Ooo! I smell steak!

I had a bit of a rough afternoon the other day. One of those days where not much seems to go right...

I had finished school with the boys. It went fine. No problems there. It has been serious rainy season here, and I'm as pale as a ghost because of the cloud coverage everyday. I haven't seen the sun since November! But that day was paticularly sunny and gorgeous.

We have a retreat at the lake at the end of March, so I was attempting to build up a bit of sun resistance so I don't turn into a lobster the first few hours I'm there...so I decided to go outside, sit in my chair basking in the sun's rays, and read a book.

Well, while I was thoroughly enjoying my Lori Wick novel, my Jack Russell was just barking and barking and barking just on the other side of the flower bed.

I finally got up to try and make her stop, when I saw what she was barking at: a green snake.

My first thought was MAMBA! He was much smaller than my previous one, only about 2 feet long. I called and called at the top of my lungs for my gardener to come and help me. But no one came running. The kids just looked at me like I was screaming crazy Mzungu things, which I guess I was... So, I finally gave up and decided to deal with it on my own.

I ran and got a shovel and a stick.
Now, the stick was to hold down his head so I could analyze him and see if it was a harmless green snake or a green mamba (a.k.a one of the most poisonous snake in the world). I got his head pinned down and inspected this thing for a good 3 minutes, but I just couldn't tell him his head was as flat as a mamba's is supposed to be.

I figured that a one dead green harmless snake was better than letting a Mamba go free, so I chopped him in half and carried him away. (I found out later it was just a harmless green snake). Right as I was putting the snake away my gardener appeared. Talk about timing.

So, I decide to head inside from my little snake adventure.
I had bought some fresh green peanuts in the market and I wanted to boil some. Unfortunately, my housekeeper wasn't aware of a southerner's affinity for "boy-eld pee-nuts" so she had shelled them for me.
I figured I would try and boil just the nuts...I mean, it couldn't hurt right?

So, I put the nuts in some water and salt and threw them on my stove on high. I watched them for a bit and then realized I needed to pee. So, I went and did that  (sorry, is that too much information?), but while I was in my room, I totally pulled a ADD classic move....

I saw my computer on my bed and thought, "Oo! I didn't finish that NCIS Season 2 episode last night! I should watch that before dinner!"

So, I pulled up my computer and started watching a 45 minute episode. Now, my windows are open and my fan is on in my room. I have a great crossbreeze going through my room. About half-way through the show, I notice it smells like someone is cooking steaks in my backyard. "Mmm, I thought...that smells so good! I should do a braii one of these days!"

I kept watching my show, and when I finally finished it, the smell of something cooking over a fire was really strong. I stuck my head out of my window to see if it was my gardener, but the smell was not strong outside at all. I thought that was a bit weird.

I turned around and looked into the room across the hall and saw it filled with smoke. I ran into there to see if there was a fire outside the window but there was nothing.

So, I came into the hallway and was shocked to see my entire hallway was filled with smoke! It was so thick that I thought my house was on fire. The only way to get out of my house was through the kitchen, so I really thought I was going to be stuck. I ran up the hallway and looked in all the rooms thinking that my house going down in flames. The smoke was incredibly thick! I ran into the kitchen only THEN did I actually remember that I had put peanuts on the stove over 45 mins ago!

There was no fire, just very, very, very burned nuts in the bottom of my pot on the stove.

I finally got the smoke cleared out.
When I walked into the Laffoon's house that night, Lisa said, "What smells like smoke?"
It was ME!
5 days later, my house still smells like smoke.

I tell you what, my guardian angels should get paid overtime.