Adventures in baking

Laura's birthday party is this weekend, and of course that means cake. She suggested they eat the cake left over from her actual birthday, but that sounded cheap -- and silly to me. So of course I decided to make cupcakes so we could re-create the rainbow effect ones from her eighth birthday.
Since I used the last box of cake mix on Sunday's cake, the cupcakes would be from scratch. Not a problem, I've done that plenty of times before. I keep all kinds of basic ingredients on hand. Butter, flour, eggs, sugar, milk, salt, baking soda, you name it.
Well, except for vanilla. I suddenly remembered having emptied a bottle of vanilla a few weeks ago, and I knew I hadn't bought any on our last trip to Vicenza. Italians don't do vanilla extract, although I knew there was a powdered variety of vanilla available in little envelopes (similar to the way individual packets of yeast are sold in the U.S.).
So, after asking around over the course of a couple of hours and being offered some of the local vanilla -- I would have ended up buying some at the grocery store if Linda hadn't had some on hand -- I decided Why not? So I mixed up the batter and everything was great. Then I reached into the cabinet to get the food coloring ...
And discovered a bottle of vanilla, with plenty still left in it, right there on the shelf. Where did it come from? Obviously the bottle I remembered emptying must have been in the distant past. Am I going crazy? I asked myself.
On the bright side, now I know where it is for later when I go to make the frosting ...