We're back home! And, to help us adjust, we wanted to bake a pie with fresh-picked apples from our tree. Trouble was that the apples were too high to reach and our ladder was too rickety (see exhibit A, left). So, I told the kids to step out from under the tree while I shook it. They then went chasing after the bouncing apples. We couldn't quite get enough, so Cindy had to hold the ladder (together) while I climbed on it. She and I about knocked ourselves out but, alas, we got enough apples to make a pie. Then I sent the kids out to pick blackberries for another one. Ah, there are no blackberries or apples fresh in Hawaii (but I would have settled for a pineapple upside-down cake).