I meet up with my boss and his wife (the CEO and CFO) and we go grab some lunch, then head over to Vashon island where they live. Vashon is in the Pugent Sound about two miles from Seattle. I'll get a Mapquest thing going sooner or later. Anyway, you have to take a ferry over to the island, it's the only way to Vashon. It's kinda fun.
Anyway, they let me stay in their guest cottage which is down my the water's edge. It has this wood stove. The weather is in the 60's and more or less raining, so a fire is a good thing. For the first few days I had absolutely no luck with that stupid wood stove. I either didn't set the vent right, or had too much or not enough kindling, or not enough newspaper, or whatever. However, the pinnacle of my trouble came on the second night. I had just failed to get a good batch of coals going again so I reached in with this oven mit they have for just that purpose to move some stuff around to try again. Well, some coals ended up on the oven mit and it started to smolder a bit, just two little holes. I smoothered it and was pretty sure I had it out, so I set the mit down on the floor and closed the stove up. I then went up the stairs to the main house for dinner, etc. Oh, btw, the power was out during all of this too. So I'm up there for a few hours then I come back down to go to bed. I get down to the deck just in front of the house and notice that the house is VERY foggy. Uh oh. I go in and it's full of smoke. Great. So I go over to the stove and see that it is out and the door is shut tight. Puzzleing. I then notice a pile of ash and a big hole in the carpet next to the fireplace. Hmm...how did that get there if the door was shut? Where is the glove? Aww shit. That's right, the hole in the carpet was glove shaped. Apparently I didn't smoother it out as much as I though and the glove slowly burned away until nothing was left but a big hole in the carpet. Good job, Ryan.
So the result of this is a nice burnt glove oder in the guest house. So I basically leave all the windows and door open all the time. The pacific northwest is interesting in that it doesn't usually rain real hard and there aren't that many bugs around, so leaving all the windows and door open isn't that big of a deal. Nice breeze, though. Lot's of blankets on the bed.
One last quick story to leave you with. They have this hot tub out on the deck by the main house. We jumped in it on Tuesday night while it was misting a bit. So we all get in and Deanna, the CFO, says to me 'You know, we are only wearing our bathing suits for your benifit'. Buh! How do you respond to that? :)
Oh, I made Mad Cow Chilli for them last night. Mmmmmm.
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3 comments:
The only truely appropriate response to that is to take your bathing suit off.
B-)
Mad Cow Chili? Sounds...what's the right word?...interesting. Oh, and of all the people to have trouble with a fireplace and almost burn down the place, I'm quite surprised. Maybe you need to dig up your Boy Scout Handbook for a little refresher! :-)
Yea, I feel like I let the world down when I had trouble with that stupid thing. I felt like going out on the deck and building a fire just to make sure I still had it. :)
Mad Cow Chilli is super yummy. Actually, you've had it. It's the Chilli I made on our ill-fated camping trip a while back. I've refined it a bit but it's basically the same thing.
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