Someone's in the Kitchen

by Martha Reed

I have a traditional as I near the end of the year where I make a cup of tea and sit down to see how well I kept to my task list. Each January, I write a task list and project the Top 10 things I want to accomplish over the next twelve months. Surprisingly, I usually manage to complete at least 7 or 8 of them although the ‘lose 20 pounds’ line item continues to persist from year to year.

The biggest item from this year was ‘finish your mss’. I’m happy to report that I did; my next task is ‘sell it to an agent or publisher’. I’m still working on that one, too.

The second biggest item on my 2011 list was ‘redo the kitchen’. That task seemed overwhelming but I bit the bullet in May and started to research it out and miracle of miracles, I officially finished the new kitchen when I installed a stainless tile backsplash two weeks ago. Before you think I’m all handy, this statement comes with a caveat: halfway through the night when the wall got cold all my lovely self-adhesive tiles fell off the wall. I’ll tell you what, that was some noise to wake up to. It sounded like someone downstairs was shuffling cards at my dining room table. Anyway, the next day at Home Depot I purchased a couple of tubes of industrial adhesive. Those suckers are staying stuck to the wall now.

The other thing I like to do at year-end is to go through my Mac and clean out my folders. While I was working on that this long luxurious four-day weekend, I came across this picture of our volunteer day at WQED with Chris Fennimore. I thought it appropriate to post since we’re standing in his kitchen. The other ladies in the picture are fellow Sisters in Crime Pittsburgh siblings but as I studied the picture I found myself wondering: why is the only person afraid of the knife, me?