Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for June 17, 2008

Oh, hi, everybody….

I’m glad we met up before we got to Connie and Ralph’s place.

We’re supposed to head over there to post our comments on

the June 16th  2018 “CLEO and COMPANY” 

After we’ve all read it on Sherpa

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy

But I’ve heard Connie’s been acting a little strange….

though she’s the one who invited us.

Maybe I’m just being silly…. I mean, she’s always been very nice…. and she’s making us hot cocoa, tea, and banana bread.

How about this…. we’ll have a code word, OK?

I’ll knock on the door, and if everything looks OK, I’ll say “Hi Connie! I brought some cheese and crackers.”

(Cos I really did… I mean, it would be silly to say that, if I didn’t, right?)

But if things don’t look right, I’ll say the code word, and you guys keep walking.

And I’ll say there was a misunderstanding, and we have to go to the Tiki, cos I… um… I have to work tonight…. that’s it.

but we can still discuss Cleo while I’m on shift, cos the Monkey reserved us a room.

I’ll apologise, and ask them to come along…. and we’ll see what happens.

So remember… if you hear “cheese and crackers…”

come on up the stairs…

but if you hear the code word ….

Oh! Right. What should it be?

Something that sounds natural. How about “monkey,” cos I’ll be mentioning the monkey…. OK? Ready?

Oh, Hi Connie… and OMG!

Don’t do that, Connie!

MONKEY!! MONKEY!!

I mean… oh… sorry… I mean…. I have to go to work I’m sorry we can’t meet here but come on down to the …..

Oh…. please put that down ….

MONKEY!!!…. I mean… um… sorry…. sorry…. bye!!!

MONKEY!!!

Whew…. hey….. wait for me everybody!

I hope that sounded…. you know…. natural…..

Cleo is such a good girl. But Claude missed her point, she wants a belly rub!

It gives Claude a good feeling to know how well Cleo listens to him!

It was neither strange nor unusual. It was just Claude being Claude.

Connie’s a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad girl!

Connie must love going through the grocery store!

Sarcasm? Claude?

Cleo must be dreaming again.