I'm Still Here!

I twisted Ed’s arm to let me have some computer time, and now I’m not sure what it was I wanted to blog about so much! I did have an entry on Monday, but my honeybunch accidentally deleted before I published. It was something along the lines of how the kids had been sick so we’d missed church again, and how our wonderful neighbors had taken us on a road trip to see fall leaves and I’d gotten car sick. Eminently deletable, actually. The road trip was fun, though. They showed us a wonderful scenic view nearby, and then we drove up to Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the leaves were just lovely. We stopped and wandered around for a bit at an old grist mill which has been made into a little museum, and then drove back. I didn’t start feeling sick til we started back (those twisty roads did me in), so it was mostly very nice.

Ed has been working on putting the new formica on our counters, but it is taking a little longer than expected. Being the extremely manly man that he is, he never mentioned that he never actually used a router before. The counters will get done, and they will be lovely, but there will be a little extra time (and formica) required due to the necessity of learning to use the tools involved.

I finished Frankenstein yesterday and went to my first book group meeting last night. There were about six other women, very nice, and lots of refreshments, and the discussion was quite interesting. All the other women are members of the same Presbyterian church, and all homeschool. All of them came to this area from elsewhere, though, so they were able to give me some ideas about adapting to very small town life. Next month’s book is something by Nathanial Hawthorne (Grandfather’s Chair?), which might be interesting.

I went to the corner shop this morning looking for whipping cream to make a chocolate pumpkin cake to take to a pot luck tonight, and came home with a giant half pumpkin. There was a man with a truck full of cut pumpkins, and he offered me one. I asked what I would do with it, and he said “make pies.” It was almost more than I could do to carry the thing home, but I put it in the oven this afternoon, and Ed and I just took it out, very baked. I think maybe I should have checked on how long it was supposed to bake, because it was quite dark around the edges and full of water (10 – 15 cups) when we took it out. If it still looks moist enough when I cut it, I guess I’ll puree it for pie. If not, maybe I could cut it up and bake it in chunks like sweet potatoes?