At least the TV didn't start talking to me.

Doesn't look creepy, does it? Looks can be deceiving, though, can't they?

As I was sitting here at the computer, my back to the fireplace, minding my own business and not touching the fireplace remote at all, the fireplace turned on. By itself. The fire didn't go on, just the fan that would blow the hot air out into the room (if there were any hot air other than that which comes out of my mouth).

This is where the remote sits for many months out of the year. The cats don't play with it, I don't play with it, nobody touches it during the months of May, June, July, August, and September.

No cats were near the fireplace, no humans were near the fireplace. And yet the fireplace turned on the fan.

This is not the first time this has happened either. We came home from a weeklong vacation in the summer several years ago to find that the fireplace had turned itself on--and not just the fan but the fire too--and the house was miserably hot. The AC had tried to cope with it, but couldn't.

We've had techs out to look at it and they've replaced bits and bobs of it here and there. The last one in said to just turn the whole thing off during the summer months. I guess we forgot to do that this year.

Anyway, the fireplace turned itself on and I think we should start calling it Casper.