ah, november…

Posted on November 8, 2025 by is there any more pie?

If it’s November, we must be getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Nope. Oh, the potato casserole is in the freezer next to the spinach casserole. As are the turkey breasts. The mantle is decorated and my velvet pumpkins are all over the house.

But now? We’re getting ready for Christmas. The kids are coming home this year, the first time in about sixteen years.

What does that mean in November, you ask?

It was time to find my old cookie recipe.

And I went at it (I doubled the recipe).

My dough was too soft, despite spending the night in the refrigerator. It took several attempts to roll it out without sticking to the butcher block top of the island. And it took three days to make the cookies. But I did it! And thirteen dozen sugar cookies are now in the freezer awaiting the traditional family decorating event.

But I didn’t stop there.

Banjo Man and I made these. Seventy of them. Do you think that will be enough?

To celebrate, we headed down to the port of Galilee for fish ‘n chips. We watched the fishing boats, the seagulls, the Block Island ferry and simply enjoyed the view while we had a late lunch.

This is my favorite place to eat fish ‘n chips. Order at the window, snag a seat closest to the window facing the breakwater and watch the boats until your buzzer goes off and it is time to pick up lunch.

It’s quiet here in November. A few locals and some die-hard tourists (day trippers maybe?) joined us on Champlin’s Deck. One couple had ordered five lobsters. We tried not to stare, but it was an impressive sight.

Champlin’s will be open during the Christmas holidays, so we hope the kids want to join us one afternoon.

Cookies, meatballs, seafood? That’s Christmas in Rhode Island!!!

Posted in family, food, rhode island | 2 Comments

the funny grandson’s birthday

Posted on October 29, 2025 by is there any more pie?

At age one, here he is in his first Halloween costume. Fourteen years later, he’s playing high school football.

After the football game (they won).

He still loves blueberry cake, the lake, anything to do with football (college and pro), steak dinners and ice cream.

It’s a good life, FG! Happy Birthday!

We’ll see you in a few weeks.

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happy birthday to will

Posted on October 24, 2025 by is there any more pie?

I’m not sure how old Will was here, but he was clearly thrilled with his Mickey Mouse cake. His best friend Jeremey is getting a kick out of his friend’s reaction.

They met when they were two and are still good friends.

I can’t believe I made that cake. I don’t have the Mickey Mouse cake pan or the red tablecloth anymore, but I do still have the white platter.

I’m sure Will’s second-graders are making him cards and maybe even singing Happy Birthday. He told me that they often break out in song for no reason. We met the children a couple of weeks ago and they are such a cheerful bunch. The girls dance and twirl, the boys laugh, everyone chatters and it’s obvious they are happy. It’s a very fun elementary school. I’ve never seen anything like it.

So Happy Birthday, Will. I hope you have cake.

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meltdown

Posted on October 20, 2025 by is there any more pie?

No, not me.

Between the time we left RI in May and when daughter Nancy moved in five days later, a transformer blew and our power was out for days.

Days.

Which meant everything in those appliances had to go. Two refrigerators and an upright freezer had to be emptied. What a job!

And thank goodness for a daughter who, after discovering the mess and calling the electric company, cleaned out the freezer and refrigerators and hauled the mess to the dump

So we are starting over, which is not a bad thing…if I can keep Banjo Man from filling all three appliances with more food, food we couldn’t possibly consume in three years.

We are no longer thirty minutes away from a grocery store. We are no longer dealing with months of snow and icy roads. We are no longer feeding six children. And we are no longer entertaining as much as we used to.

I need to get that through my head, too, whenever I am tempted to succumb to the “just in case” mentality.

I have a bit of a “prepper” mindset. It came in handy during the Covid lockdowns. Oh, I ran out of flour and sugar like everyone else, but we inventoried our freezer and had enough meals for at least six months.

Banjo Man can’t resist a sale, but last year he reined it in and managed to resist a lot of “good deals”.

This fall my freezer will be filled with Thanksgiving casseroles and Christmas cookies, not $1.89 a pound boneless chicken breasts and ten bags of buy-one-get-one-free broccoli crowns.

Although…can you ever have too much chicken and broccoli? Maybe not.

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thursday night lights

Posted on October 17, 2025 by is there any more pie?

Before the game.

During the game.

Go #50!!!

After the game.

Long after the game.

It’s always a bit of a culture shock going from two lane roads in Idaho to the big city Interstate in Austin. The skyline grows bigger and brighter every year.

This morning we are getting ready to leave for the airport. Time to go home for the winter.

Goodbye, my Texans! See you in December…

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whatever works

Posted on October 13, 2025 by is there any more pie?

Here is Banjo Man watching the Nebraska-Maryland game on his phone using his YouTube tv app.

We were in the Spokane airport food court Saturday afternoon before boarding our flight.

Go Big Red…wherever we are!

Posted in family, travel | 4 Comments

still dark out

Posted on October 11, 2025 by is there any more pie?

6:24 AM.

Still dark out. So different from those summer mornings when the sky lightens dramatically at 4:30 AM.

I am up very, very early. We have a long travel day ahead of us, but I am wide awake and need coffee. I was ready for my first sip at 4:45 AM.

Do I plan to sleep on the plane this afternoon? I sure do!

Our rental car is in the driveway. Our suitcases are 90% packed. The house is ready for next year’s fun. And we are ready for some family time in Texas.

But I will miss the mountains. The lake. The good friends who make life worth living. It was a good, healing summer.

And I even baked a pie.

Posted in family, food, friends, lake | 1 Comment

flying away

Posted on October 10, 2025 by is there any more pie?

We aren’t packing up the car for a road trip back to Rhode Island today. Which is epic. Instead of hauling heavy suitcases into and out of airports, we are traveling tomorrow with small carry-on luggage.

Several boxes of clothes we can’t live without are making their way to RI via USPS. Neither one of us can believe how much time packing up the car took every year. We are definitely enjoying a more relaxed departure this week. Austin, Texas, here we come!

Here’s how we celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary. Are we “hot and fresh” like the pizza box says? We’d like to think so!

Rocco’s has become our new favorite place to eat, right in Clark Fork.

On September 20, we went to the Hope Community Center’s annual fall fundraiser.

A good time was had by all. I couldn’t dance, due to still wearing “the boot”, but nothing stopped me from having brats and beans for dinner and enjoying the company of cheerful friends.

It’s hard to believe we will be back in RI a week from today. That was a fast summer, a fast five months, a fabulous break from doctor appointments and scans and tests. October and November have typically been intense (remember the tree falling on the house a few years ago?) and filled with nasty surprises, but this fall should be peaceful and a whole lot more fun.

The lake and the mountains have worked their magic. Banjo Man and I are feeling much better than when we staggered into this beautiful retreat in May.

Posted in food, friends, lake | 4 Comments

ooh la la!

Posted on October 7, 2025 by is there any more pie?

Two weeks ago My French Friend Janou invited the Real Housewives of Hope and Montana to her home for lunch.

A French lunch. On a deck overlooking the lake.

Tres manifique!

I’ve never watched any of the Real Housewives shows, but I do know that our group is not at all like those catty drama queens I’ve seen on commercials.

Don’t we look like a lot of fun?

MFFJ created an amazing six-course French-inspired menu.

Third course: fruit, cookies and chocolate.
I had tablecloth envy.
And for dessert? Profiteroles!

One of the highlights was the first course, a casserole of sliced tomatoes and herbs baked in cream. I wish I had taken a picture.

September is the Social Season around here. Grandchildren are back in school. Company has returned home. Gardens no longer require care. Fruit needs to be processed–there are plums and pears and apples galore–but we do that in our own time and at our own pace. Sometimes we are forced to share with the bears and the deer.

I have always loved September.

And our lunches together grow more and more special.

Merci beaucoup, MFFJ!!!

Posted in food, friends, lake | 2 Comments

eye don’t know about this

Posted on October 6, 2025 by is there any more pie?

Here are some of my Dollar Store “reader” glasses. This whole “cataract surgery” process has been a bit more complicated than I expected.

I wore my huge boot and hobbled into the hospital for the first surgery. The boot confused the nursing staff as they wondered if a mistake had been made and I was to have foot surgery instead of eye surgery. Of course they asked how I broke my foot and my reply–“I was rehoming a duck”–was met with silence and raised eyebrows.

Afterwards Banjo Man helped me hobble across the parking lot to the car. Along with the boot and the pink cane, I now sported a large plastic eye guard held in place by a ton of tape.

So pretty.

“Take me to Serv-A-Burger”, I insisted. “I am STARVING.”

In my defense, I hadn’t had anything to eat in nineteen hours.

Banjo Man: “Drive up window?”

I should have caught on then, because my husband never voluntarily goes into a drive-up window situation.

“Oh, no,” I said. “I can’t see well enough to eat in the car on the way home. I need to sit down.”

“I’ll drop you off,” he said. “I need to get a few things at Super 1. Like broccoli. And bread.”

It wasn’t until he sped off and I walked into this beloved local hamburger joint that I suddenly realized I didn’t look my best. The poor young woman at the counter did an obvious double-take and tried to hide her shock as she saw a plastic boot, pink cane, plastic eye guard, and a white haired senior citizen.

I must have been a vision.

Ask me if I cared. I wanted onion rings and I didn’t care what I looked like.

A few days later I learned that Banjo Man went to Super 1, bought no groceries, and leisurely enjoyed one of their famous 25-cent ice cream cones for half an hour while I gulped down a burger and onion rings.

There was no way he wanted to be seen with me.

I couldn’t blame him. No one in their right mind would have wanted to accompany me anywhere.

After the second surgery–yes, I still wore the boot but didn’t need the cane that day–we once again stopped at Serv-A-Burger again. This time Banjo Man went inside and ordered take-out.

I couldn’t stop laughing.

So now, almost two weeks later, I’m still trying to navigate life without long-distance glasses and life with needing “readers” for just about everything. I have bought five pairs and they are all over the house. I’ve been reassured that it takes about six weeks for vision to settle, so I am trying to be patient.

On the other hand, I can sit on the dock and see this:

Posted in family, lake, personal female whining | Leave a comment