Amazing!

Well, this has been an amazing evening.

First, my daughter found her retainer. And not just 'found', but found it by casually strolling into her bedroom, bending down, and saying 'Found it!' Okay, it wasn't anyplace I would have guessed, but still... and then, to cap it, she also found a set of wall hooks that I've been looking for, which I had just about convinced myself I had inadvertently thrown out. After that, I asked her if she could find my lost youth, and my wife asked her to find that hundred dollars she'd misplaced.

Second, we made the stir fry. It was..um...memorable, for a couple of reasons. First, it was the very first time I've ever cut up a piece of meat. I was more than a little skittish, but my wife walked me through it, so it turned out okay. Second, we found that if a recipe calls for red pepper flakes (which we didn't have, using red pepper instead), do NOT stand next to the stove top's vent fan. Both of us started coughing and gasping as if we'd been maced. And third -- well, the recipe didn't turn out very well. My wife said she's had excellent Chinese food, and mediocre Chinese food, and this was the latter -- she thinks that we let the meat cook too long, in an effort to make it well done (as I like it). So if we do something like this again, we'll just about fully cook it before moving on to the next stage. But hey -- I wanted to Make A Dinner, and I did it!

And third, my daughter's in an extremely good mood, because a) I did all of her accumulated laundry (I've certainly done laundry in the past, but its been years, and it felt just a little strange to be doing it for her stuff...ours, sure, but my daughters? But I did it), and b) they're going out to buy some stuff that she wanted to get. So she's quite chipper, or at least was when they left.

Finally, I'm reading the Baking Boot Camp book, and its quite good -- a lot of cooking theory (so that's why they call it 'shortening'!), some war stories, and the occasional recipe. I think I'd like to go to this boot camp. Will I? Well...probably not. Its intense, even if not nearly as intense as their Cooking boot camp, or their regular courses. But it does sound pretty interesting, so maybe....

Quite the evening.

Tomorrow, we're going to see the Simpson's movie (she, me, and a friend of hers) or the Bourne movie (me and my wife). Which will be cool, too.