In Ocrober of 2005 we had our biggest barbeque yet. People came from all over
America and the world. Represented from out of the country were Canada, Denmark，
England and Scotland. People were also there from Arizona,Stylishplus,California, Rhode Island and New York. i drove down to Bob's on the evening of Thursday, October 6th to be there on Friday so i could pick up Paul and Glynis, a couple arriving from England.Already there were Neil and sandy from Canada, susey from England, Jean from Scotland and Ron and Lili from Rhode Island.
    This was also a specia1 occasion. Von was there from Arizona and Vivi was from Demnark. In the early part of 2003 Von and Vivi met in my music room and hit it off we11 enough that they decided they wanted to meet. So Von traveled to Denmark and spent a month with Vivi. They fel1 in love and it was decided that Vivi would come to America and live with Von. After a bit Vivi had to go back to Denmark for a time while the arrangement were being made. Then Von went back to Denmark and on October 8th,2004 they were married in the city of Holstebro. Since Vivi was now Von's wife she could come back with him to America to stay. Their first year anniversary fe11 on the day of the barbeque émd they did me the great honor of spending it with us.
    After we ate and before we started karaoke i invited Von and Vivi to take the
dance floor. i popped in a specia1 cd i had burned for the occasion and played Dina11 Shore's version of the Anniversary Waltz. It was wonderful to watch them twirl around on the dance floor, and everyone applauded when they were done. Then of course my smarta1ec side had ro kick in. Von is really tall and Vivi is very short, kind of like the old time cartoon characters Muu and Jeff. So when the dance was finished i grabbed the mic and quipped,"and there fo1ks you have the long and the short of it." Everyone broke into laughter and the fun was kicked off for the evening.
    Because we were going to have people from around the world, i sent emails to all the major media corporations inviting them ro attend. This would bave been their chance to get perspective vievi'point on world events from average people who didn't live in America. But i guess they were too busy spreading the gloom of Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq to bother with sma11 timers like us. Since the topic of our "Summit Meeting" was music and not an issue as important as global warming, we were not newsworth1y。 Too bad, because sometimes in the midst of a11 the bad news,i believe folks would like to hear about a "feel good" event. Ah we11, life goes on.