Out With the Old, In With the New . . .

Since we've just got a few hours left until 2009 here on the East Coast, I thought I'd use my quiet New Year's Eve to blog my resolutions. It seems to be an ever evolving list, stuff comes to me all the time, but I've always been prone to those lightning flash ideas.

1. Save money. I have started this already, by opening an online savings account through HSBC Direct, since you can open it with just $1, and you earn 3% interest. My goal is 10% of my weekly take home pay (which is pitiful, but better than nothing, right?). And 10% of my income tax refund is going into it too. I'm tired of having that "Oh shit." feeling when a big expense, like car repairs, comes along, and it always does.

2. To be better organized about my pictures. I have pictures all over the place - photobucket, snapfish, shutterfly and God only knows where else. I have to commit to one image hosting/storage place and call it a day. Also, a few years ago I made my grandparents a cute DVD of my cute kids and I've been so disorganized the past two years that I haven't done one. I have already started on 2009's and it's only 9:45 pm!

3. Eat better, I have terrible eating habits. I'm going to watch my portions, avoid processed crap, and just generally try to take care of myself.

4. Be a more patient mom. This is hard when there are two kids tugging at either arm and going "Mom!" "Mom!" "Mom!" every 10 seconds, but that's when I need to remember that they are just kids, and they're only going to be just kids once and that I need to slow down, calm down and really listen to what they're saying. Before I know it they won't be just kids, and I hope that they will still want to talk to me as much as they do now.

So 4 is a good start I think, considering how I've already got a jump start on the first two. Happy New Year!!

Had a Bad Date, Ever? and an Update

I'm not sure of the following that this little old blog has, but I see on my Feedjit map that I've got hits from around the world, so hello Germany, Poland, Malaysia, Turkey, Austrialia, as well as to our Canadian neighbors. So last week a friend and I hung out and traded bad experiences with online dating sites. I've only just dipped my toes into the pool on this, she's managed to swim a few laps. We came to the conclusion that a site that compiled these stories would be great, and so http://baddatenight.blogspot.com/ was born. It's not a week old yet and I've got two stories, real life bad date stories! Thank you to those who contributed. Anyway, I would love to be able to put more up, but I need all you loyal readers to email me your totally anonymous stories to: baddatestories@aol.com

I've also been meaning to post an update to my Wolf in the Hen House? post from this summer. Last week a detective from the police department knocked on the door and asked to speak with my dad, who is like Mr. Upstanding Citizen and has never broken a law in his life. Except the one time he forgot to take his wallet out of his work pants and put it in his blue jeans and then went out and drove around without his driver's license (not that he ever goes fast enough to be pulled over). Anyway, so the detective asks for my dad and he wasn't home from work yet, and he said that he didn't mind waiting for him and went to sit in his car. My dad gets home, they talk, and as it turns out, the detective is looking for the registered sex offender who may or may not be living across the street at his brother's house. Since the dude hasn't reported in anywhere, a warrant has been issued for his arrest. We were told to call 911 if we see him around. I don't believe he's here at all, it's pretty quiet over at that house, but I guess that in this day and age, anything is possible, right? It's extremely disconcerting to me that a guy with a record like this can pretty much just disappear into society. I got a lot of comments on that original post, from people who I would categorize as being supportive of sex offenders and their individual rights. Bottom line is, many times people can't police themselves and that's why there needs to be a better system in place. We're far from a perfect utopian society, it's an unrealistic goal, but how many times does stuff like this have to happen, or children being abused, or killed or raped or kidnapped for us to get it right??????????

A Rhetorical ?

Why is it when you look like crap, feel like crap, or just in a general way, things are crappy, you are pretty much guaranteed to see somebody you know, and they're usually from your past? I ask this, because twice now, in as many months, I've run into guys I've graduated high school with (a risk you run when you move back home), and both times I've looked like the dog's dinner. Seriously, I could be the winner of a makeover contest, get to attend the Academy Awards in a Marchesa gown, dripping in diamonds from Cartier and escorted there by George Clooney, then be the life of the party at Vanity Fair's post-Oscar shindig and nobody (by that I mean nobody that I know) will see me, because tv won't be working that night or something. Yesterday Natalie had an eye surgery down at CHOP, and as I'm sitting in the waiting area, texting my BFF from HS, a guy we graduated with walks into the waiting room. Apparently his daughter was having surgery too. As an aside, I hope she's feeling better and recovering well Matt (not that I imagine he reads this). I was certainly dressed, jeans and a sweater and really cute shoes, but I didn't really bother to put on make up and my hair was just in a pony tail because I hadn't bothered to wash it.
The first time this happened, I was in the grocery store, stocking up on Bacardi's yummy frozen mixers when I ran into another guy I graduated with. In a momentary triumph for feminism, he was doing the grocery shopping for the household. :-) On this occasion, I was in horrible clothes, work out capri pants, Margaritaville t-shirt, flip flops and again my hair was a mess.
It seems to be that if I want to run out for an impromptu six pack and lottery ticket, I'm going to have to actually be presentable. ::::::sigh::::::

Rewind

There are many events in life that you don't get a do-over for, like losing your virginity or driving yourself somewhere all by yourself (or even better, with a car load of friends) once you've passed your driving test. And I guess that's ok, or at least it will just have to be ok, until we build time machines. Today though, Natalie got a do-over on the first day of school pictures. Our teachers voted yesterday afternoon to enter into non-binding arbitration early, so school opened today. It was good first day of school weather, nice and cool, which enabled Natalie to wear this on her first real day of first grade:

And then while at school during lunch, she lost yet another tooth. The Tooth Fairy is going broke people! I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, since I'm too much of a cynic, but I'm going to try to be optimistic this time around and believe that our teachers will not return to the picket line. I realize that's the only leverage they've got and all, and I realize that the public is indeed not getting the full story from both sides in this fiasco. I am grateful that both sides realized what a public relations nightmare this was all becoming and decided to make some concessions in order to get the contract talks started up again. Let's keep our fingers crossed, right?

Strike Update Day 5

Some asshole (clearly a teacher here who just got his COBRA bill in the mail) actually implied I was bitter and some sort of loser still studying for a GED because I thought his grousing about a 5% raise only allowing him to break even after paying for COBRA was namby-pamby.

Here's what he said: (my response in red)

"Boo hoo" How old are you? I'm 30 You really must be an angry person No, not really. I'm actually very happy with my life. with nothing to live for. Oooooh, wrong again! I have two kids, a great family, really awesome friends, a job I can get my teeth into, maybe a man or two on the horizon. What's wrong - still trying to pass the test gfor your GED? Nope, I'm a proud 1996 graduate of Lansdale Catholic High School. Teacher yell at you when you were a kid? No, not really. I was generally a good student, a good listener, and most certainly, a model citizen. Couldn't cut it to become a teacher? I have no desire to be an educator, so I suppose yes, you are right about something, I couldn't cut it to become a teacher."Ye shall..." Who cares what you think. I seem to have hit a nerve with you (and you're missing the correct punctuation there too Jerry) . . . .
Jerry Mc, Tylersport, PA

I sure do hope he's retired by the time Natalie gets him! LMAO! This morning, there was a mass picket at Natalie's school. I drove past a Lincoln Navigator, a BMW X3 SUV (ok, ok, somebody is slumming and only could afford the 3 series), a Mini Cooper, a Toyota FJ Cruiser, a big ass Ford crew cab pick up, an Acura sedan and numerous other shiny new cars. I assume these vehicles belong to our teachers, since the strike has started, they've been forced to park on the streets surrounding the area schools, as they are not permitted to use the school lots during the strike. Evidence also pointing to the cars belonging to the teachers is that nobody ever parks their car on this end of West Broad Street. Next meeting between the two sides is Thursday, I doubt we'll hear anything new or interesting, other than that the venue they've chosen for this meeting (the junior high) will be far too small for everybody who wants to attend to actually get into.

Tomorrow, I'm taking pictures. Smile & wave people, smile & wave.

Strike Update - Day 4

The teachers' union & the school board met today with the state mediator for a whopping HOUR, and of course got nothing accomplished, other than agreeing to call it quits after 60 minutes and neither side budging from their positions. Natalie made an elephant on paper, traced over her drawing with glue and sprinkled colored sand on it. She also ate lunch, played in the gym and when I came to pick her up was deeply involved with building blocks. It's all well and good, and she certainly enjoys those activities, but I had hoped that she'd have gotten to meet her teacher and talked about her classroom and her classmates by now. The date of September 24th is when the teachers must return to the classroom in order to get 180 days of school in by June 30th. Naturally, September 24th is the day that I have to pull Natalie out of school for the entire day for a dentist appointment in the morning and a cardiology appiontment in the afternoon. I had scheduled both appointments months ago, with the expectation that she would have had 3 1/2 weeks of school under her belt by then, but it's looking and sounding more and more like she's going to miss the first day of school, again. Heaven help me if I hear one utterance from the school or the teacher about the importance of instruction time and it being vital to the success of the student. Wouldn't that just take the cake? Ha!

Apparently, another sore spot in all this hullabaloo is over the medical coverage for the employees of the teachers' union. Their benefits have been suspended for the moment and they now have coverage under COBRA (which requires paying out of pocket for coverage). The rumor mill is hard at work, churning out all sorts of baloney and blurbs of questionable material. I heard one today, that a teacher's child was turned away at the ER over lack of health insurance. I take into question whether or not this a true account. I mean, every hospital I've been in recently (particularly our local hospital, Garrett & I spent 4 days there last month) has big signs up in the ER saying that people will not be turned away or treated based on their ability to pay. That's a law, if I recall correctly. Particuarly in an ER, where the goal of the doctors and nurses there is to stabilize, treat & release or admit, patients. In any case, typically, when one quits their job, or is fired, or in this instance, stops working because of a strike, they lose their benefits and that's that. I mean, that's what happens in the real world anyway. But out in the real world, people aren't demanding 8% raises and asking to contribute less towards their health plans either.

Back To School

Yesterday was the first day of school for the kids. Garrett went off to pre-k and was thrilled to death to find a Woody & a Jessie from the Toy Story movies in his classroom. I sure do hope the other kids don't care about Woody & Jessie because I have a feeling Garrett probably didn't put them down. His second day was today, slightly more aprehensive about going & staying in his classroom, though his teacher got him involved in putting his crayons in his pencil box and I was able to slowly back out of the room. I anticipate problems tomorrow. Natalie should be in the first grade this year, but since the teachers in this school district (that would be the SOUDERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA) are all a bunch of lame-os and have opted to strike this year, her school year has not officially started. She gets to play all day long with the YMCA Kids Kare program being held at her school. It's disappointing, because she is SO excited to begin first grade, and this is just prolonging it for her. The longest our horribly underpaid teachers can be out for is 3 1/2 weeks before non-binding arbitration goes into effect thus forcing them to return to the classroom, contract or not. I have a feeling they're going to be out for that time frame, only because contract talks broke down after 6 hours on Monday and no new negoitation meetings have been scheduled. It seems as though the teachers here in this district would like to be paid on par with the average teacher in Montgomery County. It does not seem as though they are taking into consideration the differences in the tax base here, compared to the other surrounding school districts. This community is mostly residential, and of all the new development in these parts, it is primarly residential, with a strong concentration of 55 + communities. In order to pay the teachers the average going rate, we're talking about an 8% increase each year for 5 years, which amounts to something like $25K at the entry level. The school board proposed a much more moderate 2 1/2 % raise, which was naturally balked at, and here we are. While 2 1/2% is not at all 8%, if my employer was willing to offer me that raise each year, for 5 years, I'd take it!

One Giant Leap of Faith

Ok, I did it. I just re-did my resume and posted it online for any baking & pastry jobs out there. I'm still sticking with my p/t recruitment gig, until I find a good fit in the restaurant world. I realize that I'm going to have to work lunch (meh) and that my options may be severely limited in little old Montgomery County, PA, but I hope not too limited. I think I may also start printing out & mailing resumes, just to see what happens. Wish me luck!!!!!

10 Totally Useless Facts About Me (Without Pictures)

1. I can touch my nose with my tongue.
2. I have freckles, lots and lots of freckles. I used to hate them, but now I love them. I think my freckles are pretty. :-)
3. I also used to hate my name, but I like that now too. I never thought I would like it, since I was teased relentlessly about it. I bet those jerks with their normal names are big losers and aren't doing anything great these days.
4. I spent like $30K (well, it wasn't ALL my money) on culinary school, and now I don't even freaking bake professionally anymore. Today the kids & I made a loaf of banana bread and I was so sad that I'm not baking for living. I'm going to have to rectify this.
5. I have gone about a week now with severely fragmented sleep. This also must change.
6. I think I use "I" too much.
7. Somehow I manage to remember the most useless drivel and little facts about things. I imagine that ability would really be beneficial to say, a contestant on Jeopardy. I wonder if I can be on that show. Wouldn't that be cool?!
8. I have a sunburn, because I didn't use enough sunscreen while at the beach last week. I don't want skin cancer, though my vain ass is enjoying my moderate tan and my freckles at the moment.
9. I think my mother is tired of me.
10. Tonight I went with Natalie to the "New Family Night" at her elementary school, and we sat next to some nice people at the little informational talk they gave at the beginning of the event. The mom (she had lots of freckles too), had a really cute outfit on, and really cute hair, but I noticed she had the same kind of mom belly that I have, which made me feel better. I think that mom belly can really only go away with the help of a skilled surgeon and until I can afford that, I'm going to invest in some Spanx.

hmmmmm

Don't you ever secretly take a little bit of pleasure, when you see somebody you haven't seen in a long time, and they're like, a million times fatter than you? Or is this only something I do????
My mom (this isn't at ALL related to my opening question), linked me to this site: http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com/, which is one of the multitudes of sites she looks at while she's supposed to be working, at work. I guess because she is so supremely awesome, she gets all her work done in 45 minutes so then she can spend the rest of the day goofing off. Or maybe her job is too boring to bear so she spends her day goofing off. I can't really be sure, but she used a new word tonight, when speaking about Charles Lindburgh, of all people. Apparently, aviator Chuckie had a couple of families all around the world, you know, wives and babies. He got around one could say, in both the literal and the figurative sense. So she referred to him as a "poonhound", which is the word she picked up by reading that Postcards from Yo Momma site. Prior to the invocation of poonhound, we were using douchebag to describe jerky men. I still like douchebag, but I may have to start peppering my speech with poonhound every now and then. Anywho, it's kind of hard to now have any respect or sympathy for Lindburgh, even though his baby (with his American wife) was kidnapped and never found, knowing that he was a complete & total shitheel.

My To Do List

Juli & Dianne both blogged about what they did this summer, my summer isn't officially over until I return from the shore sunburnt, sandy, tired, maybe a pound or two heavier from eating all the glorious crap that the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk has to offer, and of course feeling OK about all of that because I've been able to sit on a beach and stare at the Atlantic Ocean for a few days. So, I'm blogging a To Do List instead, because I have considerably more to do than I have done this entire summer.

1. Lose weight. This goes against partaking of any glorious crap that I may find on the boardwalk (including, but certainly not limited to Kohr's Brother Custard, french fries, funnel cake, Mac & Manco pizza, Taylor Pork Roll w/cheese on a Martin's potato roll, & fudge). My sister is getting married next fall and I really have a strong desire to be thinner for her wedding than I am now. I will still need Spanx.

2. Travel more. I have seen literally, like 1% of the world. I'm a giant loser. I have to get myself & my kids out there to see & do more. I'm not sure where we're going to go for our first trip, though we're going to have to start small!

3. Date. Ugh. This whole concept is terribly frightening and one that I'm not looking forward to it at all. :-X Probably that right there means I am not ready, though I feel like I will never be ready, and I don't think that will work out so well for me, not ever being ready. Also, just from a brief perusal of online dating sites, it seems like there are a lot of men out there that look like trolls or cartoon characters. I'm not a shallow individual, I swear. It's just that that inital visual impression means a great deal, particularly when you've posted your picture on an internet dating site, you should at least try to not look like a Klingon or a serial killer.

4. Save money. Boring, but necessary.

5. Meet & make friends. I have a wonderful and lovely group of friends, affectionately known as "the loopies". They are really like the best people on the planet, and such great girlfriends. The only trouble is that none of us are really near each other geographically speaking. So while nothing could ever replace my dear loopies, I need to have some pseudo-loopies who happen to be close by, just until the loopies can converge on one neighborhood Wisteria Lane style of course.

A Little Commentary

on the Beijing Olympics. I've been watching it off an on since Friday night, I try to catch the popular stuff like swimming and gymnastics, but I've seen rowing, men's water polo, beach volleyball and some of the women's road race. I'm so amazed at these atheletes, their skill level and ability. I'm so not an athelete by any means, and I just think that they're all awesome. So tonight I watched a little bit of the women's team competition in gymnastics, and again, they're all awesome and no way could I ever even begin to attempt what they do. So the commentators are talking, blah, blah, blah and they'll say something about how great Shawn Johnson is, or Chellsie Memmle and her routine on the uneven parallel bars is, and then once these fantastic atheletes, who are in tip top shape have finished their routine, it's like the stupid cheesehead commentators start trashing them immediately! Yeah, maybe they are former Olympic-level gymnasts themselves, luckily parlaying their former atheletic ability into a career blathering on and on before and during the routines and then morphing into catty high school girls the moment said routine is over. The swimming commentators do not seem to do this. And what I saw of the rowing events, those commentators didn't do it. What gives?!

:::::::::::::::::::::::Yawn::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

A quick post here, as it's 8:40 am here on the East Coast and I haven't had nearly enough coffee to jump start my brain to its proper function. The kids have been up since 6:30. Why do they DO that??!! It's been like this every day this week, but I just assumed it was because they were excited about science camp at the YMCA. There is no science camp today, so I just assumed that they'd be excited about sleeping in, until at least 7:30. The trouble with this is that they in fact, physically need more sleep than 9 pm to 6:30 am, since neither one of them naps during the day. And Garrett gets incredibly grumpy and miserable when tired, having tantrum after tantrum after tantrum. Natalie at least is still pleasant to be around, and maybe asks like 9,000 questions instead of her usual 9,999.
Yes, yes, they both need to be used to waking up earlier than they have been this summer, as does mom, since she starts a new job on 9/2. I'm still thinking 7:30 is really the perfect time. 6:30 just sounds so harsh, and early.

A Piece of Cake

I'm finally getting around to this, the thought of turning on the oven to actually bake something is so off-putting, but I agreed in June to participate in this Modern Baker Blog in connection with a new cookbook coming out sometime in the coming weeks. I have an aunt who works for the publisher, and she forwarded me the information. I, in turn, passed it along to my loopy girls, I think Juli decided to go for it, maybe she'll blog about her creations.

Ok, back in June I turned 30, and I really, really, really wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but nobody freaking makes those, unless you order it in advance and nobody ordered one for me in advance. Yes, yes, yes, I KNOW I could have picked up the phone and called the bakery, or better yet, made my own darn birthday cake, but come on, I turned 30. I expected the masses to fall prostrate and kiss my feet (which were freshly pedicured that day).

Yesterday, while the kids were at Day # 3 of Science Camp, I quickly whipped together a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, killing two birds with one stone, since there just happened to be a yellow cake with chocolate frosting recipe in the copy of the manuscript I was sent and thusly satisfying my craving for cake. Unfortunately, I am unable to share the recipe with you (you'll have to buy the book), but I certainly can share pics. Enjoy!

Who Are You Calling Weird?

http://www.threeminutesandarainbow.blogspot.com/ Lovely (and possibly weird) Juli posted about her quirks, oddities, whathaveyou because her sister did it, and now Regi's gone and done it and since it's too hot anywhere else in the house, I'll sit right here and tell you all about mine.

Ok, just go and read Juli's thing about cash & her debit card because I'm the same way and I'm too lazy to re-type my comment on her blog. I could probably be more successful if it weren't for my slothiness, but I will readily admit I'm lazy, so at least I have that going for me.

Alright.

I feel the need to organize the kids' toys at least once a week. I realize in doing this that they'll just continue to assume that I'll just continue to do it for them, but in reality, anything is better than listening to them whine (and they know it) and here's the sick part, I enjoy organizing the toys. It gives me a chance to sort out and toss the strange bits of detritus that they save and pick up along the way, the dear little magpies. All of Barbie's shoes turn up on my organizing missions, and Garrett's Army men are a complete platoon once I'm done with them.

Laundry. I secretly enjoy doing laundry. I love sorting it all out and folding it. The only part I don't love is putting it away. Life would sure be easier if somebody else would put it away. I hate wrinkles and stuff, so I have to fold it all as soon as it's done drying, particularly bedsheets. Otherwise I have to get the iron out. Oh, but NO FABRIC SOFTENER, esp. Downy. I hate the way it smells.

When eating something like m&ms, I sort them out by color and working from fewest to greatest, I eat them by color. For example, if I have 4 red, 6 green, 2 brown, 1 yellow, 5 orange and 8 blue, the order to eat them would be yellow, brown, red, orange, green and then blue. This applies to other stuff too - Swedish fish, gummy bears, Chex Mix, among others. Not that I eat that stuff . . .

There was a point in time when I had my pantry cabinet shelves labeled, but most of you might classify that as anal and not weird. It's a holdover from my professional kitchen days, what can I say?

I must sleep fully covered by a blanket, sheet, comforter, etc. It must reach up to my shoulder, my neck & head can stick out, but only my neck & head. I feel safer that way.

Attack of the Bridezilla

Heh, heh, I bet there are a lot of blog entries about Bridezilla. You know who she is. My sister moved out, and got engaged last week, both are wonderful pieces of news, and I'm very happy for her and her betrothed, I wish them all the best. :-) They have tenatively set a date for October 19, 2009, which is a long time away, but I guess she has her heart set on a fall wedding, and this fall is too short notice for the massive shin-dig she's planning (and apparently paying for, interestingly enough). So today she & my mom had a brief discussion on wedding dresses, my mom sent her a link to a pretty, very elegant and quite affordable dress from J.Crew's bridal line, and Erika volleyd back with a $600 number from David's Bridal - big, and white and haltered and the back laces up like a corset and her tattoos will show. :-X And replied "It's MY wedding and YOU don't have to come if you don't want to."@@ I mean, it's a little early to throw down that gauntlet, don't you think? My mom's point (and I'm kind of siding with her on this) is that Erika will have a 5 year old by the time she gets married, that she's not marrying the father of her 5 year old, and she's living with her fiance. I know times have changed, and believe me, I'm not all about tradition myself, but I can see where my mom is going with this. But, I suppose if Erika & Dave are paying for it themselves, they can have whatever kind of wedding they want. Oh, and they want to have it at a firehall. Nothing says PA like a firehall wedding!

Letting Go . . .

My life is far from a bed of roses, though it's nice to pretend that it is once in a blue moon. S and I have been having some difficulties lately, and we've sort of come to the conclusion that maybe we're just better off cutting our losses and each moving on in our own directions. I feel like he'd prefer to keep it open ended, but I'm just unable to do that, and I really feel like I've been doing so much to make this marriage work, and that I've done all I can. It is supposed to be a partnership, but it hasn't felt that way in a very long time. :-( It's not easy, it's not a happy time, I'm trying to stay upbeat, and I'm trying to keep busy. Hopefully that won't numb the pain, only to make it worse later down the road. I have two awesome kids to look out for though, and a bunch of kick ass friends to look out for me, so we'll get through it, maybe a few battle scars here and there, but no worse for the wear. For once I'm really looking forward to the future, I can't remember a time last when I was actually happy about planning things out, I feel as though that is a good sign. Natalie is psyched about starting school in September, meeting & making new friends, and with luck I'll have a job by then. Garrett is Garrett, he's happy as long as he's got a Buzz Lightyear in one hand and a Transformer in the other.

Not Your Mother's Bar

Today I had this brilliant idea for a small business. I usually daydream about small businesses (brick & mortar stores) that I'd own - like I think a children's & maternity consignment store would be cool, or a children's boutique. Sometimes I think about running a movie theater and showing old movies. Anyway, today I thought wouldn't it be GREAT if there were a place that moms could go to during the day to drink, amongst other moms?! I would have a child-care area separate of the bar, but the bar wouldn't be really bar-like either. We'd have comfy couches & chairs, and you could get a manicure & a pedicure along with your cocktail. And if you perhaps imbibed a bit too much and couldn't drive home? Well, there'd be a limousine that would whisk you and the kids to home safe & sound. I'm not sure what I'd do if you got fall-down frat boy drunk. Maybe you'd have to arrange for your very best girlfriend, or worse, husband, to come over to take care of the kids. Any suggestions? I want to make sure the kids are safe!!! I think my bar would open around 10 am, and we'd be serving mimosas and Bloody Marys at that time. As the day progressed the menu would change - wine & beer for the lunch time crowd, martinis and gimlets for the post-school frenzy, the day would wind down with decaf Irish coffee and warm spiked apple cider. We close at 10 pm, so this mom can get home for 40 winks. ;-)

Personally, I think it business would boom.

Roar!

He really isn't the most perfect dinosaur, one of his hind legs is shorter than the other, and he's just a few hours old and is sort of coming undone in some places already, but Garrett really loves him and I guess that's all that matters. Tomorrow though, I have to get Bones Bones (the name of this dinosaur) away from his owner, to make some repair work. I learned in this project, that knitting a t. Rex is a lot like knitting socks, except socks don't have legs and tails. I think I'll work on socks this winter. Next up, is a purple stegosaurus for Natalie. Happy knitting!

Crafty, Crafty

Well, not really, but I have to keep the kids busy somehow this summer. So yesterday I woke up in the mood to do a craft project or two with them. It's a challenge, because Natalie isn't one for letting you prepare for anything. She's constantly hounding and asking questions and chattering along, and really people, it's tiring. I don't mean to come across as impatient, I'm not, but she's one to push buttons, that's all I'm saying. Anywho, I browsed http://www.joann.com/ and Highlights for Kids (thank GOD for my mother who sent me that link, and then another one, http://www.activitytv.com/, which is kind of lame, but that's where we found the flip flop idea. Of course, going out to the fabric store, and then Target and getting something to eat for lunch (I did NOT get a shaken iced tea from Starbucks and I really should have) took up most of the day, but we did get the flip flops made, and the glue dried over night.






We got our flip flops at the aforementioned Joann store, which has them on sale now for $1.33/pair. Actually, they have all their kids' craft stuff on sale now, for 40% off I think. We headed over to the notions/trims section and Garrett picked out the black & white checkerboard print and Natalie picked out the pink & green pom-poms, the trims were $1.99/yard each, and I bought 2/3 of a yard of each (2 feet). Garrett was going for a race car motif to his, but they didn't have any race car buttons, so he has a blue car and a red airplane (it could be a rocket too, I can't really tell) on his flip flops. Natalie opted for green hearts, but they had some big fake diamonds that would be awesome if you wanted to spend $10 on them, which I did not. I just used a tacky glue to glue the ribbon/trim down with, but I imagine hot glue would work just as well. You'll want to heat the cut ends of the trim so they won't fray, or use something like fray check if you can't heat the ends. Oh, and we took glitter glue and put that on the sides of the flip flops, just a thin line and spread it out with a finger, of course that is optional, but kids like glitter. I'm sure Shane won't appreciate that his son has glittery flip flops, but that's HIS problem, not MINE. :-D

Ok, there's my cheap craft idea for this week. Since today the weather was so nice, it's supposed to get hot & humid again tomorrow, we went to the playground today. All was fine until Garrett smacked some kid, and he (Garrett) then had a big, massive tantrum, so we left, after apologizing and making sure the little boy was ok. I'm the mother to an apparent bully. :-X

Mummers!

Last night we headed up to the park to listen to the Ferko String Band. The kids played on the playground and listened to the unique sounds that string bands have. Natalie & Garrett even did a little dancing, though once they started thinking about what they were doing, they started to get goofy.

Tea

I'm so glad summer is here, for many reasons of course, but one is iced tea. I love unsweetened iced tea more than anything, though I realize that's unheard of for you Southerners! So yesterday, while picking up a few things at Target, I swung by the Starbucks and bought a grande shaken iced tea. Made with black tea (and no sugar) and then I guess they shake the hell out of it. I missed that part because Natalie had to go to the bathroom. Anyway, SO GOOD! It was really smooth and really tasty. I think next time I need the bigger size though, the grande was gone in no time.

WWYD?

Yes, you. Feel free to tell me what you'd do in comments. Anywho.

We have this big picnic table, given that we no longer have the room for it, we decided to sell it. Put ads on Craigslist and www.kajiji.com, as well as in the local pennysaver. It's a great table, in excellent condition, yadda, yadda, yadda. I got a few nibbles here and there but nothing fruitful ever came of them. So I get the bright idea to list the sucker on eBay, with local pick up as the ONLY option for getting the table. I didn't really think I'd get a bidder, but I figured it was at least worth a shot. Lo and behold, I did get a bidder, and the auction closed and voila, I thought the table was sold. Contact the bidder and as it turns out, he's in CA. Argghh! He was quite apologetic though and we just mutually agreed to cancel the transaction, I got my final value fee back and he did not get a non-paying bidder strike against him since it was all just a mistake. He even offered me $50 for my trouble, but I didn't feel like that was necessary and I politely declined his offer. This was Saturday (6/14).

Last night (6/17) I checked my emails before I went to bed as I would normally do, and there's an email from PayPal telling me that the guy has sent me an instant payment, and it's far more than the $50 he initally offered, and I had turned it down anyway, so WHY is he sending me money? I'm not a paranoid person normally, but I'm so afraid that this is somehow going to come back to bite me in the ass. After conferring with the loopies, I sent him a quick email, I figured really that he mistakenly sent me $150, but really, who does that? Fortunately for me, he's got an AOL email addy so I put a return receipt requested on the email and sent it off. Didn't hear back from him, checked my sent mail status tonight and I see that he's deleted my email. Ok, WTF? Yes I KNOW I'm not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this does seem so unusual, right? I don't want to come across as bragging, but maybe this is Karma calling, repaying me for a previous good work? My friend Dianne suggested that maybe he simply has money that he wants to share.

So, dear readership, however small you may be, I pose the question to you. What would you do?

A Shameless Plug

for me! www.bowartsbows.com Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, but it's my blog people, so I can advertise for whomever I wish, including myself! A bit of a year ago I started making hair bows for Natalie, because I was just spending too much money on hair bows for her. Juli found directions on eBay and linked me and away I went. After tweaking things a bit, and getting tons of compliments on the bows, peppered with remarks like "You should really sell these you know." I decided to go out on my own and do it. I started out on the Hyena Cart, which is the online equivalent of a seller's marketplace, only most of the sellers are WAHMS (work-at-home-moms) and most of what is available there is hand made - cloth diapers, bath & body products, hair bows, jewelry, baby and kids' clothes, etc. It's a unique little forum, and it worked for me for a bit. Recently though, I realized that it wasn't working out so well for me, my listings disappeared after 3 months and getting them back was nightmarish, and so I set off again, this time to Tony at whamshoppes for hosting and Amanda at digishoppe for graphics and here I am. So I started adding products this morning, and I'll continue to add stuff this week. I realize that really the only people who read this blog are my girlfriends and they are all well aware of the existance of www.bowartsbows.com, but I'm excited and therefore blogging about it!

No more Top Chef this year, though tonight is the reunion show, right? I'm so happy that Stephanie won, I really thought of her as the dark horse, and while I feel like Richard was equally talented and deserving, I just wanted Stephanie to win so badly. How cool is it though that Top Chef is coming to NYC?! Finally!! I admit that I'm totally biased, but really, NYC is the greatest city in the world, chock full of culinary talent, it's about freaking time. Maybe my chef will be on tv for it too, if Chef Tom ever needs a fill-in judge! Shane can't compete in it, given his employer, and I think he probably wouldn't go for it anyway, since competing on tv is really not his style, lol. Oh well!

Better Late Then Never

A Happy Belated Father's Day to my chef, thanks babe, for all you've done and all you continue to do!

WHAT?!

Ok people. Antonia totally got robbed. I don't care if her pigeon peas were al dente, how on EARTH could the judges have possibly kept Miserable Lisa in place of her?????????? And then Lisa was so bitchy to Richard and Stephanie, who were clearly stupefied that she was still there with them. WTF?????

Wolf in the Hen House?

Today I had one of those moments that probably a lot of people across middle-class America have had at point or another, or will have at some point in the future. The realization that "That can't happen here" most certainly can. It seems as though we're about to get a new addition to our neighborhood, and it seems as though he's not going to get the warm welcome most new residents to our quiet, tree lined street typically get. You see, our prospective neighbor happens to be a registered sex offender, and it's quite disconcerting. I don't know the details, and I suspect there won't be much of an opportunity to learn the details, I'm not sure it matters a great deal one way or the other. Fact of the matter is that he was convicted, he served time (in Florida) and that he's recently registered with the Pennsylvania State Police, which is how we found out about him, via the Meagan's Law website that the state operates.
I don't know a great deal about the people he is to live with, other than that I now take their morals & values into question, as well as their use of common sense. Folks, this neighborhood is teeming with children. What kind of person of good conscience and mind would permit a relation or a friend who has a record and history of sex offense(s) against minors to reside with them?
I suppose that all I can do is be hyper-vigilant, keep an eagle eye out on my kids and every other child in this neighborhood and to teach my two children about strangers, hopefully not scaring them in the process, and hope that it's enough. Tomorrow, my sister is canvassing the neighborhood with this guy's stats and a pic, which will likely not be a popular move, but it's vital that everybody here be aware of what is about to happen.
Our neighborhood here is a little slice of heaven. Brick houses, some lovely old walnut trees here and there, the type of street where everybody knows everybody. Kids and grandkids playing in yards, backyard pool parties in the summer, a neighbor with a snow plow and another with a snowblower clearing the street and sidewalks in the winter after a snowstorm blows through. Block parties, trick or treating, laundry drying in the breeze. You can still borrow an egg or a cup of sugar from your next door neighbor here. It's not some throbbing metropolis. Many people leave their doors unlocked and their car keys in the ignition, or, if they're concerned about car theft, they'll throw their keys under the seat, or tuck them under the visor. So you hear sex offender and immediately, all those worry-free liberties you once cherised and felt okay with doing don't feel so safe any more.
Yeah, there have always been perverts, and there always will be perverts. And I should be thankful that this particular one decided to follow conditions of his parole and actually registered. Thankful, but wary. I'll update when I know more info.

:*(

Now I feel like a total shit heel for complaining about my hair. @@

:::::::::::::lifted from Regi's blog, Regi's Roost:::::::::::::::::::::



China's heartache and hope





Jiang Xiaojuan,a policewoman in China nursing a baby orphaned by the earthquake. She left her own six month old with her parents to nurse eight infants. Three whose mothers couldn't feed them due to trauma from the earthquakes, and five left orphaned. The orphanages didn't have powdered milk to feed the babies.

Bad Hair Day

Ever have one of those days when you just hate your hair? I'm having one of those days today, mostly because I'm in that sucky layer-growing out phase. See, about a year ago (technically, the end of June), I did a good deed and had 14" of hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love www.locksoflove.org, which is a great organization that makes wigs for children and young people who have lost their hair due to medical conditions and treatments like radiation and chemotherapy. I'm proud to say that I had enough hair to donate that the good people at Locks of Love were likely able to make two wigs, so that feels good. Here's what is not a good feeling. I allowed myself to be talked into a layered cut. And now those layers are growing out, and the shortest layers freaking stick out and drive me crazy. Contributing to this annoyance is that I need to get everything thinned out, I think. I'm hoping that a talented hairdresser and a straight razor are the solutions to this problem. Going forward from this point, I'm resolving to NEVER allow layers again. I'm also resolving to pay attention to my hair and get it cut more than once a year.

She Sells Seashells by the Seashore

Ha ha!
I was hired by a friend of my sister to make a cake for a bridal shower that she (the friend) was throwing this weekend. They wanted a beach-themed cake, and after googling for ideas, this is what I came up with.



The cake is lemon-buttermilk with fillings of lemon curd & raspberry jam. I iced the two tiers in vanilla buttercream and then covered that with the blue fondant. I made the seashells out of chocolate (dark, milk & white) and there are some pearls on there, also made out of fondant and then dusted with pearlized powder-glittery stuff.

The flowers on the top of the cake are coxcomb, which aren't really in season, but I wanted something that looked like coral. I was kind of afraid that they'd be ugly, but I think that the color of them lends a lot of naturalness to the cake.

Finally!

Natalie's tooth was finally ripe for picking last night and it was plucked right out! She was so excited to be able to put it under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy to take, but mostly because she knew she'd get money for it. So we did that under the pillow thing and then later she comes to me (she hadn't yet fallen asleep) to tell me that she can't find the tooth! She was terribly concerned that the TF wouldn't be leaving her money if her tooth wasn't there, so we wrote a note to her, explaining what had happened and asked her if she wouldn't mind coming back to pick up the tooth. I have to find that tooth though! It holds only sentimental value, and I guess it's kind of weird to save teeth, but my mom saved our baby teeth, and I kind of wanted to carry on the tradition. Here's a pic, I'm going to try to get some more pictures later today to send out to the grandparents and great-grandparents. Natalie has got such a teensy-tiny mouth that when she opens it up, her bottom lip covers the empty space where her tooth came out. I'm sure we'll get better pictures once the top teeth come out.

Guilty Pleasures

I've been challenged by loopie Juli to post my guilty pleasures, so here they are, in no particular order.

www.celebritybabyblog.com
I check this every morning while drinking coffee. I have no idea why, I just do.

Star Magazine, People and In Style Magazines. The first two for gossip, and the third to laugh aloud at the ridiculously expensive items that the people at In Style feel like everybody should own. Um yeah, a dress that equals the monthly rent on our last apartment. Look fabulous or be homeless? At least you'd be a nicely dressed homeless person if you went with In Style's suggestions on a routine basis.

Really good crusty French bread and really good French cheese, or really good French butter or really good olive oil. I know I don't need to elaborate more.

Half & Half in my coffee. My day is RUINED if I can't have that.

Myspace.

Manicures & Pedicures, which I don't get nearly enough anymore. They're a guilty pleasure because when I do, I think "Gosh, I shouldn't have just spent $50 on myself." But everything feels so right in the world when I DO get them.

A big strong mixed drink. There is this bar in NYC called "No Idea" and they only serve their mixed drinks in pint glasses (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO), and usually they have a calender in the front window with random first names on it, if your name is on the calender, you drink for free during happy hour on that particular day.

The Best Pastry Chefs

almost always come to work in their pajamas! Yup, they're dipping strawberries in chocolate there, this morning. And having a blast!

More Craftiness, But Not Pie Related

There are some Strawberry Festivals coming up around here soon, I'll be out and about with my camera and notebook, for there will definitely be pie at them. Oh, and next week I've been hired to make a bridal shower cake, I'll post pics of that once it's done. I have done a cake like this in a long time, so wish me luck!
On another note, a few weeks ago my mom came home with one of the most awesome sewing machines known to man, when I saw it in the back of her car, I did a little dance in the street. Yesterday, we unpacked it and I got to use it on it's maiden voyage since she was having a hot flash and just couldn't deal. Sorry mom. lol I present, the twirl skirt:

She loves it, and it was so flippin easy to make!

A Dream About My Sister

My friend Juli said that a therapist would have a field day with this, and she's totally right. However, this dream is just too funny, and odd, and SO real to not preserve for posterity.

I'm in a fabric store, looking for fabric to make an apron for my sister. I come across some fabric that would be perfect for her, it's pink and has cupcakes on it. I see that it has her name (Erika) written in really pretty script, and I'm thinking that this fabric must have been destined for her, afterall, her name is on it! Upon closer examination, I see that the fabric is slightly sheer, and I also see what I think are affirmations on it, but are in fact semi-insults. Things like "Erika will put off today what she can do tomorrow." At this point I also realize that I can just tear the fabric, into the desired length and shape, instead of cutting, which I think is really cool, because I'm not very good at cutting fabric. So I decide that I can't use the sheer, insulting fabric for the apron, and I set off to find a heavy twill to use instead, and I'll use the sheer, insulting fabric instead as pockets on her apron. At this point, I wonder if I should have Juli monogram the apron, and Juli & I are trying to decide what initials to use for Erika's mongram. Do we use her initials as they are now, or do we wait for her to get married and use her married name? We never do decide, and I never do buy the fabric because Garrett is with me, only he's a baby, and he's crawling away from me in the store and I need to go get him.

As an aside, I know why I dreamt about baby Garrett, because his 4th birthday is tomorrow, and he's definitely not a baby anymore.

I Can Increase!

It seems like the glorious, warm spring we've all been craving is finally here! I'm not sure how long she'll stick around, but we've been taking full advantage of the incredibly perfect weather, I'll tell you that. In pretty big news around here, Natalie has her first loose tooth! :*) I was in the kitchen this morning, drinking coffee and reading the paper when she came in, quite despondant, that her tooth was "broken." Given that we just shelled out $2500 in February for an extensive amount of dental work on her, I immediately checked out her mouth and found a wiggly, not broken (phew) tooth. So now the countdown to the Tooth Fairy's first visit begins. My extremely talented TX friend Juli is working on a special pillow case for Natalie to use on Tooth Fairy visit nights.

I started a new knitting project today, it's a tunic for Natalie, in a pretty rose pink yarn. I was a little scared of it at first, but after checking out http://www.knittinghelp.com/, I'm really chugging along on it, and it's pretty darn easy! The yarn is worsted weight, so it knits up quickly, and it's machine washable. I love cashmere and mohair, but they aren't so practical for a little kid, lol. My next project, which will run simultaneously with this tunic, is for some knitted dinosaurs for Garrett, he picked out a royal blue yarn for them and the pattern is on its way!

A Pie Primer

Today the kids made a pie - see, pie really is an easy thing! They had help of course, they're just 6 and almost 4. Let's start with the dough. The recipe I used came from the people at America's Test Kitchen (the tv show on PBS) and they also publish Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, as well as cookbooks. I find them kind of sanctimonious, and it seems like a lot of the time their recipes have a million steps and have you using every casserole, pot, pan, mixing bowl you own, and then once you've used all of them, you find yourself mixing ingredients in a mop bucket or something. But I digress. The recipe:

Basic Pie Dough

makes enough for 1 double crust 9" pie

2 1/2 c. unbleached All-Purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 Tb sugar

1/2 c. vegetable shortening (note: use lard if you can get your hands on the fresh stuff, it's way better than shortening and it's not a hydrogenated fat, even if it is lard).

12 Tb (1 1/2 c.) unsalted butter

6-8 Tb ice water

1. Cut up your butter and shortening or lard into about 1" sized pieces and immediately stick that in the freezer or the fridge. You want your fat to be cold when you mix it into your flour.

2. In a mixing bowl, or should you have one, the bowl of a food processor, mix together your flour, salt and sugar. Just use your hands to lightly combine those things, or pulse it a few times with your FP. You can start adding in your fat bit by bit now. I use a pastry blender (see above, I can't get it here in the post, which is where I'd like it to be) as opposed to a food processor, but if you've got the FP, by all means use it. You'll want to just pulse maybe two or three times after each addition of fat. Do not dump all your fat in at once, I really stress that you take your time with this and you'll be rewarded with a tender and flaky crust. Your dough is ready for water when the fat is in little clumps throughout the flour.

3. Once all your fat has been incorporated, you'll want to mix in your water. How much water you're going to need to add is going to vary greatly on the humidity in your locale, as well as what your flour is like. Start with the 6 TB and if it looks dry, you can add more bit by bit. It's better to not have enough, as you can always add more, but you can't take it out if you add too much. Not to worry, it won't be a loss and you won't make the same mistake twice. :-) I personally undermix things, and then turn it out onto my work surface to finish incorporating the dough, I love touching things however, and at this point in my life I've just learned to go by feel. You'll want to strive for a dough that is not homogenous, those bits of unmixed-in fat will leave lovely air pockets in your baked crust - a trait that is desired, I promise.

4. Divide your dough into two nearly as even sized pieces as possible and wrap with plastic wrap and chill for a few hours in the fridge.

So once your dough has chilled you can dust your work surface with flour and roll out one disc of pie dough so that it is about 1/4" thick or so. There are a couple of ways to transfer rolled out dough into a pie dish. You can gently roll the dough onto your rolling pin, and just unroll it over the pie dish, or you can gently fold the dough in half and then in half again (so, in quarters) and then unfold it into your dish. Either way is equally good, I prefer the rolling pin method. Once you've got the bottom part of your crust into the dish you can put your filling in. Ideally, you've already planned out your filling, today we've opted to cheat and use canned pie filling since it's March here on the East coast and there's not much available in terms of fresh fruit, aside from apple. I love to use fresh fruit and make a pie filling from that, and there are tons of recipes all over the internet and certainly in cookbooks. As an aside, the Lucky Leaf brand of pie filling makes a "premium" variety made with sugar instead of evil, evil, evil HFCS, so we used that. I've found that straining canned pie filling through a fine mesh colander helps eliminate a good portion of the goopy stuff that the fruit is suspended in, giving you mostly fruit with just a bit of goop. You'll want to buy a touch more than you think you'll need should you decide to strain though, so keep that in mind.

Next step is to roll out your top crust, the kids decided they wanted to cut heart shapes out of the top crust, which is dual purpose since it also vents the pie. If you don't want to cut out shapes of your top crust, you'll want to make a few slits with a knife to allow steam to escape. Transfer the top crust to your pie dish and pinch the edges together, the kids used a fork for this purpose. Then we brushed the top crust with milk to help with browning. You could use slightly beaten egg, beaten egg yolk with milk or cream added to it or a beaten egg white - all will help with browning. Garrett has an egg allergy, hence our choice of plain milk. Bake your pie, at 375* for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and the filling just bubbles up a bit. So that you don't end up with a righteous mess in your oven, bake your pie on a cookie sheet. Do not be a risk taker and decide that baking a pie on a cookie sheet is for squares! I can almost guarantee you that you'll be spending your evening with a can of Easy Off while your family, neighbors, husband, or whoever will be greedily finishing off the pie you've worked so hard to make.

Happy Baking!

Projects, projects

I am the queen of all things unfinished, I swear I have some sort of disorder, or perhaps not a disorder but the ability to multi-task in an extremely disorganized manner. Right now I'm not so bad, I only have 1 scarf for Shane currently unfinished, 1 pair of baby leg warmers unfinished (and I don't even have a baby or know anybody WITH a baby that needs baby leg warmers) and an Elizabeth George novel, Well Schooled in Murder . mwhahahahaha! Yesterday I finished a big bow project, and a smaller bow project and both boxes are off on their way to their recipients. I love that feeling of accomplishment that comes from the finality of a project. My next sewing venture will be two organizers for my car, they'll basically be slipcovers for the front seats, with pockets/pouches on the back for the kids' stuff. I'm hoping that it will help keep the clutter to a minimum, or at least off the space in between their car seats, there's so much stuff there that it's hard to buckle Natalie in. I want to use some rockin fabric for the pockets, with a heavier twill for the slipcovers. I'm also thinking about pie. It's still far too early here in the NE for anything local to be ready, I just love local produce and making stuff with it. Rhubarb is ready soon, and before you know it cherries and strawberries will be making an appearance. It's such a short growing season here, I'd love to live some place with a lengthier growing season, you can't really even think about planting stuff around these parts until Mother's Day.

I think we'll head out to the grocery store in a bit, and see what's available for pie fixins.
Cheers!

Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me

I admit, this one pretty much just fell into my lap, thanks in part to my sister's desire for a pie. See, there is this local woman, we'll call her Marlene S. who is known around town for her Shoo Fly Pie. Shoo Fly, for those not in the know is a molasses bottomed pie, and since Marlene's more dry than wet, hers is kind of like a coffee cake in texture and crumb. In the Shoo Fly world, there are two distinct camps, "wet-bottom"and "dry-bottom", both are equally delicious and taste the same, the wet bottom ones simply have more goo than their dry bottom counterparts. Shoo Fly is quite traditional in the part of Pennsylvania I grew up in, this part of Southeastern PA is populated by many who are ancestors of the Pennsylvania German and Mennonites.

Unfortunately, I neglected to get a picture of the entire pie. It has been sampled by two persons at this point, thankfully its present state has been photographed for posterity, as the pie will likely be gone by the weekend. Personally, I don't care much for Shoo Fly, preferring another PA German standby - Funny Cake. Funny Cake isn't even a pie I guess. It's baked in a pie tin, so I guess one could classify it as pie, but it is distinctly cake-y in texture. Perhaps I've found my next blog entry . . .

Pie In The Sky?

So I might be overly eager, and perhaps a touch optimistic that I'll remember to actually blog more than once in a blue moon. But I'll give it a fair shake. First off, let me make an introduction. I'm Inger, a SAHM (that would be stay-at-home-mom), but I prefer "Jill of All Trades, Master of None" if you want to get nit-picky about job titles. I'm a semi-retired pastry chef, a bow maker, and just this year I've taken up knitting & sewing. I think I'm pretty normal in that I've got several half-finished projects all going on at once. When I'm not busy with the kids, baking, making bows, knitting or sewing, I love to read and I love to do crossword puzzles.

I have this great group of friends, and we were chatting a bit about writing, and I mentioned that I always wanted to write about pie. So this is my pie blog. I can't promise that my normal, non-pie writing life won't intrude here, be forewarned that it most likely will - there will be pie too!