABF, and it went great. Everyone one I spoke with in the company was always very nice, from the 4 or 5 representatives I spoke with while trying to get things set up to the people who work at the terminals in Cincinnati and Des Moines. They were always friendly and understanding. If you need to make a long move on a budget, they are definitely worth checking out.

When we find our camera, which I am sure is somewhere, I will post a picture of what the inside of the truck looked like when it arrived at our house in Des Moines.

Endorsements

I am going to start a new type of blog post - endorsements. I know what you are thinking, "That's not new. Celebrities have been endorsing products for decades." Well, it's new to me, all right? Here come the first two. . .