Sparks Fly on Valentine's Day

2.14.2012.  crocheted heart garland made and hung. check. (idea found here)

nails painted an appropriate love day color. check. (but already chipped from lugging a compressor around. a story for another day.)

Steve's favorite treat baked early this morning to surprise him later. check.

red shirts on. check.

end planned events here, enter chaos:
20 minutes before Steve was coming to pick me up for a special Valentine's lunch date I was prepping to photograph the brownies (above) and smelled something hot/burny. After a few minutes I identified the source as the doorbell chime and took the cover off to discover a crackly sound coming from it. It was arcing--on its way to burning up, essentially.  Imagine how delighted I was to find the other chime doing the same thing! I switched off some breakers, pulled out a partially depressed doorbell ringer, and my dad talked me through disconnecting the wiring from the chimes. Sounds easy, but at the time I was in full panic mode.
Despite our Valentine surprise we left Clark with Grandma B and left late for our date after contacting an electrician. Here we are upon arrival at the restaurant:

and here we are about 20 minutes later. at home. 

the electrician called us at the restaurant telling us he was coming by in 30 minutes. so we took our order to go. Steve headed back to work, the electrician came and I picked his brain about doorbell switches and troubleshooting, we used my pink tools to make the repairs, and my house didn't burn down. yess!!

More exciting of a day than I'd have preferred so let's end with some eye candy.