Winter Holidays 2024

We cleaned up the area around the microwave oven and burned scented candles all day to remove some of the smoke smell in the house. For Winter Solsice at our house, I kept a scented candle in the kitchen, den, and living room. None of the people I invited from work came to Winter Solstice. We had less guests than last year, with only Michael and Marcia, Karen and Bob showing up but the six of us enjoyed great conversation with like-minded people until about 11:00 PM when I had to let everyone know I worked at 7:00 AM in the morning. At the end of the night, we got the gas log fireplace in the living room burning for a few minutes, which was the Yule log for this year. It took three men to figure out how to get it going and I made sure all of it was off before everyone left just so I could be sure we left nothing on. Christmas Eve, I worked until 6:30 PM. Got home before 7:00 PM and we snacked on leftovers from Winter Solstice. Christmas Day was spent with Bob and Karen and Meg in Greensboro. They made a fabulous meal of a huge rib roast, potatoes, brussels sprouts, and carrots. There was, of course, apple pie and ice cream for desert. We were there from around 3:30 til 8:00 PM. We came home and I put up more leftovers and watched TV for a little while after MonsterMustDie went to bed.

Christmas Dinner 

Burnt

I got home just before midnight last night and the entire house smelled like walking into a bag of blackened burned popcorn. Looked in the oven for signs of distress and it was clean. Looked in the trash for the remains of what burned and found nothing.

Then I started worrying that something might actually be just starting to burn in the house and decided to wake MonsterMustDie up. My first question was "Did you burn something in the kitchen?" His reply was "No." When I told him the house smelled like something burning and asked if he smelled it, he said everything was fine. I looked in the attic. I looked in the basement. Nothing. Then he got up wild-eyed and came into the kitchen and finally confessed, matter-of-factly like he hadn't just denied it twice, that he burned something in the microwave. He still has not told me what it was or how he disposed of it. I think I can assume he threw the smouldering remains into the back yard to get it out of the house fast and that's why I didn't find it in the trash. The microwave was coated with a brown film. I unplugged it as a reminder not to use it until I get to check it for damage and try to thoroughly clean it. He then refused to go back to bed and started attempting to clean it with paper towels and scented countertop cleaner, which I unsuccessfully tried to make him stop using. Today the house still smells awful. We're both trying to wipe down every surface and burning scented candles now to mask the odor.

How to you burn something to bits in a microwave when you have to set a timer for everything?

the feeding tube is clogged

I just tried to take some trash to the backroom compactor door and OMFG the back room is completely packed to the doors with merchandise.  It's like everything we should have had all season came in today. If a fire breaks out in front of the store, we're all dying because no one can climb through to the back doors. 

a cold December night.

We had an unexpected light dusting of snow last night.  

It's stunning cold tonight. I came home from work 11:30ish to find MonsterMustDie had cranked the heat up to 75 degrees again before he went to bed. I nudged the thermostat down to a still-cozy 70 before getting ready for bed.