Yet Another Way to Cut the Cheesecake

Yesterday I baked two cheesecakes for the Thanksgiving dinner at church. This was my first time to try pumpkin cheesecake. It was pretty good, but the gingersnaps I used for the crust were kind of strong and almost bitter.

For years I've been trying to perfect my cheesecake attempts, including how to cut them cleanly. It isn't easy, and today I tried a new method using thin florist wire.

I set the cheesecake on a pedestal made from a bowl. This enable me to pull the wire completely downward to cut thru the crust.

Don't worry--I washed the pliers first.

Disappearing Diving Duck

Well, I think it was a duck, but I'm not even sure of that. Twice this month I've seen a water bird sitting alone in the middle of a small pond, mottled brown in color, smaller than a mallard and quite shy. Both times this bird has dived straight down. I patiently wait and wait and wait and wait, and the bird never reappears! Logically that can only mean that it dove down, swam to the rushes and then resurfaced where I could not see it.

Anybody have an idea what bird that might be?

I need a bird-identifying buddy!