The apple of my eye.

We went en famille to the apple orchard yesterday, with my daughter�s friend Ed squished into the back seat, and picked a half-barrel each of cortlands and empires. I can�t recall having as much fun apple picking ever, and we�ve been going to the same place for almost 20 years. It might be that throwing a non-family member into the mix changed the dynamic so much that the mood became one of hilarity. Unfortunately, I was suffering from some kind of allergy (we�ve had the hard frost, the ragweed is supposed to be dead) and couldn�t stop sneezing, which was a real drag. Even after I took an antihistamine, the reaction continued for several hours.

We prevailed upon Ed to stay for supper (the kids had band practice at 7:30 anyway and he would have had to return to pick Little Princess up), so I cooked up a bag of perogies I had in the freezer, boiling them first and then sauteeing them in a large skillet with fried onion in butter, sauteed broccoli with garlic, and we finished it off with a freshly-baked apple crumble (made with freshly-picked cortlands) and a scoop of ice cream. It was so good.

Afterwards, Hubby, Buddy Boy and I watched Art Sch00l C0nfidential, a movie they�d rented when we stopped to buy some groceries after we left the orchard (mainly the vanilla ice cream). It was good. Weird, but good.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot that last night was writing group. We have the whole week off from work here, and it has set my schedule off. Fortunately I remember that I have to have the car to the garage in a half hour or so for the oil and filter and tire changes, but that�s not exactly a routine thing. I was exhausted last night anyway, what with the fresh air, the activity and the constant sneezing. Perhaps it was a good thing I missed writing group, although I was rather upset with myself when Hubby asked me, around 10 p.m., if that hadn�t been the case.

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