I subscribe to several bento blogs on RSS. I love Bento TV. This is partly Kaja Foglio‘s fault, if only because she referred to them initially in her blog. Of course the rest of it is all me.
President’s Day, I convinced Maureen to come with me to Daiso, a Japanese dollar shop. They had a lot of cool bento stuff. So Tuesday I made Maureen and Keith bentos.
I spent Valentine’s evening with my sister shooting handguns. Wednesday is ladies night at Reed’s Indoor Range, so it was quite cheap.
Out of the blue on my birthday, I get an email from a woman wondering if I’d like to buy a painting from her on eBay. It was supposedly a picture of my family tree. Of course, I was suspicious. There are a lot of Beavers.
Grandma bought a book when I was a child purporting to be of our family. It had an embossed cover, etc. etc. Sadly, they had just pulled everyone with the last name out of phone books across the country (pre-internet). I figured this might be a similar scam.
But the email listed several names that I recognized from my limited research. So I went to look. Not through her link, but I searched from eBay for the item she listed. It was a legitimate item, old and partly bug eaten. The pictures weren’t great, but the description mentioned even more names that I knew.
I called the number listed in the auction and asked more questions. She found my name on Ancestry.com, as well as posting an announcement on the site about the painting. She was friendly and gave helpful answers. She told me she would email me when she sent it, and asked if I would email her when I got it.
I bought it.
It’s in somewhat worse shape than the picture showed, but it’s definitely old. It’s not my taste in art, but it’s not badly done. But it’s an heirloom. There’s a picture of it after the cut.
I guess I need to dust off my genealogy data and figure this puzzle out.
It’s a heck of a random birthday present.
Keith, of course, is my first minor celebrity. Last night we taped “Keith Explains!” at KMVT. Afterwards we usually go for coffee at this great coffeehouse, Coffee Society. It’s new Campbell sister is getting all the media attention, but the Cupertino location is the first (and best IMO).
We kept our eyes peeled for a possible awkward encounter with a certain someone. So I almost missed seeing Brian Tong of Stir TV. Although, his blonde cock’s comb of hair is bigger and brighter than ever, so it would have been hard to miss him.
I worked as an intern on the show in 2004 up at KTSF. He remembered me, even though I only saw him during tapings. He seemed friendly and interested in what I’ve been up to, so I gave him one of Keith’s new Keith Explains! business cards. I’d forgotten mine. >_<