-- Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I made two batches of (differently spiced) seitan sausages to bring to my uncle's tomorrow. I always use this recipe from Susan, and it's gotten good reactions from vegetarians and non-veggies alike. And since I was in meat-alternative-makin' mode, I cooked up the bean/lentil/bulgar mixture above and turned it into burgers. Once the beans were cooked and slightly mashed, I just started adding stuff to the pot (veggies, spices, oats, an egg -- you know, whatever) and crossed my fingers. I baked the resulting mixture in patties, and they actually turned out! That's my super technical approach to cooking.
-- I've been working on two house/furniture projects this week that I'm really excited about. The first is this super fancy glass-sided bookcase. Totally awesome and hugely expensive, right? Except that it's actually the top of my hutch, which used to be in the kitchen. I just added some feet that I got at Home Depot (about $10 for all four) and painted + attached the doors that belong to it. I still have to find a board that fits the top, but I'm already enamored of it. It's almost as good as a lawyer's bookcase (and it has a light!). I was badly in need of more shelving for books, so I've moved my comics/graphic novels here, along with Japanese sewing books and stuff I am currently/will be reading.
Since the top of the hutch is obviously no longer on the base, I hung a shelf over it instead. I've had that shelf for about as long as I've had my house, but it's been in the basement all this time. I had to remove a chintzy little 'railing' around the edges and paint it bright white, which took some time, but it was worth it, since it felt like I had a new piece of furniture for free. Here's a shot of it straight on. My poor lipstick plant (on the right) has been going through some rough times lately.
-- Here's a meal that I ate. Twice this week. Raisin Bran, Cheetos, and broccoli. Hey, sometimes the things you want to eat don't necessarily 'go' together! Someday, I should try eating cereal for every meal and see how long it takes until I don't want it anymore. It's the best.
-- If you're a US-Thanksgiving-celebrating-type person, I hope you have a great holiday tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing family! The Black Friday hype has been unavoidable this year, especially since Target is Minnesota-based, and there's been some resistance to their opening at midnight. Other stores are also opening late-early (Kohl's is, like, 11pm, and I think Toys 'R' Us is at 9pm), and I don't mind saying that I think this is disgusting. Disgusting. I won't be surprised when Black Friday becomes Black Thursday in a few years, and shopping becomes the focus of Thanksgiving. I get how competitive retail is and that everybody is trying to make a (bazillion) buck(s), but I just have to shake my head at this. Sigh.
But forget about that! Just stay at home with your loved ones and have a happy, long Thanksgiving weekend!
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I was thinking the other day about all the stuff that Henny has learned in the last year, especially the stuff that I haven't actively taught her (like 'sit' and 'down'). When I got her she was pretty much a blank slate that was mostly potty trained, so it's quite remarkable to me how much she's picked up. I'm not sure you could possibly care about this, but here's a list of words/phrases that Henny knows:
Sit
Down
C'mere (unreliable in a command sense, but she knows what it means)
Pick you up (she stops moving and crouches to be picked up)
Let's go to bed / time for bed (she goes into the bedroom and into her dog tent)
Go potty. (If she's goofing around outside, I tell her this, and she remembers why she's out there.)
Do you want to go outside? / Let's go outside.
Do you want to come up here? (If she wants to get on a bed/sofa she can't jump on, I ask her this and she does her 'pick you up' crouch if she does, in fact, want to come up.)
Do you want to go home? (Yes, always.)
Do you want dog dinner/breakfast? (YES, ALWAYS.)
Do you want pets? (I also hold out my hand when I say this, and she comes over.)
Do you want this? (I can say this from across the house, and she'll come running. Usually if I have an empty bowl for her to clean.)
Dog food / Cat Food / Food
Bone / Chew-chew / Treat
Big Dog House / Sasha and Minnie (She gets excited when I tell her that's where we're going.)
Birdy (as in, when I call for Birdy, Henny gets jealous and run over instead)
Hey! (She knows whatever she's doing is naughty, and she usually stops.)
And I know there's more I can't think of (and more that she'll pick up in the future without my realizing it!). Not to mention non-verbal stuff, which, like most animals, she's a master at picking up on. What's that saying about old dogs?
-- I've been running my grandma (my dad's mom) on more errands lately, and she always does her grocery shopping at Byerly's, which is fancier than the supermarket I usually go to. They have a really amazing bakery (it's where I got this bear claw last month), so I snagged a 'maple stick' yesterday. It was basically a cinnamon roll that was twisted instead of rolled, and it was so, so good. I was looking forward to the maple-iness, but actually the maple icing on top was the only thing I would have changed -- too sugary-sweet for me.
-- You know how you can become a Master of Wine? I want to become a Master of Apples, except I'm not sure such a thing exists. It would involve intense training and studying, and at the end, I would be able to bite into a slice of apple and tell you what variety it was, whether it was grown organically or conventionally (although, please, Masters of Apples only eat organic), which state or country it came from... and what kind of rootstock was used for the graft. Okay, maybe not that last one. (Although now I wonder if it does matter. Flow of water to the fruit, etc, etc.) So, people of the internet, where can I get a master's in Apple Science. And do they offer full scholarships?
-- Because all I eat are sweet things (I know you know that's not true), I made some cookies the other day. I used an oatmeal cookie recipe, but I tweaked it a bit and used Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain Cereal instead of rolled oats. That was all I had on hand, and it gave the cookies a much more interesting (in a good way) texture. I halved the amount of sugar called for in the original recipe, and I like how a lot of the sweetness now come from the add-ins. Click on the full post to see the recipe.
]]> 1/4 cup Butter, Softened3/4 cup AP Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
pinch Salt
1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats (or 5-Grain Cereal)
1/2 - 1 cup Add Ins
Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix the butters and sugars very well, and then add the egg and vanilla, and continue to mix on medium. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix until just combined. Stir in the oats and add-ins. I used about a cup total of roughly chopped almonds, dried cranberries, M&M's, and mini chocolate chips.
Bake for 10 minutes and cool on a rack. Eat!
Winter-Time Paper Farm! Ahh! Finally, after almost two years of intending to create another paper house pattern download, I've done it. I knew I didn't want to just make more houses, so I decided on a farm. So cute!
The download includes the patterns and instructions to create a barn, a silo, and a pasture with some horses and chickens milling around. I thought the silo was a great idea until I actually started drawing it, and then I was suddenly messing around with pi and circumference and sides of hexagons. You don't expect there to be so much math when you're drawing! Luckily, I paid attention in geometry class.
I think the paper farm would look really cute with the original free download as the farmhouse -- or, my favorite, the log cabin from the Winter-Time House Pack. I want to really thank everybody who has bought that house pack over the past couple of years, both for supporting this creative endeavor and for sending me such nice comments about the patterns (and photos of the finished houses -- I love seeing those!).
The Winter-Time Paper Farm PDF can be bought for $5, via e-junkie. Once you pay, you'll be sent a one-time download link, and then all you have to do is print the patterns on some cardstock and get crafting! So enjoy -- and thank you once again!
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Three things that Henny has done/learned in the past couple of days:
-- She figured out what 'Do you want to come up here?' means when I'm sitting (working) on the guest bed. She can't get up on her own, but now when she comes in the room and I ask this, she assumes the 'pick you up' position and doesn't run into the living room when I try to actually pick her up.
-- She made a noise (a tiny whine) when she wanted to go outside and I didn't notice. Most days, she just sticks to the schedule, but sometimes she stands by the back door when she needs to randomly go out. Unfortunately, even if I'm somewhere that I SHOULD be able to see this, sometimes I can't (like if the basement door is wide open, blocking the view, or if I'm absorbed in a really important YouTube video, say). This has resulted in her peeing on the floor more than once (which, strangely, isn't something I get annoyed about, maybe because I realize it's not her fault / a habit). This evening, the basement door was indeed in the way, but she actually made a noise to alert me to the situation. Communication!
-- She made up a game while we were outside. After we'd come back from a walk, she was doing some victory laps around the yard, being goofy, and she wound up in one of her favorite corners. I started to go up the steps by the back door, and she came tearing towards me, and then I stopped and walked down a step, and she went tearing back to the corner of the yard. We repeated this about a dozen times, because it made me laugh. I'm sure any snooping neighbors thought I was insane.
(The photo above is her sleeping in one of her many not-lying-down positions. She had to stay alert in case I was offering pets, but she was so tired.)
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YOUGUYSYOUGUYSYOUGUYS! Do you know how excited I am about my new Christmas tree? YES, YOU DO, BECAUSE OF ALL THE CAPS. As an early birthday/Christmas gift, my mom gave me a gift card so I could buy this fancy tree. I've used this little one for a few years now, and I've joked about getting a bigger one just like it, but this year I stopped joking. Ahh! It was actually pretty reasonably priced, as far as fake trees go, and even though I was a bit worried about its size, I decided I would make it fit. It's 7.5' tall, and that's how I learned that my ceilings are only 8' tall. I had to rearrange furniture for the tree, but it works. That chair isn't really as close to the door as it looks. And anyway, I never use the front door, and I won't be needing any visitors, now that I have my tree for company.
I expected there to be a cat in the tree within five minutes of my putting it together, but they've been fairly well behaved. A few ornaments were removed, but I made it clear that I was adamant about my decorating choices, and they've been left alone since then. It had been a long time since I'd put together a full-size artificial tree, and I forgot how tedious it is. Blah. Worth it!
And, yes, I realize it's only the second week of November. I usually start my winter decorating after Thanksgiving, but I've been full of pesky holiday spirit since, like, the beginning of September, at least. So, I held out for a long time. I decorated my annual gingerbread house after dinner tonight, to the sound of Henny and Beany chasing each other around the living room, in the glow of the new tree. Merry pre-Christmas, everyone!
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-- My grandma and I were having lunch several weeks ago, when I mentioned that I really like old linens. So when I took her to the hairdresser's the next week, she'd pulled together a big bag of stuff for me to take. Included were several items her aunt (my great-great-aunt) had crocheted, like the doily above. There's also a small tablecloth with an amazingly delicate crochet edging. She gave me this quilt (the one folded up in that photo), which HER grandmother made (and which I'm currently sitting under -- do you ever think about your great-great-granddaughter someday using the stuff you make?). The fabric is in good condition, but the batting is really lumpy, and I'm considering taking the layers apart (it's only hand-tied, not 'properly' quilted) and replacing the batting.
-- I hit the halfway point on my NaNoWriMo novel! And then some (I'm currently at just over 26,500 words). I'm not sure if it's actually the halfway point yet, plot-wise, but that doesn't matter. At least I have a plot this time around!
-- I had a few tomatoes from the garden in my fridge, and they were starting to get pretty soft -- no good for slicing, anymore. I was going to thaw some sambar that's in the freezer, but then I realized I could use up those tomatoes, and that was how this bowl of curry-tomato-kale soup (with roasted cauliflower on top) came to be. I've still got a couple little tomatoes that aren't mushy; I think November 8th is probably a record for me and garden tomatoes!
-- I gave Henny a bath today (fact: there has never been an easier dog to bathe, ever), which made me realize that I've never told you about This Cute Thing That Henny Does. When I take her out of the bathtub, I put her in the middle of a towel and then fold both ends over her, so she's all wrapped up. I start by drying her head, and when I get to the scruff of her neck, she decides to help out by licking the water off her front legs/feet. Every time. I love it.
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This was an A+ weekend. Good stuff, all around. Friday evening, after I'd returned to my house and gone to the supermarket, I made a cheesecake. Because my mom is the cheesecake queen, I've only tried making them two or three times in my life, so I wasn't sure it would turn out. I used a recipe from the Williams Sonoma Baking cookbook, since I wanted just a straightforward lemon cheesecake, and it came out PERFECTLY. Like, not a crack to be found, wonderfully creamy, light and citrus-y -- perfect. And I made cranberry-pineapple sauce for on top (it's also great in yogurt -- just a bag of cranberries cooked down with a can of crushed pineapple and sweetened with maple syrup).
See? So, I made the cheesecake because I had some ladies over on Saturday for a real live tea party, and we all sat around, talking, drinking tea, and eating cheesecake. Civilized! I think we all wondered why we don't have tea parties all the time, so if you have people in your life that you enjoy, you should get them together and add some tea to the mix. It's nice just to catch up with people without having to go to a cafe or a restaurant and sit somewhere noisy.
Today, Ann and I went to the Minneapolis Indie Expo, which is basically an awesome building filled with awesome comics and awesome people. It was so great! I was able to say hello to Julia Wertz, and we chatted with Sarah Becan, and afterwards we went to the Bulldog NE, where I ate a blackbean burger and some fantastic fries. You can't ask for much more than that from a Sunday!
I also wrote about 5,000 words this weekend, bringing my NaNoWriMo total to just over 20k, which, if you didn't know, is quite a lot of words to have written in six days. And not all of those words are terrible junk! Also... this happened. And this.
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-- I will admit that this is a pretty good view to look out at in the morning. I mean, not that a Minneapolis alleyway isn't also the kind of picturesque setting that inspires lofty goals, but there's just something about a marshy field and some trees. I packed up my entire collection of pets and came up to the cabin earlier this week, and we've just been enjoying the weather and nature and junk since then.
-- Birdy, classic emoter that she is, screamed like I was putting her in a bat costume (wait, no -- that, she didn't actually complain about) as soon as she was locked in her travel crate, but she quieted down once we were on the road. There was still frequent meowing, but more in an 'I would like to register a complaint' type of way than 'death is imminent'. She hid for a while once we were up here, but then she discovered flies in the cabin (thanks to the weather, not any uncleanliness of said cabin). If there's one thing Birdy is good at (and there is only the one thing), it's catching flies. At one point, I looked over to see her sitting in the middle of the floor, and the next second she had clapped her front paws together, a fly trapped between them. Cat magic!
-- I didn't have any fruit to put in my cereal the first morning I was here, so I had a pumpkin muffin my mom had made, along with a couple of fried eggs. And yesterday, I went to the local cafe for lunch, where I had my standard one (blueberry pan)cake, one egg, which is a bargain at $2.75, considering the one pancake is heartier (and better!) than a short stack from Perkins. The cafe always has old-fashioned daily specials, like tater-tot hotdish and various meat formations (kielbasa, meatloaf, etc) served with mashed potatoes and gravy. I would like to open a low-brow (I mean that in a loving way) diner like this that serves vegetarian versions of these things. Something that's neither trendy/classy (like, say, Real Food Daily) or gritty/punk (a la Hard Times Cafe). I'll put that on my list of sister-companies in my hypothetical vegetarian dining empire.
-- Henny and I went to St. Croix State Park yesterday, which, unbeknownst to me, all fell over during some storm. I haven't been able to consult the internet yet to find out when or why. (A storm on July 1st is to blame, the internet says.) We weren't able to do much hiking, but it was still a nice day to spend some time outside, surrounded by (disappointingly horizontal) nature. I was going to make fun of Henny for standing up on this little log to get a better view, but then I realized that she'd effectively doubled her height, so... fair enough.
-- Yesterday was the start of NaNoWriMo, and I'm participating yet again. I'm so easily convinced to sign up that it doesn't even take convincing, just an accidental mention of the event. I'm trying something new and totally radical this year: I have come up with a PLOT, and I outlined it ahead of time. Whoa. I'm terrible at plotting, and since Rob seemed to decline offering up one of his plots, I went ahead and hit up my old frenemy Mister Wm. Shakespeare. So, and this is revealing more about my NaNoWriMo project than I ever have before, I will tell you that I am writing a Minnesota-based, post-apocalyptic novel that is based, very loosely, on The Tempest. Except no magic. And no zombies, either (that's less of a caveat on Shakespeare's works and more on the post-apocalyptic oeuvre). Turns out that having some direction in writing is really helpful, because I'm killing it on the word count!
Here's Henny in her Halloween costume. I had a few ideas, but I wound up going with the easiest option. (For the record, my two favorite other ideas were 'A Bigger Dog' or a grey cat, so she'd fit in with Beany and Birdy.) To make the bat costume, I just sewed up a shirt using the same pattern I always use, and then I made the wings with heavy-gauge beading wire (and fabric, obviously). I often talk about Henny having bat ears, so now she has the wings to match.
Henny was very 'whatever' about wearing the costume (this was the extent for her interest -- just a couple sniffs and then nothing), because she's a good dog. But my mom urged me over the internet to put the costume on Beany and take photos. So I did.
Who wore it better? I say Henny, but Beany's photo has more 'favorites' on flickr. Henny got a ton of compliments on facebook, though. (I didn't post Beany's photo, 'cause people I went to school with don't have to know I put my CATS in costumes. Sheesh!) Beany was 'slightly' more away of the wings on her back -- this was not the extent of her interest -- there was full-on wrestling with kicking and gnawing. (Not, I should add, in a distressed way; I might not respect their dignity, but I'm not mean to the pets.) I briefly put the costume on Birdy, and she didn't seem to feel very fancy, either. Pshaw.
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Something horrible* happened -- I ran out of Kashi GoLean. It's what I eat for breakfast every morning, and I'm actually a little obsessive about buying it; I usually buy some whenever I'm at the supermarket, so there's always a box or two waiting in the wings. But then I went on a six-box spree last month, and I didn't need to remember it for a while. (For the record, those six boxes lasted almost five weeks, which is longer than I'd expected.) Some people go to bed thinking about the coffee they'll drink when they wake up, and that's how I am with breakfast.
I pulled through, obviously. For quite a while, this -- waffles, fruit, and fake sausage -- was what I usually ate for breakfast, but it's just not the same anymore. Gotta have my Kashi GoLean. By the way, do any CostCo shoppers out there know if that store sells jumbo boxes of this stuff? It'd be worth a membership for that alone! Is there anything that you're obsessive about buying, lest you find yourself without it?
*Not actually horrible.
[Here are some pet friends in the sun.]
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What's up with being sick? I'm really lucky in that I don't get colds very often -- the last time was over a year ago. It's because I don't work in an office of people, I suppose (blech, people!), but I wound up being social this weekend at my cousin's lovely wedding in Green Bay, so I bet I brought back some sort of Wisconsin germ.
I basically just have a slight fever and a very congested head, but the worst (okay, not the worst) is not having an appetite. There's the not feeling hungry, but there's also the being so stuffed up that eating anything is more of a chore than a treat. No salads for this lady -- too much chewing. Instead, I made a pizza on a pita, and it was just the right amount of punchy flavors (homemade tomato sauce and clearance-bought veggie pepperoni!) to get through to my dulled tastebuds.
Somebody has to think up a better solution to staying hydrated than drinking so many liquids. How mean is it to make a feverish waif drag herself all the way to the bathroom a million times a day? So mean.
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Yesterday was Henny's one-year anniversary of coming to live with me. She had been rescued from a puppy mill over Labor Day weekend 2010, after three years of life as a breeder. I have no idea what her life was like during that time -- was she kept in a small kennel? Did she ever have a chance to run around? Had anybody ever petted her with kindness? All I know is that when I went to pick up a dog to foster, I was given a chihuahua that was utterly terrified of everything. She sat in the corner of her pen and stared at the wall, and she never once stopped trembling.
I had told the woman running the rescue organization that I had no preferences as to what kind of dog I fostered, and Henny (then known as Henrietta) was in need of a foster home. She looked so pathetic that I was eager to bring her home, thinking that I could give her the right combination of quietness and attention.
I'm sure I've written it here before, because I've said it an awful lot, but I really wondered if euthanasia might be the kindest solution during those first few weeks (not that it was up to me, and not that I would have really done it if it were). Henny didn't know how to be a dog. She had no understanding of toys, didn't want to chew on bones, couldn't walk on a leash. She seemed to always be scared and would sometimes fall asleep while sitting, because she didn't feel safe enough to lie down. Remember that for all the happy puppies at pet shops, there are dogs like this behind the scenes.
I posted a lot of cute photos and videos on flickr, but I always felt sort of bad about showing only good glimpses into Henny's life. Even though she knew who I was, I could never just reach over and pet her; she would run away. But I was as patient as she was nervous (and I'm still being patient, believe me).
I've already written about the change I saw in Henny towards the end of last year. It was like something finally clicked in her head, and she started trusting me more. I still couldn't walk right over to her and give her a pat, but the way she looked at me changed. There was another big shift over the summer and even in the past several weeks. If I sit on the floor, she comes over for pets, and if I stop, she gets closer and closer, trying to get me to pet her again.
She's always been a funny dog when she lets down her guard, and that happens more regularly these days. Chasing the cats, rough-housing with stuffed animals (she finally figured out what toys are!) -- life is good for Henny now, and she knows it.
I feel like she's made such great progress because I've always tried to stay in her comfort zone. The usual training advice doesn't really work for a dog like Henny, whose only real concern is feeling safe. She knows what 'pick you up' means, but I still have to wait for her to find a spot (in the room or yard, etc) where she feels safe being picked up. I don't mind that, really; if I did, we wouldn't be a good match. And, sheesh, the months it took to teach her to sit on command. She's a pro now, though!
My friend Julie has more than once said something along the lines of, 'You must love her more and more every time you look at her.' And it's true! Never did I think I would adore such a silly little dog -- and one that was/is so messed up, at that. She's my tiny piggy pickle dog. I wish I could erase the first three years of Henny's life from her memory, but instead I'll just work on making the great years outnumber those bad ones. One down.
To see my flickr set of Henny photos and videos, go here.
-- I get pangs of longing for Germany all the time, but never as much as I do this time of year. The Frankfurt Book Fair was last week, and I wasn't able to attend, but I think my body (or maybe just my subconscious) knew it was supposed to be over there. Well, if I can't be in Germany, I can at least eat pastries like I am. I stopped at the fancy Byerly's bakery after a hair trim today, and I spent several minutes trying to choose something while my mouth literally watered. I settled on a bear claw, which was awesome and perfect. Very almond-y and citrus-y, and I think the filling was fig + almond, although it might have been raisins, not figs. I couldn't have asked for something better even if I WERE in Frankfurt.
-- Look! My US map! I finally remembered to take a photo. I have several boards like the one I painted this on; they were extra shelves to something at Pier One, and I got them for a dollar a piece. You never know what will come in handy someday, right? Here's the map on my bedroom wall. When I looked at that image on my computer, I realized I've never shown you the other poster there -- I would have centered the photo differently, otherwise! I was getting overwhelmed by things (house stuff, running, work, etc) early this summer, and I started telling myself that 'all you have to do today is try'. That might sound kind of depressing (not very 'shoot for the stars'-y), but it's actually really helpful if you're the kind of person that becomes paralyzed with perfectionism. So my new philosophy is that just making an effort on any given goal is far better than putting it off again and again. I made that poster as a reminder.
-- I cooked up one of the Quorn roasts I got when my local natural foods store was going out of business. Fake turkey sandwiches for everybody (me)! I need to make some cranberry sauce... or maybe thaw out my rhubarb preserves. Hmm. Interesting idea. Whenever I think about how far the veggie-'meat' industry has come, I remember the Tofurky my family cooked one of the first Thanksgivings after I'd gone veg. It was truly awful. But now, not only are there multiple options (Tofurky, Quorn, and Celebration Roasts come to mind), but they're all awesomely delicious.
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Oh, all right, I'll post an update on this here blog thing. I don't think I've been up to very much lately, though. I spent my weekend reading and prepping the south side of the house for painting. Here's a top tip: don't use bleach-y house cleaner (the type of thing you hook up to a garden hose) on a windy day. Yuck.
On Saturday, I made boxed macaroni and cheese -- the kind that has the little squeeze pack of real cheese goo. All through cooking it, eating it, and storing the leftovers, I was thinking about all the vegan mac'n'cheese that's still in the freezer (and which, really, I find to be more delicious). But I hadn't had the 'deluxe' boxed stuff in years, and sometimes you just want what you want.
Annnnd... that's all. Did you have any fun adventures this weekend? Accidentally mist yourself with toxic chemicals?
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