A Taste of the World 2009

Our international event Oct. 24 was a blast! Those who were there enjoyed a gourmet feast (Sheri Polak told us we definitely win the year's culinary award!), with more than a dozen different dishes from almost as many countries (desserts were American all the way), a lot of laughs, and amazing entertainment. Frank's friend Todd Brown, of Magic Castle fame, beguiled and enchanted us with his feats. We never did find out the secret of the steel rings, even though he had Barbara's friend Elizabeth up there to "learn" it -- and she did manage to do the impossible. He also coaxed Kyo and Robin into helping, with astounding results. And with all the money he had pouring out of Frank, maybe we should ask him to go to Washington and teach politicians how to ease the deficit. Before and after dinner we shopped the bazaar, where there were bargains galore. Most popular items: the delightful rollover stuffed animals Gary arranged to sell, and our Disaster Preparedness kits. We have some left of both, and can get more as needed. The Disaster kits are those we saw a one of last month's meetings, and sell for $20. Contact Frank if you would like one. True to our word, we also auctioned off the scarf Lily Lande had knit and so generously gave us, after telling the assembly about her and our Knitting Communities Together project. We started at $15, but almost immediately hit $25, and then became a war of laughs as Rich and Jean competed for the prize, with oddball bids like $26.25 and 28.50. When Rich bid $29.75 and Jean offered up $29.76, and the room roared, while demanding at least 25¢ increments. They had us in stitches. Jean even topped his own bid at one point! But in the end, while Jean was taking a sip of soda to keep his voice strong, Rich closed the prize with the winning bid of $45. He proudly wrapped the scarf around his neck and accepted the signed certificate of authenticity and photo of Lily. One of the things we had this year was a vase full of candy of various types and sizes, for which everyone got a chance to guess how many candies were in it. While guesses ranged from 27 to 250, three people were extremely close and one got it exactly -- Elizabeth, with a guess of 82. It made perfect sense that she was the winner when we learned she has two small children. She was kind enough to give a lollipop to Joyce, who had the next-closest guess at 80. Raffle items were next, and Mel Powell was called up to help out Frank in pulling the tickets. His banter made the laughs even better prizes than the items, which included an 8 inch baker (a handy fellow, per Mel) from Pampered Chef, barbecue meat thermometer, wine and champagne basket, large plant, and a pearl and sterling necklace. Before Mel pulled the winning ticket for the certificate for a pound of See's candy, he told Elizabeth it was for her; the other candy she got was for the kids. And then actually pulled her ticket! We think some of the magic dust from Todd's rings must have still been on her hands. Rich fared just as well; moments before his ticket was called, he said if he didn't win the rollover pig that Gary had donated he'd have to buy one. But as Beth said, it might be safer with her; they don't eat pork at her house. We were enjoying the raffle so much we took the wild and crazy puffy plastic people ties Gary had given us for the bazaar, and raffled them off, too. Maybe Jean will come sporting his this coming week, for Halloween. Or Barbara, unless she gets her son Eric to wear hers. All in all, a fabulous party.