hazelchaz | Well this is my back yard, my back gate, I hate to start my parties late

So, if you weren't here for yesterday's party, what did you miss?

A house full of congenial people, and some nice conversation. A pleasant evening to sit outside on the back patio (where the benches are - also a couple of wrenches were out there too).

nolly and her Cat in the Hat slippers. (Which made her The Fog, because she came in on little cat feet...) Marina and Tom with Tom's Shakespeare-meets-Seuss shirt ("I did not kill that king, I did not poison anything"), Colleen with her fuzzy blue Seussian socks. Dale had an actual Green Eggs and Ham t-shirt. (Apparently Elaine and Dale had been debating before the party whether other Dr. Seuss references would fit the theme, and decided to play it safe and stick with Green Eggs and Ham.) Dennis and Kristine with their Grinches. Lots of them. One to sit on a chair (or to be cradled like a particularly ugly baby), one to sit in Dennis's pocket, and so forth, plus the antlers-on-the-wall prop for the dog.

More party details...

We had a lot of food. (We usually do. If we invite you to a party, we're going to feed you dinner. Or lunch, if it's in the afternoon.) Dorothy and Bob brought a noodle casserole that was very tasty, it was a nice side dish to have because we didn't have such. (I also had the opportunity to explain to Dorothy on the phone that we welcome food contributions, we just don't solicit them the way that a potluck party might.) Monica and Tapani brought some red wine (a Cab Sav and something else). We had "Wuzzled Wheat" which were Ak-Mak 100% whole wheat stone ground sesame crackers. We had Red Fish - no blue fish, just red fish - in the form of Swedish fish that Lisa/David/Julie brought. Apparently she didn't see the assorted packs, just the all-red ones, so the "one fish two fish red fish blue fish" reference didn't quite swing. So, a note if you're going to throw a Dr. Seuss party, shop for those ahead of time to make sure you find exactly what you're looking for.

I decided that "Poobers" were the overall name for the wasabi peas, the salted garbanzos, and the odd-looking green dry roasted edamame. We had the guacamole Doritos, some pita chips, the assorted veggie potato chips you can find at Trader Joes, and small round tortilla chips. (Also the Guacamango salsa, but nobody had any.) We had a small pile of chocolate caramel Turtles (and the book "Yertle the Turtle" beside the display), to commemorate King Yertle's attempted ascent to a high enough perch to rule the world.

We had an assortment of flowers -- I went for the most unusual looking ones that Visser's Florist (Anaheim, at Harbor and Lincoln) had on offer. Maria and Lynn did the flower arranging. The single sunflower looming high out of the little vase I thought was especially effective. Elizabeth showed up with Shawn and Colleen; Elizabeth had a lovely polka-dot dress, and a Who-style hairdo to boot. They took charge of hanging streamers and otherwise finishing off the decorating. (Gods, I love having friends who show up a little early to get the place good and ready. Thank you so much!)

Some conversational bits you missed: Shawn dubbed Colleen the "Fox in Socks." Marina talked about infamous party guests, such as the one that came to her party, decided the paper plates weren't good enough and moved the buffet table to get at the good china and silver. And then had a party a week or two later to which Marina was not invited, and in fact has never reciprocated. We agreed that we know we have friends that don't entertain; but if they do have a party, it's certainly appreciated when they invite the hosts whose parties they've been to.

Glenn told us about a parody of "The Marvelous Toy" (by Peter Paul and Mary - "It went "Zip" when it moved and "Pop" when it stopped, "Whirrr" when it stood still"), where the new lyrics were instead about "The Murderous Toy" by Mike Roberts ("It went ZAP! when it fired; it cursed when it missed, And whirred as it took aim. It didn't know if we were friend or foe. It attacked us just the same"). Cynthia quietly asked me "so, is that Mysterious Bob" about my brother-in-law, and reminded me that a while before Dorothy and Bob got married, I took to calling him "Mysterious Bob" because he hadn't met the rest of the family yet.

Shawn told part of the story of the Halloween wedding he and Colleen attended, where the fact that it was a costume party held in a cemetary was just the beginning of a series of odd events that evening, including the champagne served in dental spit cups. You also missed my mom explaining about the house in New York, when they just had the two daughters running around (we moved west when I was 9 months old), plus all the kids in the neighborhood, and Dad played accordion leading a parade of kids through the front door, out the back door, in the side door, up the front stairs, down the back stairs, etc... and one of the songs that the kids would sing would be the Dr. Seuss song "The Super-Supper March" which I've mentioned here before. And then a few of us attempted to sing it, followed by the announcement that dinner was ready.

And we had one baby and one munchkin roaming around; little Christopher Kelley slept through most of it, while 2-year-old Diana Butler (aka "Cindy Lou Who") explored the whole house, with one or the other of her parents always in close attendance. She found Maria's big black hat (with the hatband she made herself) and looked especially cute in it. We gave the Kelleys and the Butlers copies of the "Cat in the Hat Songbook" with our best wishes.

We had a bunch of Dr. Seuss books lying around for people to peruse. Some of the attendees had never read "Fox in Socks" which meant that the front porch didn't make any kind of sense to them.

The front porch? If you looked, you could see cords on boards, piles of tiles, broomsticks and bricks, Flashman books next to the trashcan, a bear on a chair, a rose in a hose, socks in box with boxes in the box, clocks on blocks and a blue shoe. Plus a flamingo with a Ringo cd. Tapani, who's not a native English speaker (he's Finnish) and didn't read Fox in Socks until that night, did okay on the "front porch test." (He also found a grammatical error in Fox in Socks - a "who" that should be "whom.")

Menolly's friend Bob was a little confused about the reason for the party, and asked what the party was celebrating. I told him it was Dr. Seuss's 100th birthday this year, but that it was also in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. In hindsight, I wish we'd had a birthday cake, but what flavor would it have been? I told him that we throw at least one party every year, and one of the benefits to doing so is the fact that once a year, the house is presentable for having friends over. (Often, but not always, we also use our party as an excuse to get out the good china, both sets. Debbbie, my lovely and intelligent ex-wife, is kind enough to loan me her half of the wedding china [Sasaki Metropolis Black], although she's been hinting strongly I should just buy it off of her... and the other set of china is the handpainted waterfowl china with the gold trim, that I've inherited, which has a different number of dishes for each size. Like 8 plates and 10 bowls and 7 teacups and 9 saucers, or something like that.)

Anyhow, Lynn, Maria and I had thirty friends over last night, and we're glad we did.