We're all alive and kicking in da House. Of Atreus.

We feel fine. We survived the steak-left-out-overnight.

And we're thankful for this. Well, I'm thankful, anyway--because if you think I told my family what they were eating, you're completely overestimating my general level of candour. This is the kind of thing I tell the internet, not my family. In my opinion, wearing my Medea t-shirt to the dining room table constituted ample notice that the comestibles weren't exactly appetizing.

It's not my fault that my children lack even a rudimentary knowledge of Greek tragedy.

----
I'm also glad I don't own a cat:



(My apologies for the lame credit sequence. It has all the savor of a steak that has been accidentally left out of the refrigerator for the night. But soldier on, because it's worth it. And extremely high in protein.)

Why you don't want to eat the food at my house. [Updated!]

Yesterday when I was straightening up for the cleaning team, I picked up some Treasure Island shopping bags that had been left on the floor in the kitchen after I sort of finished putting away the groceries from the after-school trip to Walgreen's to get the passport pictures taken that segued into a trip to the grocery store but I needed to start helping with the homework --

I'll come in again.

It appears that when I put the groceries away on Monday evening, and was interrupted by a child needing help with her homework, I neglected to empty the last shopping bag, and only discovered it the next morning.

The not-quite-empty grocery bag contained the little plastic bag! You know, the one they use for the packages of meat.

And there they were. Two New York Strip steaks. And a pound of ground sirloin. They had been left out from 5:30 p.m. Monday until 9:00 the next morning.

I put the bag of meat in the icebox. Yes, even the ground sirloin, which later that afternoon, I made into meatballs, figuring that a chopped onion would have an anti-bacterial effect, and if that didn't kill the toxins, an hour simmering in tomato sauce would do the trick.

And then, at dinner time, I fed spaghetti and meatballs to my family. (Gahh!! Just call me Medea.)

We're still alive and well.

So tonight's the steak.

----

We had the steak. And we're not dead yet. More later--if the pathogens don't get me.