Tired, hungry and out of sorts after a brutal round of morning golf, Stan opted to not join his sister and wife this afternoon on their trip with brother Virgil around Lake Minnetonka, with a stop at a lovely park and dinner in Wayzata.
Instead, he went to the couch after a discussion with Kathleen about what to make for a late lunch. Since he'll be fasting tonight and tomorrow morning in anticipation of a visit to the VA hospital, he thought something substantial would be in order.
"How about a Marie Calander chicken pot pie," Kathleen suggested. It does take an hour or so, but I can wait, Stan said. With that, he fluffed a pillow on the porch couch in anticipation of a nice nap.
As she prepared to leave with Solveig, Kathleen stuck her head into the porch. "I preheated the oven and I put the pie in," she volunteered sweetly. "When the dinger goes off, it will be ready."
(Stan could have done this for himself, of course, but Kathleen is a bit old-fashioned when it comes to feeding. Stan doesn't mind.)
Kathleen and Sosie left, and Stan fell asleep with one ear tuned to the oven. An hour and five minutes later, he was dinged into the kitchen.
There he found an oven heated to 400 degrees. . . with nothing in it. Sure enough, out on the counter sat Marie Calander's pie, just starting to melt.
Greatly disappointed, Stan tried to recall what Kathleen had said when she left. She did say she put the pie in the oven, or did she? No matter.
Stan hit the reset button on the oven, ran the timer up to and hour and five minutes and stuck the pie in the oven, grabbing some kitchen nuts to assuage his still growing hunger. He went back to the couch.
An hour later, he was dinged awake. He could almost smell the pot pie. Almost.
He went to the oven with anticipation. Unfortunately, in his frustration to reset the oven he had started the timer. . . but shut off the oven.
The pie, though completely melted after all this, was far from cooked.
Frustrated and famished, Stan reset the oven to 425 . . . and stuck in a 10-minute cardboard pizza.
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Sosie, Virg, Becky and Kathleen enjoyed dinner at the 318 Restaurant in Excelsior. When Kathleen and Sosie got home, everyone had a big laugh.
