Pie Day and Airports (posted by Ann)

Loved Pie Day, currently hate airports. I'm sitting at O'Hare - got here at 5:30, it's now 7:51, and my 7:30 flight now shows as leaving at 10pm. I'm sitting in the Red Carpet room, where they just announced that we are under a Tornado Warning, with 70 - 80 mph winds and a ground halt for at least the next hour. I don't think I'm going anywhere . . . .

So I'll tell you about Pie Day. Michele, the 13 year old daughter of my good friend, Ann, is learning how to cook. She told me that she couldn't make pie, which of course I took as a challenge, so we came up with Pie Day. She was to come over, we'd make pie, and then everyone could come for dinner (as long as they brought pizza) and we'd eat said pie.

We made six pies last Sunday morning - Coffee Cream Pie; Red, White and Blueberry Pie, Peach Pie, Jumbleberry Pie, Lemon Icebox Pie, and French Silk Pie. We called and invited several families to sample the pies, but no one could come but Michele's parents and brother. So we had six pies and seven people (!). Michele's father, Tim, won the pie eating contest by eating over half a pie. He had a piece of every single one, including ice cream or whipped cream as appropriate. It hurt my stomach just to watch him!

At the end of the evening, we crowned Michele the Pie Princess, and she acknowledges that she can now make pie.

The funniest part was that the next day our neighbors called and said that they were so sorry they couldn't make it. Don told Walter to come over and get some pie, and he did!

Don managed to eat the rest of the Coffee Cream and Peach pies for the rest of the week. He said he ate Peach Pie with ice cream for breakfast since it had fruit, grain and dairy. Very healthy choice, don't you think?

I'll try to get some pictures for you, though I have to get them from Tim. I have lost custody of the camera since Don's really into his airplane build, he is using it constantly. He has completed the oil cooler, which was a very complicated thing to put together because it also heats the airplane. He has finished the canard (the small wing on the front of the airplane) with what I think are called ailerons. They look like flaps to me, but Don keeps telling me that they aren't flaps. He's done foot pedals, landing lights on the canard wing, and various other very complicated pieces. Everything is custom made, and takes forever to finish. It is, of course, being done perfectly since Don is building it. It will be gorgeous when done, and I think he is really enjoying the whole process.

I guess I could post some airplane pictures, though airplanes aren't my favorite subject at the moment. It's still storming, still on a ground halt, and I'm still at O'Hell.