There I was, sitting in my kitchen making a chocolate cake. Now, considering I’m a guy, I’m not a great cook. But, for once, things hadn’t gone horribly wrong. Yet.

“Hmmm, let’s see, cake unburned, but not undercooked, butter just right, sugar, now what was I doing again? Oh right, making frosting.”

I looked at the recipe book, “One and one half teaspoons vanilla extract, right, here it is,” I said reaching for the bottle on the third shelf. Then I made my fatal mistake. “What?!? The vanilla’s empty? Oh well, what could I use instead? Okay, how about mint extract? I mean, it’s an extract, just like vanilla, and chocolate goes well with mint, and the color would be the same, right? Right. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?” Yes, me, myself, and I have had some long conversations in the privacy of my head. Anyway, I started making my wonderful mint frosting. My first clue that something was not right was when my sinuses were so clear that I was beginning to get a headache from mint fumes. A couple warning bells went off in my head, but I went on anyway, figuring that It couldn’t be worse than my last culinary “masterpiece” (but hey, those lemon bars weren’t THAT chewy, even if they did have about half a cup extra flour…) After about half an hour of stirring, the frosting was ready. Well, I’m not much good at frosting either, so the best you could say about the end result of my labor was that it had only had a FEW spots devoid of frosting, and SOMEONE would like those parts with frosting three inches deep. Soon I had the opportunity to taste my creation. “Hey, this is...’interesting.’ Oh well, my friends will probably eat it.”

My friends were coming over to play Dungeons and Dragons. And, as I have found out, gamers will eat almost anything, especially if it’s out of one of three basic food groups: soda, sugar, and saturated fat.

“Hey Davis! What’s up?” I said opening the door, “Here, have a piece of cake.”

“What’s wrong with it?” he asked with a suspicious look toward the molting cake, “What did you do THIS time?”

“ Nothing! It’s really good!” I said, “I tested it myself.”

Well, there weren’t any long lasting injuries. No one was poisoned, much….and after the initial shock, most people avoided hurling on their characters.

*Cough* *sputter* “What did you frost this with, toothpaste?!?” Davis asked. “No, I just substituted mint extract for vanilla,” I said, “’cause I ran out of vanilla…”

“Right,” he said, “could you get some real food, like chips?”

“Oh, all right,” I said, going to the kitchen, “Hey, there’s an extra bottle of vanilla in the pantry!”