The Scariest Basement Ever

I went to take a shower tonight, and was none too happy to discover there was no hot water. Apparently the pilot light went out on our gas water heater. In the interest of basic hygiene, we called the gas company and they are sending someone out to relight it.

This house has a basement. I have never lived in a house with a basement, and am sort of scared of them anyway. But this basement is the prototypical scary basement. It has cobwebs and creaky wooden stairs and a single bare light bulb. If I was an ax murderer, it's totally where I would hang out.

Someone had to go down there to confirm that the pilot light was indeed out. We drew straws and Bryan lost. Actually we didn't draw straws. I told him he had to go down there and Bean and I would wait upstairs with the phone ready to dial 911 if he screamed.

Bean was very disturbed by the sudden disappearance of her favorite parent, and stood with her head in the doorway until he was safely back upstairs.

"Dad? You OK down there?"

"Daaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad? Bark twice if you can hear me."

Bean has relocated!

Well, the move is over. We are...25% unpacked. Also we have painted 25% of the house. The rest will happen when it happens. Bean is loving all the space. This house has much more room for her to run around. You can go from the office to the hall to the dining room to the living room and back to the office in one big circle. When Bean gets a chew or a new toy, she she takes it in her mouth and runs a few laps around this circle to get out some of the excess joy before finally settling down on her bed to consume whatever it is. The number of laps she runs corresponds to her level of excitement over the treat. For a regular rawhide, she will do maybe 1 or 2 laps. I gave her a squeaky-stuffed hot dog toy yesterday and I thought she'd never stop running!

Here she is surveying her new (and much larger) backyard from our bed.

How the *&^%@ did those squirrels get my new address??