tobermory's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Birthday Blues So, my birthday was last Friday and, I have to say, this year? Not so great. There were big plans for Steve to throw me a Medieval-themed party based on the line from Monty Python�s Holy Grail, �I�m thirty-seven! I�m not old!� but those sort of got pushed to the side when my mom got sick. He did send me beautiful flowers at the hotel in Green Bay and my fellow Weetacon attendees serenaded me with a rousing round of �Happy Birthday� to match the sentiment frosted on the June-baked truffle brownies, but this year was kind of dull. Steve still hasn�t gotten me a gift (yeah, I know � it�s not about the gifts) � he says, �it�s not here yet,� which quite honestly worries me a bit. He didn�t get me a card either � and we�re BIG card people. Not the mushy kind, but, for instance, on Valentine�s Day I sent him 2 cards from me, 3 from the cats, and one from the dog. It was also kind of a letdown because although in the recent past my dad has always given me cash as a gift (always the right size!) my mom always made sure that I had a present to open and this year she wasn�t able to do that. God � I just reread this and I sound like such a child, whining about my presents on my birthday. My friend Robert did send me a gift box of wonderful jams and relishes, which was very sweet and unexpected. Unexpected presents rock. Steve and I went to an auction last night. There is a company that auctions off estates in Chicago � they hold public auctions about twice a month. I�ve been on their e-mailerette list for about a year but nothing I�ve seen has ever really grabbed me. Honestly most of the stuff seems sort of mundane - the kind of furniture, knick-knacks, art, jewelry, and china that your grandparents might have had (scratch that if you had really cool grandparents � I�m mostly thinking of my grandma who had a bunch of serviceable but unremarkable stuff in her house). But, in the wide-angle shots from the recent auction I spotted two enameled medical storage units in a nice deco green with black and chrome accents. One was a cabinet with a glass door and about 5 glass shelves and the other was a small chest with 6 or 8 drawers. Steve went to check them out during viewing hours and called me to say they were nice. There was no auction estimate so we didn�t really know what they might sell for, but we decided to register to bid and show up around 9pm, which was around the time the person at the desk guessed they might be on the block. The people who were there were a strange lot � most of them looked like they were dealers and vendors from some of the local flea markets � but this gave me confidence because Steve and I were buying for ourselves, not to stock a store where we�d need to figure in a mark-up. We were early so we got to watch how it all worked � it amazed me that there were box lots of stuff that sold for as low as $15 or $25. The biggest ticket item we saw was a large bronze of a woman that sold for $1700 and an enormous taxidermied moose head (seriously � it was like 10� across at the widest part of the antlers) that sold for $900 despite being a bit moth-eaten around the muzzle. There was some spirited bidding for our cabinets, but we persevered and got the two of them for the maximum amount we had set as our limit. Not bad considering if we had bought them retail at Architectural Artifacts or one of the local antiques stores we probably would have spent about three times what we paid for them at the auction. It was an interesting experience � I wouldn�t hesitate to go back. Resolution Diary: 2:38 p.m. - 2006-03-01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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