Indiana
I haven't updated in a while. I have a real talent for stating the obvious.
It comes from my days as an English major. A whole heck of a lot has been
going on. A couple of weekends ago (to be more specific, the one where Hurricane
Charley was careening up the East Coast only as it turned out it didn't really
careen so much as spit, with the exception of Florida which got hit really
hard), Dave and I headed out to Long Island to spend a few days visiting with
my Uncle and Aunt. We had a great time, but when we got home on Sunday, we
had a message from my mother-in-law saying that Dave's Uncle had passed away
earlier that morning. "Shocking" and "devastating" are two fairly accurate
words to describe that turn of events. A few days later we were back on the
road heading out to Indiana for the funeral. The family came together to talk
and hang out at Dave's Aunt's house every night. I told my mom in an email
the morning after the funeral that I'd never felt more comfortable with Dave's
family; his Uncle always made me feel at home and part of the family during
my Christmases to Virginia, so it seemed perfect that his funeral would be
a catalyst for that. Anyway, it seemed strange on the drive back home to look
back and talk about how much fun it was to see everyone, but it's the truth
and I think Dave's Uncle would love that.
While we were in Indiana, we had a chance to catch up with an old friend
of Dave's from his MIT grad student days, Ken
Kuno. Ken gave us a tour of Notre Dame which is a fairly large campus
and while he didn't take us everywhere, we went far enough for us to develop
a kickin' appetite. Sooooo, Dave and I jumped in the car and headed straight
for Baker's Square.
Flashback to 1995: I was attending Oakland
University in Michigan and happened to be taken to Baker's Square one
day for dinner. Their gimmick is pie which is a very good gimmick because
who doesn't love pie. It happened to be the month of January, and the pie
of the month was Cookies and Cream. I tried a piece and let me say, this pie
tasted just like you always hoped and imagined a Cookies and Cream pie would
taste. I proceeded to consume as many as humanly possible during the month
of January. I remember a friend calling up (if you're out there, hi chris!)
and saying he was going to drop by and could he bring anything and I said
"Yes, bring a Cookies and Cream pie please." and he did because he's awesome.
So anyway, as soon as we arrived at the hotel the first thing I did was look
in the phonebook to see if there was a Baker's Square, and holy pies from
heaven batman, there totally was. And, as if this story couldn't get any better,
the cookies and cream pie is now called "Oreo" pie and it's a regular feature
on their menu. I could've cried. I'm almost crying now just thinking back
on it. It was lovely. I wonder if they'd express mail one to me... Or maybe
we need to think about moving to Indiana.
Moving on, Dave started school last week. I can't believe it's that time
of the year already. The summer flew by. We traveled so much during late July
and August that I was a little lost last week not having any trip to prepare
for and am completely relieved that this Friday will find us back in the trusty
Malibu, flying over Pennsylvania's highways with the car pointed towards my
grandmother's house. She's hosting the Blanchard family reunion this year.
I'm looking forward to it, especially since we couldn't make it last year.
And after all of that longwindedness, I think that's all I'm inspired to
say at this point in time. Maybe next time I'll tell you all about how I've
been scraping and re-caulking the outsides of all of the first floor windows.
It's pretty exciting!