Day 351

It's taken several weeks, but I finally managed to get some lights up on the house this afternoon. It took a lot longer than expected. I didn't get to the store soon enough to really add to our collection this year except for a few strands. I'm hoping to continue the white lights along the roof line, but I've discovered that the bushes are in the way of the ladder, and I'm honestly not sure when I'll get another chance to work on it. Maybe next year.

Day 324

As I was leaving the movies after 2am, I paused for a moment to get a picture of the lovely Christmas decorations. The mall is kind of an eerie place to be in the middle of the night, but the lights were pretty.

Day 275

This evening turned out to be fairly interesting for our family. We had just put Paul to bed and I was working on Matt when the smoke detectors started going off. We went into the hall, and while we could smell a hot, electrical smell, we couldn't find any reason for the smoke detectors to be going. I thought for sure it was the dryer, but the smell was not coming from the laundry room.

I suggested that there was no reason not to call the fire department because we could not determine the source of the smell, and I was afraid of fire behind the walls that we could not see.

They came out and were very nice and professional. It was suggested that maybe the furnace, which was just turned on a couple of days ago, had kicked up some dust into the detectors. They went around the house with an infrared camera and didn't find anything to be concerned about.

We were instructed to call again if the alarms went off. It was when we sat down to watch some tv that we noticed the light in the stairwell was out. When we inspected the bulb we discovered that the light almost literally burned out. The lighting element on one side got extremely hot.

It has helped us to breathe a little easier since we were able to determine the cause of the smell and the alarms. I wish we could have realized it when the firemen were at the house, so at the very least they could see we had a legitimate cause for concern.

Day 222

We were out to dinner tonight at one of my very favorite places, and Matt kept looking up at the ceiling while we were eating. Finally, I had to look up and see what was so fascinating. All I could really come up with were the lamps that were over the table, and I have to admit that I thought they were pretty cool too.

I really liked the colors and shapes of the glass shades. Matt has a pretty good eye.