Flaking, But No Itching Or Burning

I just happened to look out the window and noticed that it looked a bit whiter than usual out as we are getting our first snowfall of the winter.
Whoopee.
I was just about to say that I'm sure that the light, softly falling flakes that people from places that have real winters would shrug off and barely notice are probably wreaking all manner of havoc around here. As I started to type that, I heard the sirens.
These people are just pathetic.
Today proved to be kind of irritating.
I've been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, so to be a good guest, and to use up the can of pumpkin I had sitting around from the last time that I didn't make pumpkin bread, I decided to make a pumpkin cheesecake. I thought it would be an interesting twist on a holiday classic.
...
Shortly after I set it to baking my oven decided that today would be the day that it would let me know that it needs to be cleaned - by filling my apartment up with smoke.
So I had to take the cheesecake out and set it aside, put some fans going to get some of the smoke out, and, in order to get the requisite cleaning supplies, head to one of the worst places in the world: a grocery store on the night before Thanksgiving.
(Someday, when I have more energy, and the trauma isn't so fresh, I'll write an entry about the experience.)
Once I got home I cleaned the oven well enough to remove any built-up gunk that would cause a repeat of the earlier smokiness, and put the cheesecake back in.
Eventually it started to smell good, and I looked at the recipe to see what I needed to do to make the topping.
It was at that point that I realized that while the recipe for the topping called for 16 ounces of sour cream, I only had 8.
*Sigh*
So it was back to the mouth of hell to pick up more sour cream.
Once I was home again I made the topping, put it on the cheesecake, and put it back in the oven for 10 minutes.
When I took it out, a tiny amout of residual smoke came out with it, and while they had ignored the considerably larger volume of smoke that had been issuing forth earlier, my smoke alarms decided to take this opportunity to go off because apparently they thought it would be funny.
But at least the damn thing is done now.
I've never made it before so I have no idea how it will taste. While it was baking (the second time), it did manage to overcome the smell of smoke and produce a pleasant pumpkin-pie like smell, but I have this suspicion that when it gets sliced into tomorrow it will have a decided smoky flavor...
As things stand, I have about a week to crank out another 16,000 words to complete my novel, or at least hit the word count.
In any case, I just wanted to take the time to mention the snowfall and my baking misadventure, and wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.