charcoal lighter, pies, & music

I'm coming along nicely with the pies! All six crusts are made, and the pecan pie is baked (and looks DELICIOUS! thanks to my mom's yummy recipe). After I finish on the computer, I'll make the pumpkin pie. While it's baking, I have to finish the laundry which I forgot about in my excitement to get to work on those pies. "Excitement" is most definitely sarcasm, but I did want to get them done. The house smells SO good!

Grilled hot dogs was only a dream -- we're out of lighter fluid. There's an ancient can on the shelf, but I couldn't figure out how to open it. My neighbor was starting his truck when I was going to the garage to see if any was out there, but I didn't have the guts to ask him if he had any. Oh well, we didn't go hungry -- I microwaved the hot dogs. They were good -- more because of the sauce I concocted and the provolone cheese than because of the meat -- but not great like they would've been on the grill. Plus, I was really looking forward to making and watching the FIRE!! I was disappointed, but too busy to really think about it too long. So "fire" is a topic I don't usually discuss, but here goes. I'm afraid of fire because of the damage it can do, but I LOVE fire, too. In high school, one of my best friends and I used to light paper on fire to singe the edges -- it looked VERY pretty when we were finished torching it. For awhile, I was making a fire in the fireplace here almost every night. I love the sound, the smell, the sight of the flames. Still afraid of it, though.

The only way I can tolerate cooking/baking with anything close to a good attitude is to have some good music playing. One of the best gifts I've ever received is an under-the-counter cd player/radio. I use that thing every single day! When I was making the pie crusts, I was listening to Brad Paisley. Country music makes me a little homesick (my parents always listened to country music, so it makes me remember being a kid, feeling safe and happy at home), plus there are some sad memories connected, too. I decided to change the cd to something that really lifts me up, makes me sing and dance, makes me praise God with everything in me. My favorite cd does just that -- Sarah Kelly's "Born to Worship." The only problem is that this past summer, Seth got ahold of that cd and used it to "clean" the hardwood floor. It's so scratched up that only songs one though five will play. Halfway through song six, I have to stop the cd and start it over again. That's pretty frustrating! I have the cd saved on the computer and on my mp3 player, but those don't sound as good as my under-the-counter cd player. So I listened to songs one through five about four times -- which is fine since those songs are SO GREAT! And of course, I can almost forget that I'm doing something I don't like when I'm hearing and singing along with that music. It's a good thing that no one's ever around when I'm cooking/baking -- I couldn't enjoy the music and distract myself from the unpleasant work. The only people I think I've ever shared the "sing and dance with music" experience with are my college friends. We even have pictures of that -- my roommate and I dancing on top of the bed, singing "Hard to Handle" into our curling irons. Great (and very funny) memories!