Too many explosions.

Explosion Number 1: My second pink Parker Jotter. It finally ran out of ink after weeks and weeks of marathon writing. When I took it apart to change the cartridge, I discovered to my shock and horror that the spent cartridge had exploded inside the barrel, leaking blue ink everywhere. I had to throw the pen away. It was my favorite! Boy, am I pissed!

Explosion Number 2: The washing machine. Not an explosion of machine, but an explosion of suds. I accidentally used regular laundry detergent in our front load, HE washer. Don't ask me why we still have regular detergent in the house considering that we've had that new washer for about five years! The disaster it created reminded me of that scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when they ride the car through the Wonka Wash. Oh God. We had to scoop handfuls of suds from the washer and dump them in the downstairs bathroom sink, then run that load of towels through the wash with no soap four times before we got rid of all the mess. I can't take full responsibility for the incident, because I'm not the one who bought the wrong laundry detergent. And the lighting in the laundry room is so poor!

Going somewhere...slowly.

I've written sixteen pages toward my sixth goal. I haven't decided whether I should aim for the easier or harder target. I really want to debox that Lagoona! Other than the obvious idiocy of adding yet another doll to my already too-large collection, I can't really feel stupid about paying more than retail for her. 2.0 Lagoona is pretty much impossible to find. Plus, if I waited for a cheaper doll I might have ended up with one with defective face paint. I only saw one picture of a defective 2.0 Lagoona on flickr, and it was pretty terrifying.

Tonight we made a vegetable lasagna using the recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Italian Classics. For the veggies we used cremini mushrooms and rainbow chard. It was damn near perfect! I have to admit that at first the concept of a lasagna with mozzarella and no ricotta struck me as strange, but it really works! It was so much better than the crappy vegetable lasagna I've had in restaurants. One of them used broccoli as the main vegetable, and the dish was a nasty, waterlogged mess.

Kristen has been nursing a strange cold for past few days. It seems to have settled in her ears. I got it too, but I never progressed beyond the woozy/fatigued stage into the stuffy/sore throat congested ears stage. The same thing happened the last time there was an illness in the house. I never seem to get as sick as she does. I think it's because I'm on fire. On fire! XD

I put one of the extra gel refills Parker packages with their Jotter pens into an old red Jotter I found at the bottom of a drawer. It's a smooth, fast writer and doesn't transfer as much to your hand as the ballpoint cartridge, but it only works if you write in cursive. Maybe my mind and pen will work at the same speed for once...too bad I have really shitty penmanship...

The writing callus on my right ring finger is as big as a blueberry now. Yikes!