Pie Wars

It all starts out so innocently....
with a harvest dinner to raise money for an interactive white board for the school. 
And then, in a flash of brilliance, it is decided to have a silent auction for pies!  Yes!  Who doesn't love pies?  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, folks can buy a pie at the auction, stick in their freezer, whip it out on Wednesday before to thaw and voila! baking done!

Yesterday, over coffee and amidst the clamor of tired kids, my friend Traci and I were sorting out the details of the dinner; assigning jobs, figuring out who cooks what, drawing up a floor plan (complete with little circles on the big rectangle to represent pies on a table).  We were visiting about the pie-lent auction and Traci unknowingly threw down the first challenge while I was planning the sign up sheets: "Yeah!  And we could see whose pie brings the most money!"

The Great Pie War of 2011

We both laughed and I patted her on the shoulder; in that chuckle, though,we both KNEW at THAT instant that we were destined to be fighting for the prize with our pastry.  We agreed to be friends, no matter how it turned out, but it's definitely on....

We have a little background in friendly competition.
One summer, we decided to see who could walk the most miles in a month, for fitness purposes.  It started out very nicely, each of us turning in our mileage every couple days and encouraging one another.  But then, about 7 days into the competition, the tone changed.  I HAD to win.  And, as it turns out, so did she.  We were killing ourselves to rack up the miles.  I mean to tell you...I went to Butte for a MASBO conference and worried like everything that while I was sitting in workshops on school finance that she'd be inching up in miles.  So I doubled mine up before I left, AND walked while I was there.  Just in case.  Traci developed plantar fasciitus in her quest to squash me.  It was not pretty. 

But bless her heart, she presented me with my winning trophy at one of her family functions, in front of everyone...a little tennis shoe charm that is one of my most cherished possesions.  And we laughed and hugged, realizing that perhaps we were both perhaps a little too competitive for our own good.

That was a few years ago.
I'm sure we've outgrown that silly sort of behavior...

I'd like to invite all the Chronicles readers to come to Cohagen Gym next Friday evening, November 18th, starting at 5:30 p.m. and bid on the bourbon pecan pie or the sour cream raisin pie with miracle meringue topping.  Remember...it's for a good cause!  (The interactive smart board is a pretty good reason, too, if you have to have another.)

*I was just told that my bum calves brought $800 dollars, total, at the sale barn on Tuesday.  I know my husband is going to be standing close to the pie-lent auction table, making sure I don't bid my own pies up with this funding....
**As if I'd do that....

(I'd like to note that this war is not between anyone but Traci and I.  If it was over ALL the pies, we'd just have to hand the ribbon over to Nancy Horn before it even began...)