It’s too soon after posting these pictures, BUT I had been eying this Pharaoh hat at Target for two months. Imagine my delight when I saw it in the Halloween clearance section last week for 75%  off ($1.25 total – not sure if it’s even worth that!).

Doesn’t it look great on Data?! He didn’t like it so much. I had to bribe him with food to wear it so I could take a picture. (I think he deserves it after trying to wake me up for 3 hours this morning.)

Killer House Plants

We have a lot of house plants in our lower level – seven of them! Two of them, somehow from across the room, decided to band together and grow super stinky, killing flower pod things (not yet bloomed) this past week. I am convinced they are trying to take over the house.

The little flower pod.

Both plants are corn plants. We have had one for at least 8 years, and the other for maybe 3. It’s curious that they are blooming now, when they never had before! I’ll let you know what they look like when they open (I imagine there will be little daggers in there, which the plants will use to attach us in our sleep).

The whole corn plant.

Nutritional Yeast Fail

Why is my pasta naked, sad and lonely?

Because it is supposed to have this on it:

A Nutritional Yeast based pasta sauce.

But one bite of that made me want to throw up. Steven tried to fix it with spices and he couldn’t.

Most of the vegan websites I read talk about using nutritional yeast to make a pseudo mac n’cheese dish. I was intrigued so I bought some and was really excited to try it. I tried this recipe from vegweb.

I don’t know if nutritional yeast is a very acquired taste, or if my stomach was just too upset after my run, but this sauce made me feel nauseous, and I lost my appetite. I am hoping I just did something wrong, or it was the wrong recipe, because I have read SO MANY raves for this product!

I felt really bad for “ruining” dinner. I am pretty sensitive in the kitchen, since I am not a very good chef. I need lots of praise and good feedback to keep me going (ha ha). Luckily, Steven was not upset about it. But I think we will be making something “safer” for dinner tonight!

Steven has a green thumb. I kill plants. Data does too (although we have different methods – I don’t chew on them).

I’ll just add “taking care of houseplants” to my list of domestic skills that I stink at. Also on the list:

• cooking
• sweeping
• mopping (Thanks for the correction, Nilsa S.!)
• making the bed (I do it, it just looks awful)
• putting the dishes into the dishwasher
• closing the shower curtain after showering
• wiping my feet off so the floor doesn’t get all wet after showering
• vacuuming
• dusting
• patching walls
• painting
• hanging frames
• leaving my clothes on the drying rack for too long
• stacking things up on the floor and not putting them away
• sewing buttons
• okay, sewing at ALL

And to be fair, a few things I am good at:

• sending out birthday cards, anniversary cards, thinking of you cards
• taking the trash out
• bringing in the newspaper
• baking banana bread
• protecting the car
• finding “Infiniti-approved” parking spots (used to be “Saab-approved”)
• getting the mail on Saturdays
• feeding Data on Saturday and Sunday mornings so he’ll STFU and let us sleep
• changing Data’s litter
• putting groceries away
• opening new DVDs
• getting my clothes out of the dryer in less than 2 days
• cutting up lettuce, cauliflower, carrots, celery, and strawberries
• pushing very heavy things up the stairs

Ha. I’m good at all the things that really matter.

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Today’s Idiom: to throw down the gauntlet – to challenge someone

Steven thought he was better at Xbox Tetris than me, so I had to throw down the gauntlet, and show off my mad Tetris skills.