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What a horrible and great day...and how often can you say something like that. We drove down on Thursday to Tarry Town to our current favorite "just out of the city with free parking and a pool" hotel (the Marriot). The drive down was fast and uneventful. I have my youngest assistant with me (pictures tomorrow). My son (6) Eli was great fun on the drive and has a strange obsession with hotels. He has asked several times if we can live here forever.

The drive into the city was exciting...in that "oh my god, I hope we don't die". I deliberately waited a bit to start in, in hopes that they would clear all the rush-hour accidents off the road. This turned out to be the right call. It was a long, slow drive (about an hour and fifteen minutes to do what should have been about an half hour drive). We passed several accidents and watched an SUV do a very exciting series of 360s down the middle of 287 (but did not hit anything). It was one of those "I know I can drive in this safely, but all these other whack-jobs are seriously unknown quantities". In the end, we made it in safe and sound, found the school in the Village where the show is being held.

I managed to hurt my lower back the day before I left for the fair and had promised my wife that I would, for the first time, hire porters to carry in my boxes. My shipping boxes came back from San Francisco and I did not repack things...I just threw them into the van with some additional material and hit the road. The net result of this is that I had 8 boxes in the 65 to 75 pound range plus my other stuff. They do not have "porters" at this fair, they have "stevedores" (mind you, a stevedore is "a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port"...but that is hair splitting.). That is, you hear "stevedore" and you picture big muscular guys who wrestle shipping crates for a living.

The first two pictures are the stevedores I was assigned. As you can see, burly dock workers able to move anything not bolted down *laughing*. They were wonderful. I convinced them to take a handle each (yet another reason Pelican cases rock) and they handled everything with aplomb. I did not let them schlep the plate display case...I just couldn't. I recommended them resoundingly to all others as people traipsed in...I hope they had a good day (this fair is, as I understand it, a fund-raiser for the school).

I managed to get in around 11:30am or so...the show started this evening at 6pm...that is, I had about 6.5 hours to set up. Anyone who knows me, knows I can set up a booth in no less than 5 hours...don't ask, I'm just that pathetic. That is, generally, with a real assistant (wife, mother or some other long-suffering supporter). Here I had my six year old son, Eli. In the end, not only was I able to get set up...and reasonably well, at that...but we were able to get it done *with* time to go down and enjoy the wonderful dinner the school provided for attendees (great salads, hummus, sushi, chicken and drinks). Ok, admittedly, only just barely...but it really was "ready" by 6pm.

Eli was reasonably helpful and especially helpful re all things I loath doing (crawling about on the floor running extension cords and the like). Once the fair started, he sat in our chair and played game boy and responded in very cute fashion to the myriad of people who asked him questions. I am hoping he tries to hand-sell his book tomorrow (he has an inscribed copy of "The Book that Jack Wrote" by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Dan Adel). He helped research and write the description and is pretty excited about it. He was truly on his very best behavior. He might have received a Sky-High Sunday when he got back to the hotel.

Lots of people, good stickiness and some good sales. A great start to a show. However, a wildly long day and I need sleep. Show starts tomorrow at 12 noon and runs to 5pm. Come and visit...better yet, buy a book.

So we woke at 2ish am and drove to the bus station where we loaded up and were off promptly at 3:15am. Two hours, some nice orange juice and rewatching The Queen (in which, Helen Mirren does not “get her kit off” (one of my all time favorite actress quotations)) later and we were at Logan.

There were at least two other dealers on theWe arrived around 5am and got our bags check and were through security in short order - next time everything gets shipped except our carry-ons and clothing. Then came the sitting while trying not to drift off (and miss the flight). flight this morn. The flight was...er...long...and torturous…

Not all that long ago, I flew frequently. I flew frequently for long distances. It never bothered me. That is not the case any longer. I am, I guess, older, bigger, grumpier and/or the airlines have shrunk, you know, everything… The only saving grace was that the gentleman ahead of me did not opt to tilt his seat back…

We arrived at about 11:15am (reflecting the wonderful loss of 3 hours on the way out that are, wickedly, returned to us on the way back). From there, the day radically improved.

We check into the Petite Auberge on Bush St. We have a lovely little room overlooking the private courtyard. I am typing this in the common room downstairs, nibbling on a very nice roasted mushroom spread on fresh french bread and sipping sherry. All hotels should have hors d’overes and wine/sherry in the afternoons. I can’t wait until breakfast in the morning (we are staying here because it is one of my parent’s favorite hotels, 26 rooms and just wonderful). We had a lovely time chatting with a family from Australia here for the weekend.

After checking in, we wandered over to Chinatown. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year and it was very festive and fun to poke about the shops. We had dim sum for lunch at House of Nan King and that was great. Unusual dim sum, no carts, you just say you want it and the chef sends out plate after plate of wonderful things until you realize you have grossly overeaten. Yum.

Serendipity Books and others tomorrow. I’m going to go slip into a coma.