Newburyport is one of the prettiest New England seaside locaations because it has the most beautiful old homes that survive along the boulevard which enters town. It reminded me of the huge houses along St. Charles Ave in New Orleans.

My 2 girlfriends and I spent the day going through each of the little boutiques helping the economy wherever we could. There is a number of old mills which have been renovated into hip retail spaces. Christmas cheer abounded everywhere with live bands, a farmers market selling wreaths and kissing ballls a lively mix of shoppers and Christmas gifts waiting for new homes.

Alas, I could only tempt myself with 1 $10 pair of paints from the used clothing store. My girlfriend more then made up for my lack of shopping. We love to live vicariously through her. We enjoyed a wonderful brunch which featured a Bloody Mary buffet a rustic resturant called 10 at Ten. Later in the day we found a Tavern named Grog which called us inside for more late afternoon indulgances.

The day was fun but the far more important part is we're antique dealers first so one of us had to be out there working and Frank gladly offered to chase down an auction of airplane models in Connecticut. This was a typical day in the day of an antiques dealer.

Up at 5:00 am and on the road by 6:00 Frank arrived in Winstead CT just in time for the beginning of the preview at 10:00. The auction had been advertised on http://www.auctionzip.com/ to be within 150 miles of our home base in NH. Check out these cool photos for the auction and you'll easily see how Frank got sucked right in.

The auction was the lifetime collection of a OCD model maker who was now 80 years old and pretty well crippled up although he had been in the Korea War. The auction was presented by Tim's Inc. Check out this awesome line-up of goods as it appeared pre-sale. http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/photopanel.cgi?listingid=752008&category=0&zip=03894&kwd=

Since we sell a tremendous number of books on eBay we like to pick up big lots of one interesting catagory or another because once you develop the clientele for a particular product it's easier to sell to them the second time and a repeat customer always takes less energy then it takes to create a new customer. So Frank was successful in his attempts to buy the library of this fellow and came home with lots and lots of books on airplane model making. Now we just have to gear up our eBay listing robots.

So the auction started at Noon and ended at dark and then Frank had to drive home 4 1/2 hours which turned into 6 by the time he took a couple of naps, grabbed a burger, gas etc. So there it is 6:00 am to 12:30 the next am - a typical day in a dealer's life.

But so too was today. Frank got an afternoon nap in after he unloaded all the boxes of books. As Frank was heading upstairs to the bedroom at 2:30 this afternoon he reminded me of a saying Irene Stella always told us. "It's a weekend. We work on weekends! You can sleep on Tuesday." and with that she'd accept no excuses for anything resembling tiredness on the weekends. She wasn't a slave driver but just knew how to effectively motivate and manage large groups of people.

I spent Sunday evening look at an auction on the Heritage Internet Auction website and then spent today still learning the new computer and making beef stew. Life is good in New Hampshire - until the next time I remain . . . Dragonfly