So this has been an eventful week. Monday I went up to the Village Theatre, the place we performed Ethan Claymore et.al. I was there for the board meeting. Actually it was the semi annual general meeting of Echo Players, where the board, committee members, performers, directors and the public can drop in to see what’s going on, and then retire to the green room where they socialize, eat really good hors d'oeuvres, and for some at least, get blotto. The announcement of the meeting said that it would include the President’s report, the Treasurer’s report, a report on the building inspection of the theatre, and some news about the upcoming season. It ended with “It sounds like a fun evening.”  I couldn’t help but wonder to whom, but it was actually a lot of fun.

Several of us were there to perform a vignette, a ten minute excerpt, of one of the upcoming plays. We had been rehearsing it for a couple of weeks and were fairly good, though we were still reading off of our scripts. It’s a thriller called The Sound of Murder, I have to admit that we did keep slipping and calling it The Sound of Music at the social afterwards, but it’s not. It’s nothing like it. The play is not even a musical. That however didn’t keep me from improvising a Show Stopping Number for a musical version of The Sound of Murder:


Oh we could stab-em stab-em stab-em
Till they bag him up and slab him
We could smack him with our truncheon
We could poison his own luncheon
We could shoot him with a gun
We could burn him in the sun
Or we could, stab-em stab-em stab-em
Till they bag him up and slab him

But the consensus was no, we’d do it without music.

Anyway, The Sound of Murder is a dark, thriller, with a sadistic husband, a sneaky manipulative secretary, and the wife and her lover who hatch the plot to kill the husband. At the end there’s a surprise twist, literally on the last page. I’m looking forward to the auditions, I’d love to play the wife’s lover who actually gets to kill the husband. We’ll see what happens though. If that falls through, the Christmas production is a radio play version of Wonderful Life. No sets, just period late 1940s costumes, microphones on stage, and you get to keep your script with you. It’s just like the play I did in 2013 at the Ladysmith Little Theatre. Not only are radio plays easy and fun to do, you almost always get to play several characters, and I do love to hop between dialects and accents. Lastly there is Ibsen’s, A Dolls House, which is a classic drama with strong feminist overtones. That could be fun too. Really if I can get in one it would be great. Depending on how it works out I might get two.

In other news, if you remember, a couple of weeks ago we bought an iPhone6. That was the replacement for my ancient LG phone which was in the process of expiring. Well, I spent the last few weeks fiddling with it, and adjusting it, and downloading apps, and making it mine in every way. Last weekend I did something you wouldn’t expect. I gave it to Marsha. She was a little shocked when I suggested trading. I mean not only was I giving up the new phone, I was trading it for her year and a half old iPhone 5C, the red headed stepchild of iPhones. What could possibly cause me to do such a thing? My unwavering desire that Marsha have the best of everything? Nah. I just really didn’t like the 6. It was too big. It wouldn’t fit in my pants pockets. In my shirt pocket it felt like I had a book smacking me in the chest all day. I never knew where to put it. It ended up in my hand much of the time, which was awkward. And then there’s talking on it. It’s huge. It felt like I was holding a conversation with a casserole pressed up against my face. I can’t imagine calling with the iPhone6+ or some of the other really huge phones on the market. I just really never could warm up to it. So now I have the 5C which is more comfortable for my use and Marsha has the 6, which she finds handy because of all the messages and e-mail she does for work. 

But the biggest surprise arrived on Friday. I think I have mentioned the “ambiguous” lumps in the area where they had removed a bit of lung last fall. They did a CT scan, Ultrasound scan, PET scan, and finally decided just they didn’t know what they were so it was time for a needle biopsy. The procedure was scheduled for Friday, May 1st. I took the day off of work and we trundled down to Victoria for the test. The plan was for the biopsy to take half an hour or so and then there would be a couple more hours of watching to make sure I was OK before we left. 

So I went into the CT lab so they could do a scan to locate exactly where the lumps were and then use that as a guide to where to poke me. So I lay down in the CT machine and they did a scan. Then I waited and they did another one. By this time I was starting to doze off. Then the technician came on the intercom and said “OK, uh, don’t go anywhere,” which I found a very funny thing to say. I mean it’s not like I was going to run off. But he continued, “I want to show this to the Doctor.” I then waited for another five minutes. The Doctor came out. He asked about the case history and I described all of it in some detail. Then he said “You can get dressed now, we’re done.” I was a bit stunned so he went on “The lumps aren’t there any more. There’s nothing for us to biopsy so you can go home.” I was more than a little shocked, not displeased mind you, but still it was a surprise. Marsha was completely caught off guard when I emerged back in the waiting room after only 15 minutes and told her we could go. This was even better news than we had hoped. Whatever the “ambiguous” lumps were, they’re gone now. So I’m looking forward to whatever happens next. 

And on the way home we found a great Dutch restaurant to celebrate in. It’s called De Dutch Pannekoek House located at 4011 Quadra Street in Victoria. Really, the pannekoekin there are much more authentic, more like the one’s we had in Amsterdam, than the Pannekoekin House in the Twin Cities ever were. One hint though, order half sized meals. Everything they serve is huge. When we got home we split a bottle of Champagne with Barbara. We had lots to celebrate. 

It’s not every day when someone gives you an iPhone 6.

Doug & Marsha

PIX: We got to Victoria early so we spent a bit of time by the harbour. Wow that cruise ship backing into it’s parking space by the dock is big.