Firsts

-First near-miss with a deer. As in, I was driving at night, and one pranced into the road in front of the car. Luckily it was just a 35 mph road, and I saw it in time to slow down a bit before coming to a full stop. If I hadn't slowed down that soon, though, I would have hit it, which was already unnerving. As I expected, its extended deer-family was waiting back on the side of the road that it had come from. Whether the family was able to reunite without incident I couldn't say - there are too many deer-crashes for those to make the news. The deer are just... everywhere. A little later on the same trip, I saw a car stopped on the opposite side of the road, for another deer, separate from this group.

They're gorgeous creatures, and do generally bring out my inner squeamishness vegan, but given that their numbers seem to lead to gory scenes for deer and human alike, maybe some middle-ground could be reached involving venison (which I've heard is delicious) and leather goods?  

-First attempt at making layer cake. And, my driving is better than my baking. Frustrated with the entire baking process taking three times longer than I'd thought, I iced the (misshapen) result while it was still warm, with predictable results, namely the "layer" icing melted. It now looks like a layer cake exploded in the refrigerator, where the entire thing is chilling. Tastes pretty good, though, as combinations of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs generally do.

-First and last purchase of "lemon verbena" Method kitchen spray. Had this been an online purchase, I'd have learned about the lingering smell that reviewers accurately describe as "urine." Instead, it was a case of needing kitchen spray urgently post- pre-entertaining cleaning marathon, and being in Whole Foods at the time, which is never the place for that sort of thing, but so it went. And this spray doesn't even get anything clean! Whatever it is, it better be something that transcends non-toxic. It better actively increase your well-being. Which in a sense it might, if you're someone who needs to be eating less. It's more or less impossible to get down a meal off a plate that's on a table that was wiped down with this stuff.