I bake for possums

Back in October, I was up late one Friday night baking cookies to take to Chad's parents the next day. It had gotten to be 1:30 a.m. by the time I put the last pan in the oven. I set the timer and went into the living room. Chad was out cold on the couch, so I laid down on the love seat to watch some TV until the timer went off.

The next thing I knew, I woke up, saw that it was 3 a.m., and noticed that it smelled like I had left the oven on. I got up to turn it off, and about halfway to the kitchen, I remembered that I had left a pan of cookies baking. "F#(k!!!" I rushed to open the oven, only to find a pan of twelve smoking black charcoal briquettes. I took the pan out to the back porch and placed the charred cookies on a plastic saucer that happened to be sitting there. I went inside, opened a window to air out the burned smell, and started to clean up the cookie-making dishes. All of the sudden, I heard some strange sounds on the back porch - very loud chewing and gnawing sounds. I looked out the window, and there was a possum chowing down on the saucer of cookies. He was eating so many that I got tired of watching him, so I went back to the sink. I heard some even stranger noises a few minutes later. This time it was hacking, gagging, and retching, like the thing was going to puke its guts out. I peeked back out the window, only to see him running away from the house. I checked the porch and saw no signs of vomit, just a saucer of black crumbs and only three remaining cookies. Thing thing ate nine cookies! It's important to mention that these were oatmeal raisin cookies, made with lots of extra-hearty old-fashioned oats. When a person eats too many of these, there can be some digestive consequences. I can only imagine the world of hurt that little possum must have been in, especially considering that they had been reduced to almost pure carbon!

Yikes, we've been tagged!

Our one reader has tagged us with something called a “linky love train” meme, in which "an ever-growing list of blog-owner names is supposed to chug its way through the ether. The rules are simple: When you get tagged, you have to add your name below the person who tagged you and by doing so you are letting the list grow":

Limadang.com
RamblingMoo.com
blogginginmypyjamas
StylewithPassion
Chinneeq
Dora-zooropazoo
Babyshern
HiPnCooLMoMMa
Rachel’s Soulful Thoughts
When Silence Speaks
Dancing in Midlife Tune
Underneath it All
I am Dzoi
Hobbies and Such
moms…..check nyo
Choc Mint Girl
Amel’s Realm
My Thoughts
Rusin Roundup
Juliana’s Site
Max
Rooms of My Heart
Mariuca
Colin aka cotojo
Hanna
Francis & Deborah
The Alien Next Door
Aunt Sabine
This Old Crack House
A Great Pleasure
Twinsherry
Jeane Michelle
LynEcoVicki
1616.ws

I'm suddenly struck with the feeling I have when someone decides to come to our house on very short notice. I survey the place through someone else's eyes and immediately panic. "Hurry! Quick! Clean up the pile of dirty laundry! Clean the bathroom! Vacuum the floors! Shove the paint cans and joint compound bucket under the pool table! We're done with both so there's no excuse for not having put them in the basement!!" Anyway, thinking that because of Gary's tag we might get one or two visitors to the blog, I navigated over to assess the situation. Well, we haven't posted since November, and the header is showing that annoying broken image link icon. Well, I'm going to throw some random image up there and then write a post that I meant to write back in October but never got around to it. That's the quick fix, anyway. Welcome to 1616!