Year: 2008

We went to Booklovers today and I picked up five new reads. It is hard to pick out books, seems like I’ve read them all already, or maybe it is because the three paragraph blurb on the back on all of them sound exactly the same, there must be one guy writing them all. Kind of like that Movie Announcer Guy. To make it easier next time, I’m bringing a list.

In past years I’ve given a blow by blow accounting of my Girl Scout Cookie consumption, this year it will be different. I am letting you know that 14 boxes were delivered to our door today. I will mention them again just one more time, when the last cookie is gone. On a sad note, this year they are not selling Lemon Coolers. They have been replaced by Lemon Chalet Cremes and while I’m sure these are a fine snack, to me they will pale in comparison to the Coolers.

When I entered the garage this morning to get in the car I was struck by an odd smell. A very chemical smell. I opened the garage door and it was quickly disbursed.

I didn’t recognize it, wasn’t motor oil, wasn’t gasoline and it was not anti-freeze. Wasn’t coming from the car at all. It really only smelled right on the stairs from the house to the garage. I opened the cabinet doors one by one and sniffed. It was faintly there, but I was unable to pinpoint it. Didn’t smell like paint and it wasn’t natural gas. It had a sweet odor, so it certainly wasn’t a dead critter under the house.

As I pulled into the garage tonight after work the smell was still there, so I started a more thorough search of the garage. Wasn’t the fire ant killer or the potting soil. Not the 3 in 1 oil or the liquid wrench. Didn’t come from the car wax or Amour-All. Not the Simple Green nor the tire shine. Wasn’t coming from the bicycle chain lube. Ditto the “clean” rags. Not the wallpaper paste or the wallpaper remover. Kind of smells like it was coming from the spray paint area. Didn’t smell like paint, but I started pulling out the dozen cans of partially full cans. What’s this?

AH HA! A pint can of Paint & Varnish Remover way in the back. As soon as I put it on the counter I knew I’d found the culprit. I don’t remember ever buying this. Probably purchased when we first moved into the place to clean paint off the molding or something. Pretty toxic stuff I guess, only took 18 years to eat right through the metal can.