and then man made fire...and it was good

UPDATE** i am now stent and stone free! life is good.

i know i haven't posted any pictures of our new house yet, of which i am reminded on a monthly basis by various family and friends, but picture now, if you will....a room with a fire place. yes, folks, i have arrived. i have always wanted a house with a fire place. it was a symbol of warmth (and i hate non-warmth) and coziness. the whole thing about "hearth and home" can't possibly work without an actual hearth, right? well, i have one now. it's a nice looking fire place, too, even if it is, as i have been informed lately, rather small (who knew they came in different sizes?). anyway, here we are, in this lovely house with our fire place and the cold elements outside. so the logical thing to do? start a fire and roast some marshmellows, right? ah, apparently that is easier said than done...which, come to think of it, applies to almost anything. seriously, what is easier done than said? moving on....

so we got some fire wood to test it out (it apparently had never been used even though the house is over thirty years old) and since we had never built a fire before. at least, not on purpose. fai got some andirons and some of those starter chip things and some of those long lighters, and we were off to a good start. and then we had to add lots of paper, which quickly burnt out, leaving the logs virtually unharmed. then we put in more starters. and then more. and more paper. and more logs. at one point, we thought the logs had finally caught. we were wrong. a few times. finally, last night when the girls went to bed, we had a real fire, one that came clung to the logs and everything! and it only took about 48 hours!! maybe that's why this fire place had never been used? nah...i'm pretty sure it's just us.

this morning, noe has helped me realize what else having a fire place means: mess. daddy, man that he is (oh, sure, he can make fire....but can he clean up after his fire? no!) left a box with the logs in it and the poker out where the girls promptly discovered them as new toys. noe comes into the kitchen where i am cleaning up after breakfast to tell me that there's a mess in the family room. what's new there, right? well, this one was new. they had gotten ash and soot all over the carpet. it's funny, really. last night, as i sat smugly in front of my fire place staring into the miracle of our flames, i was reciting part of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" in my head. the part that says: "Ah, distinctly i remember, it was in the bleak december, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." at the time, i was thinking how beautiful that was and reveled in the reality of it in my own house. this morning, however, it has take a new meaning as those ghosts have been wrought upon my carpet. no longer beautiful. oh, well. the memory is nice, though.