Free Pie!

Every year for the last I don't know how many years our/my broker invites clients to the

office during Thanksgiving week for a free pumpkin pie.  This year they're collecting for a food pantry and have "luncheon" which is hors d'oeuvres.  I love making a meal of hors d'oeuvres.  Little meatballs, rumaki (water chestnuts wrapped in bacon), cheese stuffed mushroom caps, shrimp, cheese & crackers, veggie tray with dip, deviled eggs, cookies, and a pie.  I checked my diet at the door and had some of everything, visited, got my pie and a calendar, and left.  I went right to the Y to walk on the treadmill and while I drove home I thought about that pie.  I knew that if I cut a slice I'd eat the whole pie.  Not a good idea, so I texted my renter and offered them the pie.  She accepted so before temptation pushed me over the edge, I toddled next door with the pie.  Whew.  I'm saving my pie eating for Thursday.

I called the city rat officer this morning and he told me what I already knew--that I need to stop feeding the birds for a while so that the food source is gone.  *sigh*  He couldn't recommend an exterminator but did warn me to get references and check references, gave me a little lecture on not getting taken for a ride, but I didn't have time to do that today.  So I think I'll take down the feeders, keep the birdbath heater going, and spring for a Christmas tree to lean against the privacy fence so the birds have a place out of the wind after they bathe.  Instead of buying a 40# bag of seed (which I need) I'll spend the money on a tree.  I don't hate the RAT(s), I just want it/them gone.

In the afternoon I started the next read-through of The Seaview to find places to insert things about Zeke the roofer.  I put in the scene where she hires him but need places where she notices the noise he's making or sees pieces of roofing going up or down, stuff like that.  I am so glad that I figured out a couple years ago that if I email the manuscript to my Kindle I can read it like an ebook which makes it loads easier to find things that need fixing.




I got chilled this afternoon so I whipped up a pot of Fire-roasted Tomato-Basil soup.  It's a Cooking Light recipe that is delicious on its own or with a couple meatballs or a bit of rotisserie chicken stirred in.  It was just right for supper after my excesses of bad-for-me goodies at lunch.

I knitted on LC's hat tonight while watching Antiques Roadshow and it wasn't until I got about an inch of the red-purple knitted that I remembered I was supposed to change to a one size bigger needle when I finished the ribbing.  *sigh*  Oh well, I just knitted onto the bigger needle, nobody will notice.  Probably not even me.  I like the colors.



25 November--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

Irina’s eyes were reduced to slits, but she barely kept control of her temper.  Sonia had just made a smart remark about one of her poems loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.  The poem she had just finished reading was one of her latest efforts.  For weeks she had sat on her patio, notebook in hand, waiting for inspiration to flow down her arm.  Many hours she waited in vain even though their garden was much improved to look at from the view a few months ago.  Dimitri and their landlord, Mel, had been working for months to plant flowering or fruiting plants to attract birds and bats.  Irina had been certain that the renewed beauty of her view would lead to an increase of words on her pages, and it did, but not words she was happy with, not words that lit up the page and made her proud.  Until just now she had been sort of happy with what she had written, but hearing Sonia’s clear, oh-so-British voice say, “Oh my.  Not up to even our fairly relaxed standards, was it?” sent hot anger coursing through her.

They're threatening us with a storm starting tomorrow evening and into Wednesday.  The heaps of snow part is supposed to track to the north through the western part of the state and miss Green Bay but we're supposed to get rain and wind.  Lots of wind.  Goodie.  All I can say is it better be over by Thursday so I can feel comfortable driving to Shawano for supper.  I haz spoken.
--Barbara