My blog was still brand new at this time last year and I was getting a bit self-conscious about all of the Malibu sunrises I kept posting. (A feeling that has clearly worn off.) So I blogged the Chili Cookoff and I blogged the Lion's Club Flea Market and then, this being a very busy time of year in our little town, signs popped up for the annual Malibu Pie Festival. Perfect.

The idea was to get some girlfriends together and have fun shopping and baking and entering our pies. And the first two parts, the shopping and the baking, worked out as I had hoped. But the actual contest part got a little weird when I entered in the apple pie category and accidentally won. First place. (Maisie was ecstatic. She ate the blue ribbon an hour after we got home.) Nothing to complain about, no one to mock. Big blogging bummer.

As I shopped for apples at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market for this year's pie festival - it's this Saturday from 11-3 at the Malibu Country Mart, if you're interested in attending - I had an epiphany. After winning first place the first time out, there's really nowhere to go but downhill. Blogging heaven! It'll be (almost) as good as winning a blue ribbon.

Maisie, I'm afraid, does not agree.

See Canyon apples at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market