Hello from the Catskills! Friends of my uncle's are on the property cutting up logs for firewood, so there is the siren call of the chainsaw for background music right now. We* actually had snow this morning, which was so very fine and only stuck to the leaves, which in many cases are still on the trees.

* Me and the elderly cat Sylvia who was still alive when I checked an hour or two ago.

I am having a mini-apple pie for lunch. It's got two whole apples in it. That's healthy, right?

I woke up at 4:45 new time, but since I didn't stumble to bed until after 1 new time, I wasn't all that happy.

I woke up from dreaming that I was in patesserie school and that Michael Fassbender was my teacher. And Allen Leech (Branson in Downton) was also a student in the class. The female students were openly hitting on Fassy, but I was all "How you doin'" to Branson. Anyway, I think it's my brain trying to convince me to go to culinary school by trying to convince me it will be filled with hot Irish men.

You're good for two days, on the apple-a-day principle!

I had brunch with an old friend and her small child, and my choice was not the best. I mean, it was fine, but they didn't have what the kid wanted to eat (or course he ate plenty and was fine) and also they have underwear on the walls as decor. Her position is, she does ALL KINDS of things she doesn't necessarily want to for the kids, so they can take a turn once in a while, which I highly appreciate.

I swear to god, realtors in the neighborhood should put me on retainer. At both of the open houses I went to today, I ended up giving prospective buyers the hard sell on the neighborhood. Walkability, what stores are nearby, farmers markets, what is super awesome about these houses, etc.

And one house must've had a cat living in it because I am positively being molested by my big-eyed cats.

Jesse, did you get any (eta: ahrg, Pumpkin) fun reaction from the kid?

Haha, no. The kid could barely make eye contact. He was all right, though!

Your brain makes some good points, Sue. Also: mmm, pie.

I made some pan seared chicken with a white wine tarragon sauce. Too much work for limited payoff.

Grace is playing and talking to herself. She has empty toilet paper rolls on her hands and is pretending to be a robot. My kids are odd.

I swear to god, realtors in the neighborhood should put me on retainer. At both of the open houses I went to today, I ended up giving prospective buyers the hard sell on the neighborhood. Walkability, what stores are nearby, farmers markets, what is super awesome about these houses, etc.

I'm kinda wanting to move to your neighborhood myself.

That doesn't sound odd, Kat. I'm sure I've done that.

Not recently, of course. My hands won't fit in toilet paper rolls anymore.