Smokey Mountain Breakdown

...and thank you. I got a message on the answering machine from him that one of you guys sent him a gift card. He said, "Your blog people are the best!"

Of course you are. I knew that.

This was when he was down for the Hall reunion. He's going to kill me when he sees I posted this picture. He will complain that his gut looks like it is sticking out and he's much slimmer than that anyway.

I'm really busy. I've had a flurry of acceptances--they seem to come rolling in all at once--which means I then have to go around telling the folks who also had the story that they can't have it because so-and so decided to take it and I'm really sorry.

Plus, I've been putting up pears. Like. 80 pounds of them. And there is more to come. Bumper crop. I'm running out of pint jars. I did find the trick to making them and keeping them really pale in color. They usually caramelize and lose that pretty paleness. The solution involves cooking them on the warmer for like--eight hours. So, I'm chained to the stove.

And I'm worried about my family down in South Carolina with the hurricanes coming.