Thank you! And @Cross, thanks for the banner!

Chocolate please! More today! (And @JamesBrown, you've been great, thanks. You've won, so this is for you).

Thanks. Toastmasters has helped me grow up, for sure. I hope things worked out for y'all.

Even more was stuffed through his pockets.

Thanks! That looks delicious!

Yes, we meet every other Thursday. The first half of the meeting is devoted to three speeches and onstage evaluations. We all evaluate each speech on paper right after it--where you did well and where you can improve. Then we have three on-stage evaluations. Then, the second half is Table Topics, where a "Table Topics Master" onstage gives out random questions and if you're called up you're supposed to give a one to two minute speech about it. Then a Table Topics evaluator comes up and talks about each speech. My questions this time were all very specific fairy tales Thursday because of Valentines and because no one answering was a beginner. My questions would have been much softer had I been asking inexperienced beginners. But it was talking mirrors and Alexa, fairy godmothers and handbags, glass slippers and Facebook profiles, and more. It can be very weird what you can think of up there once you aren't scared anymore. I joined the club January 2015 and it's one of my favorite things ever now. Everything is fun once you aren't frozen--giving a good prepared speech, giving an answer that you think of while you're talking, always improving. You find yourself talking about things that come up out of nowhere. And it can be highly entertaining what you think of.

What did everyone get up to on Valentine's day? I went to a Toastmaster meeting (public speaking) with quite a few of us talking about love. In the second half of the meeting, with impromptu speaking, I gave random questions about fairy tales. What would you do with a talking mirror had someone talk about Alexa. I had invited an American UofE girl I had met a week ago to come see what we're like, but she didn't show up. I wasn't too disappointed--it was Valentine's, I have no idea if she's single, and she's eleven years younger, but I do wish she had answered my invite with a "no." It was left hanging, as so many invites are these days.

Richard Nixon is known for saying, "I'm not a crook." Well, I'm not a cook. Never been able to quite do it. My mother has a recipe for chocolate brownies, though, that all four of her sons gobble up as soon as they're out. We practically run for it. I don't have it with me, but it's delicious.

I found this: Queen Elizabeth II.

They're lovely little ploys!

Okay, brothers, sisters, Mother, *nods.* We’re about to have a lot of fun by writing poems, called limericks, to WIN. But you’ll have to swallow a mouthful (of chocolate), here, to understand how this works. A limerick is a fun, short, poem with five lines. The first, second, and fifth line in the poem are longer than the third and fourth. Line 1 has 7-10 syllables, Line 2, 7-10, Line 3 it’s 5-7 syllables instead, Line 4, 5-7 again, then line 5, back to 7-10 syllables. The rhyming scheme is AABBA, with the longer lines all rhyming with each other and the two short lines in the middle rhyming. Edward Sear made them really popular, here’s one of his as an example: “There was an Old Man with a beard Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!'" So in our game, one of us will writes a line of the limerick poem (and gain one point for their line) and then the next person writes a line (also gaining a point), and we go back and forth, contributing, to make that poem. Once those five lines are written, then we start another poem, and so on. Whoever has the most points at the end of it wins. All clear? I know that’s a mouthful. But have fun and enjoy! Line 1: There’s nothing like chocolate cake,

I have a game or two to like. I can get lost in playing Hearts or Solitaire--they're mesmerising. I like a good poker game now and then, although I'm no good at it. My first two-three years here in Edinburgh, I always had some cards nearby--a flatmate had known every card game in the world and all of us had liked a game called "Snap." My favorite game has to be Scrabble, though--a friend back home and I are very good at it. She and I have "tournaments" against each other when I visit. I won the last go round, she'll probably win the next one.

A pleasure, ma'am. Now I need some alcohol before this ends.

I agree with Rhea--it's got to be Mat, definitely. He's who I've related to most in the series since I started it. He grew from being an impish kid into a military genius and you can never stop him.

*Grins.* Let's get dancing, Mother!