Oh, Betty

Last week's post wasn't much of an escape and I do apologize for the sorrowful read. But, this is an escape, so we're going to jump right into something light and bubbly, and who else makes us smile and laugh more than Betty White. Last week, Ms. White turned 94 years old. Alas, I could not find the video from her most recent birthday, but here is the video of the flash mob that was done for her last year:

Now I don't know about you, but this video may bring me to tears from the sheer happiness on her face. Whether she is trying to or not, Betty White has been bringing laughter and happiness to people and animals across the world for decades. From her early work on "Life With Elizabeth" (1952-1955) to her tireless efforts to protect and love our animal friends, Betty has certainly been an active member of this world and remains to be today, even in her nineties!

It's hard to tie a Golden Girl down. Many people in Hollywood start to slow down when they hit fifty, but for Betty, Rue, Estelle, and Bea, fifty was a new beginning. A genesis in their careers that would spark laughter, inspiration, kinship, and most importantly friendship, for countless years to come.

There was something remarkable about the Golden Girls, the series that stretched across seven seasons and has been viewed by millions around the world. The actresses, writers, and production team touched topics never before dared and impacted our society and culture in ways I doubt many have really stopped to realize.

You know, it was my dream to meet the girls to tell them how much their show meant and means to me, but unfortunately I missed my opportunity to meet the majority. I did write to Ms. Betty White and she sent to me a signed photo of herself with her dog Panda. I do regret not writing to the others earlier, but life is too short to dwell in regret. And so, I will do what I can to make it up to the ladies to help their legacies live on. Over the next few weeks, dear readers, we will be delving into the amazing lessons, values, and laughs that the Girls gave to us. This will be a tribute to these legend-leaving-ladies who quite a few of us would like to thank for being a friend.

And so, tune in next week dear readers for Chapter One: Cheesecake. 

Until Next week, dear readers.

Your humble author,

S. Faxon

A Dutchie Party

Hello all,

For those of you who may recall, I have in my arsenal of friends a lovely friend from the Netherlands (also known as Holland). My friend, Lieke, inspired the post, "The Dutch," and now has inspired another. 

This past week I went over to Lieke and her husband's house to attend a Dutchie Party - a birthday party, no less. It was Like's birthday and I knew I was in for a cultural and wonderful treat.

For my long time readers, you know of my affinity for baking. Birthday cakes happen to be my specialty, but I'm not talking about your standard sheet cakes. Oh no. What I made for Lieke's birthday, was a dark chocolate tart cake with Grand Mariner and a hint of orange. It may have ended up looking like this:

Yep. It tasted as good as it looked, but we'll get to the feasting part in a minute.

While Lieke, my friend Christy and I caught up, Lieke's husband made us dinner. This is a normal routine in the household and Stephan is an AMAZING cook. Christy was given an assignment by Lieke to write her birthday card entirely in Dutch, a language that neither Christy or I could begin to speak correctly.

 But, Christy is an excellent friend and did as requested marvelously. Of course, the words that she wrote were literal (like, how in the States if we said, "it's raining cats and dogs," Americans know that to mean it is raining heavily, butt people in some countries would duck for cover because those words together do not translate to have the same meaning) and apparently she read like someone from South Africa, but the heart was there and that was evident.

We all sat down together and ate ridiculously good Dutch pancakes. What's a Dutch pancake you may be wondering? Well, unfortunately, they were so good that I did not stop to take a photo of them, but here's my attempt to define their goodness: imagine a thin pancake, not so thin as a crepe, but not so thick as your average American pancake. They are usually served with raisins in the batter, but due to the fact that the market we visited did not have raisins, we went without. They are also usually served either sweet or savory - sweets tend to have apple slices right inside of the batter, whereas savory have BACON!!!!!!!!!!!! Cooked right into them. Can you tell which was my favorite? 

With the bacon ones, we spread Dutch syrup on top and rolled them up like you would a stuffed crepe.. The syrup was thick, but not like molasses. It went perfectly with the bacon. For the apple pancakes, we put cinnamon or an apple spread, which was like apple jam.

The food was incredible and Stephan kept bringing pancake after pancake to each of our plates. I honestly have no idea how many I consumed, but it felt like a lot.

After the delightful dinner, we sat at the table a long while, planning our next adventure. During the span of this, I went to use the restroom (uh-oh, a bathroom story!). Everything was fine until I realized after flushing, that there was a significant amount of water on the floor. I looked at the toilet and realized that water was pouring out from the back tank of the toilet! I kid you not, I had just been thinking, "Wow, this is a great place to live. I hope to find a place like this where everything is cutesie and works properly." Alas, it was as though I had set up the curse intentionally.

Calmly, I approached Lieke and Christy to say, "I hate to be the bearer of this news, but the toilet is leaking from the back and there is water all over the floor."

We all went rushing into the bathroom to see what was going on. Armed with one or two towels, which were soaked in a minute's time, we flushed the toilet to see what was going on. Sure enough, the water was coming out from the top of the back tank. We lifted the top of the tank to see if the water was not draining properly, only to have a gushing tube shoot water out at all of us, getting us and the bathroom only more wet. 

Several side splitting laughs later, I was able to turn off the water going into the toilet, stopping the intense water flow from further spraying us. So what caused this unlikely oddity? Lieke and Stephan told us that the building supers had been working on the water pipes, so they were not terribly surprised that something like this would happen. Let me tell you, I still felt bad for being the lucky soul to raise their awareness to this issue, but luckily I was armed with cake.

After Lieke tested her other bathroom (it was ok) and called maintenance (they only have emergency responses to "plugged up toilets"....) we all sat down and prepared ourselves for the dark chocolate treats. 

Christy and I both asked for smallerish pieces and we knew that Lieke was likely to return with just a bite, but what she came to us with was a bit of an embarrassing amount of riches.

We laughed, we talked Lord of the Rings, and dreamed of lands void of spiders (legend has it that there are no spiders in New Zealand, and if you know the truth to this and if it is contrary to my belief, please don't crush my dreams....Christy!)

We didn't leave Lieke's place until well after midnight. Staying awake at work the next day proved to be an interesting and entertaining challenge, but it was worth it. As you all well know, my mantra is "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit." - Henry David Thoreau.

Now go on, everyone, go eat yourself some home made chocolate cake.

Your humble author,

S. Faxon

PS - I gave myself bangs this week. As my dear readers, I trust and rely on your responses. What do you think? Should I change my picture on the blog at the top of the page, from me with Asia in the background (in the photo, I'm in Europe with Asia behind me) to the following picture depicting my "tude". As you can see, the picture is complete with cat tower and a scrimshaw necklace with a tall ship on it. It's up to you, readers, to let me know what you think! Please leave a comment below with your opinions!