Imagine how wonderful it was for me to get positive feedback from a stranger who had stumbled onto my blog!  Dawn is a really nice woman who lives in Edmonton, and who was searching for fruitcake when she came upon my site.  She read my latest blog entry, and took the time to e mail me.  She also placed an order for her daughter’s wedding, which was really fantastic.

In my last blog I’d maligned the drivers of PT Cruisers, VW vans, those with veterans’ plates and anyone with a plate from Alberta.  Dawn e mailed me a witty reply to let me know that Albertans thinks it’s actually the British Columbians who are in her words, “the worst.”  Who knew?

You know how loathe I am to contribute to the recession by behaving conservatively.  However, I do think my cookie mania has showed me that homemade gifts really can be appreciated.  So far I’ve sent out peanut butter/chocolate chunk, double chocolate, white chocolate chunk and oatmeal with chocolate chunks and pecans, and no-one has protested.

And when you think of it, no-one is interested in some mass-produced ‘objet’ from China.  Not that there’s anything wrong with their stuff, it’s just that people no longer have the room for yet another fairy statue.

Have you ever received a new item, only to carry it from room to room, desperate to find a small space for it?  Inevitably I’ve had to start to treat my stuff just as a museum does.  I now rotate things.  I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but God help me when my mother finally dies.

I say finally, as my mom just turned 84 and is still in better shape than people twenty years her junior.  This Friday I’m going to Osoyoos as it will be Gerry’s 94th birthday.  I asked mom if he’d swum in the pool during their two-month sojourn to Nicaragua these past two months.  She said, “Oh yeah!”  ie what do you expect from this spry gentleman?

To prevent the trailer truckload of articles coming my way in twenty years or so, I decided that from now on I’m going to give mom and Gerry only stuff that they can actually use.  So this week I’m going to make several gourmet meals and then label and freeze them.

Mom said she wouldn’t even make toast for Gerry while they were in Nicaragua, as she said she refused to ‘cook’ while there.  They ordered in breakfast, then went out for lunch and dinner.  So to prevent absolute culture shock for Gerry, I do think the best remedy is for mom to be able to go out to the freezer and bring in a nice bouillabaisse or else some coquilles St. Jacques for their dinner.