We already have our first unpleasant surprise, at least the first one that’s real instead of mocked up by the architectural review board.

We wanted to knock out a wall. When they took down the drywall they found air ducts in the cavities where we want to have the opening.

The ducts could probably be moved, but they happen to be sheathed in an insulating paper that contains asbestos, according to the construction guys. Well shit. Shit shit shit.

Does this mean we have to put a tent over the house like when they found the alien in E.T.? Maybe I’m over-reacting. More realistically, it may mean we choose to leave those ducts be and we don’t get our opening.

I guess worse things could happen. Like Anthony could make your grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich on the hot plate we’re cooking on these days. I love Oster for making the most practical, cheap appliances for a simple life. This is our cooktop for the next two to three months, and it works great:

But place it in Anthony’s good hands and he does this:

GAH. He flipped the top slice of bread over. The flat bottom of one slice is matched to the round top of the other slice. What kind of human being does that?? I sliced up a fresh loaf of french bread and carefully arranged the slices vertically on a plate so anyone could grab two adjacent slices and easily place them together in the correct orientation.

Anthony made a mockery of my prep work by creating this, this… monstrosity of a sandwich. He didn’t even feel the need to slice off the overhangs and mis-matched ends (very, very carefully, as I would have done) before he ate this sandwich gone askew! The humanity.

I guess I’ll learn to live with the asbestos.