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[Kokuma]

The fire place is real. We don't use it though. I grew up with a real fireplace, I know how to use it but its rather messy to keep clean. Since we are in an appartment I'd rather we didn't have to worry about burnt peices getting on the carpet, etc.

Plus we have regular heating, so the fireplace is more for looks in the end ^^

Neat.

I spent my childhood in a house where there also was fireplace. It had this crack in the upper part (it was made of bricks, no metal coverage) which had came when Finland's strongest earthquake happened in 1970's. The quake was only 3,4 in richter scale, but it was strong for one taking place in here, as this part of Europe where Finland is isn't vulcanity active and we have usually so tiny quakes that ppl barely feel them. And we get them very rarely.

Mum worked in local hospital at the time, and she was helping these old ladies to eat their evening snack pudding, and one lady dropped the pudding cup from her hand when the quake started. That's the thing mum remembers best of that earthquake.

Don't you have any kind of iron bars/net coverage for front open of the fireplace. A ironbars/metal net that prevents embers and burning pieces flying outta the fireplace?

[Mimitchi]

Sounds like the earthquake added character to the fireplace Sounds pretty crazy though, it's so dangerous when earthquakes hit regions that never usually have them. My hometown was hit with a series of several earthquakes a couple of years ago, it was quite a shock for everyone there. The quakes were always shallow and small but the town wasn't earthquake prepaired (the buildings just aren't built the way they are in California). I bet it was similarly shocking to have it happen there too.

The fireplace does have that covering in the front, but I wouldn't wanna risk anything getting on the carpet, they can be really messy. If we aren't here more then two years we will get charged money for carpet repairs upon moving out of the appartment. Plus it's expensive to buy logs and it's an unreliable heat source. Brendan and I aren't out near the woods so we couldn't chop our own wood either.

I never want to rely on a fireplace for a main heat source again. I lived with it for almost 20 years, i never had a day in the house I grew up in where the temperature was actually comfortable one way or another. It was icky hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. I lived in an area were we had snow 4-6 months out of the year.  The fireplace was only able to heat the room it was in and the insulation was bad in general. My mother was poor so we lived with what we had.

So in the end, it's just not worth the effort to use this fireplace in the apartment, especially since we have central heating; it is so much better.

[Elana]

Off topic ramble:

Isn't it funny how life is? You can start off with having a fireplace as a completely utilitarian heat source, and end up with a fireplace as something that's more like an aesthetic status symbol. I've stayed in a place with a wood stove for heat, but also visited houses that had central heating but also had those silly electric fireplaces: fake logs that are never spent, and are turned on and extinguished with a dial (or sometimes even a remote control!). "I don't need fire, but I can have it if I want it!" It's amazing how human desires can come full circle.

[ginjirotchi]

Brendan and Kat,
that is a really cute little Christmas tree!! We are putting our tree up on Friday night!! Maybe I will hang some of my Tamas on it and take a picture, lol!! This is the third Tamagotchi tree I have seen this week!! Cute idea

[Kokuma]

I never want to rely on a fireplace for a main heat source again. I lived with it for almost 20 years, i never had a day in the house I grew up in where the temperature was actually comfortable one way or another. It was icky hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. I lived in an area were we had snow 4-6 months out of the year.  The fireplace was only able to heat the room it was in and the insulation was bad in general. My mother was poor so we lived with what we had.

So in the end, it's just not worth the effort to use this fireplace in the apartment, especially since we have central heating; it is so much better.

I lived 2 years on my own in that same house in the beginning of 2000's, and the first winter was really cold. The megadeep-freezes started before Holidays and continued until end of January. That house had electricity based heating also, but you can guess when there was like -25C (-13F) outside many weeks in a row the electric radiators run with full power all the time and I was afraid that the heating system may broke down, so I started to sleep in livingroom (where fireplace was) in sleeping bag and visiting other parts of the house with outdoors clothes on, and I shutted the electric heating and let the other rooms go cold. There was -2C (28F) in the upstairs stairway...heh.

We didn't have that open-front fireplace anymore, it was changed into metalcover oven-style one with shutters in the front so I didn't have to be afraid of whole house burning down if I let fire on when going to sleep.

That whole midwinter was nothing else but cutting logs and keeping fire in fireplace. I had to burn one oven-full of firewood two or three times a day (I was unemployed that year, so I had lots of time...gee) if I wanted to keep the livingroom temperature over 17C (62F). And I had to carry the logs from garden shed into the house by hand...never again!
Around middle of January mum told me to move temporary living with her as she had central heating in her apartment, but I told her that if I have survived with logs and fireplace this far, I will continue until the freezes are gone. And they ended couple of weeks later.

I had no car or driving license that time, but I had used to move around by bike even in freezy weather. But those freezes wer something never-seen-before, so I was lucky to have neighbor who let me go to downtown with him by his car when he went to shopping, so my fridge kept having something more inside than just light

[Lord Monkey]

A sword WOW. Unsharpened LARP item perhaps? 

Nah, no former larping here. Besides, even though it isn't sharp, it still weights about 25 pounds. It could do some serious damage

And regarding the fireplace: I'm sure it'll be useful if the power goes out, but until then, I like my artificial heat 

[Koluki]

That tree is so funny!

[addictedtamagotchi]

I thought I'd post a pic of the tree in Kat and mine's living room :



(no tamas were hurt in the making of this pic)

WOW!!! lol kk one thing do u take care of them all or like do u take the batteries out or pause them or what cause ud be pretty darn busy if you were taking care of them all

[Mimitchi]

Hehe they have their tabs in them when they aren't being played with

[Koluki]

Kat, did you actually put Dunkn, Donut and Mimitchi and Ginjirotchi on that?