Not Much to Report

I finally dug the car out of the ice block it was encased in yesterday. Freckles needed food. He's on a special prescription diet. His 20-pound bag of food costs more than 50 dollars. You'd think he'd be a little more friendly.

He seems to recognize and probably smell the big, new bag of food sitting in the back sun room, and that seems to make him happy and excited. But he still promptly greeted me first thing this morning by vomiting all over the floor.

Thanks Freckles. Good morning to you too.

I woke up again at 1:30 a.m. last night. But last night, miraculously, for the first time this week, I fell back to sleep. I slept until five a.m. so I was quite thrilled.

Barb woke up an hour later and is sipping coffee and watching Lucy on TV. She loves Lucy. I'm sorry, but I just don't get Ricky Ricardo. Does anyone really think this guy can sing? He makes me cringe.

I'm working myself into breakfast time since my morning steroid has to be taken with food. Barb's homemade English Muffins just keep getting better and better. I'll toast two of those puppies up, then fill them with ham and cheese and heat them up in the microwave for 30-seconds and breakfast is brewing.

I consider myself a pretty good cook. But Barb is a much better baker.

Baking requires precise measuring and consistency and that's how Barb cooks. She follows directions.

Me? Well, for me recipes are generally only guides. I guess I always had problems with directions. I color outside the lines.

When I cook I kind of wing it and feel my way through dishes. Actually I cook a lot by smell, as odd as that may sound.

But we make a good team. I take care of the entrees and sides. She takes care of the breads and desserts. And we're the best place to eat in town.

I am very excited about a new pizza shop in town. I don't get very excited about pizza shops unless it's a shop that makes their own dough every day, and this shop reportedly does, pizza dough, rolls, everything. I always like to be near a good cheese steak.

We've had two other pizza shops in town since we've lived here but they were both miserable. So I have high hopes for this new one that just opened, that we've yet to try.

When opening a business, location means a lot. And doing business inside Marietta Borough limits is tough because we do not get much traffic. That makes it a nice place to live. But virtually every business that has tried to open here in town has failed, except professional services like realtors and graphic artists who do not depend on traffic as much.

Marietta is only about two-miles long and about a quarter-mile wide. There is no room for expansion or new building so it's a challenge to the municipality to find new revenue sources.

The new pizza shop is in a brand new little strip mall that they built onto a very large townhouse development that was constructed this summer just outside of town. There's plenty of traffic there. So they should find success. If their cheese steaks are quality, I'll probably keep them in business alone.