March 2008

Cake, or death?

I was disappointed that I couldn’t get tickets to see Eddie Izzard’s performance here this coming June. Tickets sold out just a few minutes after they went on sale. BUT! Thanks to Brittney, I learned this morning that they have announced another performance date! Next Monday! And I got tickets!!!! And I don’t have to wait until June!!! I’m soooooo excited!!!!!!  I am an evil giraffe, and I shall eat more leaves from this tree then perhaps I should, so that other giraffes may die. There’s no Church of England fundamentalism. We can’t have Church of England fundamentalism. You know, like they have Islamic fundamentalism. Jihad!  Church of England fundamentalism is impossible because you can’t have: “You must have tea and cake with the vicar… or you die!” Tea and cake or death! Students with beards, “Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cookbook! Little Red Cookbook!” You know, ’cause, “Cake or death?” That’s a pretty easy question. Everyone, anyone could answer that.  “Cake or death?” “Uhh, cake please.” “Very well! Give him cake!” “Oh, thanks very much. It’s very nice!” [points] “You! Cake or death?” “Uh, cake for me, too, please!” “Very well! Give him cake, too! We’re gonna run out of cake at this rate. [points] You! Cake or death?” “Uh, death, please. No, cake! Cake! Cake, sorry. …” “You said death first, ahaaa, ahaaaa, death first!” “Well, I meant cake!” “Oh, all right. You’re lucky I’m Church of England! Cake or death?” “Uh, cake please.” “Well, we’re out of cake! We only had three bits and we didn’t expect such a rush! So what do you want?” “What, so my choice is ‘or death?’ Well, then I’ll have the chicken, please.”  

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Love Lou, Verene, & Mickie

Grandma lived on Johnson Point, a little peninsula of land north of Olympia. All the waterfront houses sat on a bank high above a rocky beach, with about 5 acres or so of woods behind them. It was a beautiful community of cute older hand-built houses, gardens, apple orchards, forest and beach. And when I say hand-built I do mean that. Grandpa (who I never met; he died in 1948) built the house. Mom has photos of the construction! In fact, they built the house around the wardrobe in the upstairs attic room! It was too big to fit through the door. Lou and Verene, two outrageously sharp and funny older ladies, lived two houses away from Grandma, with their Sheltie dog, Mickie. I absolutely adored Lou and Verene, and for a while in the mid-1980s Lou and I wrote letters back and forth when I was in Texas during the school year (this was the Dark Ages, kids; no such thing as e-mail yet). I found a stack of these letters in a box in my attic a few nights ago. I didn’t even realize I had them. I am sure there were more; maybe they’re at my mom’s house in a box somewhere. I’m going to post bits and pieces from several of them. For reference, Fran lived between Grandma and Lou & Verene, and was Grandma’s best friend. Echo was Fran’s huge slobbery basset hound. Alicia was the woman who bought Grandma’s house after Grandma died in 1984. She was known as “Alicia the Awful” to the neighborhood, and completely changed the atmosphere of this wonderful little community of neighbors and friends by being nasty, cutting down trees and putting up fences and such. A lot of what Lou wrote me had to do with “the latest” on Alicia’s […]

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