Well, not literally, but close. I tried to burn down my house. And not the usual ways like leaving something on the stove, leaving the oven on, or leaving the iron on. I lit a candle and didn't put a plate underneath. I checked on it a couple times because I was home the whole time, but then got caught up with laundry and messing about on the computer. The next time I went upstairs with clean laundry, I found some small flames trying desperately to gain more life by attacking a sock in the drawer beneath the solid wood dresser the candle had been on. The candle was completely gone. I got some cupfuls of water and doused the flames and filled the bedroom with a lot of smoke. I'm a little alarmed at no smoke detector action so I have to look into that. We're lucky that it was as warm as it is lately just because of the length of time the windows had to be open to clear it all out. Cheruby and I slept in the basement on the futon.

That poor sock.

I thought it was lucky I'd cleaned up earlier as there were papers on that dresser mere hours earlier, but then I remembered that I only found the candle because I moved the papers.

Today, Cheruby and I sanded off the char from the dresser and brought it back in the house. I will be Varathaning the newly characterized piece tonight so that we can put it back in the bedroom.

The way I see it is that I have to make mistakes once in a while, and I do because I'm only human, I might as well do it up right. [grin] One of the cats even had wax drippings in the fur on his head and none of them came to tell me there was a problem. I now have to admit that cats really aren't good for anything at all.

When Cheruby came home and saw what I'd done, he laughed. I really like that guy. [sigh]