Built a nice crackly fire, and then we were inadvertently up until 3 AM enjoying it. It took me a bit to get it to draw well; the smell of smoke was thick in the room. But once I got it going, that cleared out, and I no longer had to fuss with it.
I don't know why it is, exactly, but the gas log is pointing towards the back of the fireplace at about a 50° angle off vertical. That could be how it's supposed to be installed, and that could have been Dad's request. I don't know, but I do know that it makes lighting a fire harder, because the gas jets will only hit wood on the back of the grate. I suppose I could go in there with a pipe wrench and tweak it a bit, but I don't know how the thing is installed and I'm loath to touch it without consulting the manual first. The manual is around here somewhere--I found it while cleaning the place out last summer--but it is temporarily misplaced and likely won't come to light until next summer.
Still, I managed a nice fire, and expect to manage a couple more this year.
Meanwhile, having been in a job for two weeks now, I finally found the leatherette folder that I like to carry my resume and such in when I go to job interviews. I had a suspicion that I'd find it after I no longer needed it. Argh etecetera.
* * *
Dinner last night was Chinese. Mrs. Fungus wanted wonton soup and doesn't like what we get from the nearest place, so we ended up going to another one. I decided on szechuan chicken and she had mongolian beef, one of her usual selections.
So she asked me, during dinner: "How is yours?"
"Well," I replied, "I can say that it tastes good."
"Why do you put it like that?"
"Because it's not szechuan chicken. It tastes good, but it's not what I ordered."
"This is the worst mongolian beef I've ever had."
I tasted it; it was. She threw it away.
The soup was bland. The crab rangoons tasted pretty good. The shrimp fried rice was all right.
I don't understand what it is about the Fungal Vale that makes it so difficult to find good Chinese takeout here. For years you couldn't get a decent crab rangoon around here, and I learned how to make hot and sour soup specifically because I couldn't get one that met my specifications. I had good Chinese food on various visits to Cedar Rapids, but couldn't get any here.
I remember one time I went to a local chain of Chinese restaurants: I wanted crab rangoons and hot and sour soup, so I ordered same. What I got: bland and tasteless soup, and wonton wrappers which had little scoops of faux crab in them, deep-fried such that they were full of air and the tiny blots of crab meat. No cream cheese or onion or anything, just the sad little lumps of crab; zero flavor and completely unappetizing.
The Chinese place nearest to the bunker opened in 1997, a couple months after I moved to Iowa, and they had good crab rangoons etc. They still do (their General Tao's chicken has suffered--I think the guy who knew how to make it retired or something--but other dishes are still good).
But lousy wonton soup. Yeah. So I guess we'll keep trying. There's a Chinese place which delivers, but their food is mediocre at best and what they consider to be gyoza are more like big shumai. Oh well.
* * *
You know, come to think of it, I don't know what time to go in to work on Monday. Guess I'll fire off an e-mail and see if anyone knows what I should do.
...and of course I am able to access my work e-mail from home, like a proper professional can.
Nice.