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Tag Archives: April Fool’s Day

Dishing with Dee…Happy April Fool’s Day

01 Apr

dishing with dee 2

Am I the only person who thinks its insane that it is April ALREADY? I mean seriously, we are over a 1/4 of the way through the year and it seems like it has just gone in the blink of an eye. Of course, it still sucks that when I walked outside to my car this morning, I had frost on it – seriously, frost in APRIL!

But on a non-complaining about the cold note – its April Fool’s Day – a day of pranks and foolhardiness – I’ll admit that now, i’m not a huge fan of the practical jokes, but I did do my fair share of them in the past. One of my favorites (and it was done with my cohorts in crime), was when I was on a ship stationed in Norfolk. One of the individuals in my senior leadership was a geographic bachelor (meaning his family lived elsewhere and he traveled home to see them on weekends/holidays). Anyways, on one such weekend, we got the idea to decorate his stateroom…in Disney Princess finery – including sheets, pillow and shower curtain. Thankfully, he just laughed at it, then took a picture and send to his family and we didn’t get into too much trouble…I only wish I still had the photos from it as proof.

How about you – any pranks in your past that you are proud to claim?

 
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Posted by on April 1, 2015 in Dishing with Dee

 

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In Memoriam – Bryce Courtenay (1933-2012)

23 Nov

There aren’t a lot of authors who I would write this kind of post for, but Bryce Courtenay is one of them. I remember when I picked up the first book I ever read by him, back in grade eight – Tandia – set in South Africa where he grew up. After that I went through a period of reading, where I read pretty much all of the books that he had released up until that point in time. One of the most poignant was April Fool’s Day – which was the story of his son, Damon who died from medically-acquired AIDS after suffering from Haemophilia his entire life. I remember having a box of tissues sitting next to me as I bawled my way through it.

Earlier this year, Bryce announced that his soon to be released book, Jack of Diamonds would be his last because he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The book was published 2 weeks ago (November 12, 2012). Today while I was checking my facebook, I saw that his publisher, Penguin Australia, had published the notice of his death. He was 79 years old.

While his books have never been widely known in the US, in fact, the only book, I can find of his with regularity is The Power of One. I can only hope that with the growing popularity of ebooks and audiobooks that many readers will experience his writing in the years to come. It is going to be weird, knowing that I won’t have that new yearly released by him to anticipate for Christmas (since my mom has been oh so awesome at giving me his books for gifts over the years. While i have yet to read all of his books, those that are left, as well as re-reads will give me something to look forward to in the future.

RIP Bryce. I look forward to reading Jack of Diamonds when my copy arrives and will remember all your books with fond memories 🙂

 
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Posted by on November 23, 2012 in Musings

 

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