Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting in my usual daytime spot (which is also my evening and nighttime spot, just minus the laptop), when I caught a whiff of skunk. It was a strong whiff, so it had either thrown a temper tantrum in my backyard or (oh please no) in my basement.

Because I always have vinegar and blue Dawn, I went in search of the skunk. I couldn’t see anything in the backyard, or smell anything. That was good news because a skunk out in the daylight in a frigid wind with snow on the ground probably isn’t well. It was bad news because the smell was strong enough so it must be in my basement.

But it wasn’t. And not only had a skunk not sprayed in there, but there was no wildlife scent at all. After sniffing around the first floor some more to no avail, I went back to work. A little while later, I smelled it again. And then again a little later. That’s when I got really concerned because it seemed to largely coincide with the furnace kicking on and blowing warm air through the duct work. There’s a register in this corner.

Back to the basement I went. A few minutes of tapping and listening later, I was satisfied there were no skunks in my duct work. (Which would have been quite a feat, but they’re wily little things.) I smelled it off and on, and got my husband involved, but no answers. The other possibilities included the neighbors burning nasty junk wood again or neighbors indulging in some particularly bad marijuana.

Fast forward to late this afternoon. I’ve been haunted by the skunk smell off and on all day, still most noticeably when the heat is on, blowing warm air around my corner. And then, finally, I leaned over to get a pen off the end table where I hoard office and planner supplies and got a nose full of potent skunk odor.

The culprit is this roll of rose gold Scotch Expressions washi tape I bought at Staples. I kid you not.

Yesterday I opened the roll (which I bought several months ago) and used a length of the tape, along with stickers, to brighten up my Hobonichi Weeks, which is awesome except for the stark white stripe on black cover I got. Then I set the roll of tape on my end table, which is between the heat register and me. And so it began.

This evening, after making my oldest son and my husband smell it and watching them both recoil in disgust to confirm, I can assure you this roll of tape smells like skunk. Very, very strongly. It’s as though they made the product, it got sprayed by a skunk that happened to be strolling through the factory, and then they packaged it.

And to answer the inevitable question, no, I did not throw it away. It’s rose gold washi tape!