"Well, pumpkin pie's pretty questionable, anyway. I've never understood why everyone's so crazy about it. I guess there's nothing morally objectionable about it, but I can see why you're not wild about it."

Is he drinking this drink too fast? He's pretty sure he is. To be fair, it tastes good, and he's taking a sip every time he pauses for breath, which is pretty frequently -- that's the thing about talking fast, he's found: it can really wear you out. And how strong are these drinks, anyway? Will he know when this one's starting to affect him? Is it starting to already? Better drink some more and find out.

"What's it like, being your own boss? I can imagine it being really fun, because you can do whatever you want, and nobody can yell at you, but I can also imagine it being really frustrating, because you don't have anyone to blame except yourself if bad decisions get made. I mean, if something gets screwed up around my office, I can always blame it on the powers that be, by which I mean the entire executive team, and believe me, they screw things up regularly. Being your own executive team puts a lot of responsibility on you. You must be stressed out a lot."

At least, he'd be stressed out, if he had to run a pie shop, but then, pie is, apparently, Ned's passion, so maybe he's not.