Last Saturday was CVCA’s annual auction, which is a fundraiser for the school. There is an excellent buffet, and there are lots of items to bid on, including about twenty live-auction items that tend to be bigger-ticket items. This was my seventh auction – I am always invited because the check-out and credit card processing systems are computerized, and they like to make sure I am there in case anything stops working.

The theme of the auction this year was “A Royal Safari.” The gym and adjacent hallways were decked out in jungle themes, including a very impressive real jeep out in front of the school; it had been ridden up onto a block and then muddied all over. It made me laugh.

Mer always gets to come along with me for the auction, and I am grateful that CVCA lets her come for free. The company is very nice, and CVCA certainly does not have to allow her to come. I always go in early, and then Mer meets me there. This year, that arrangement caused trouble, or at least worry. Mer had made a hair appointment that she was told would take two hours, and instead it took almost four. So, she was over an hour late in getting to the auction, and by then I was quite worried and actually walking home to see if she had called home. Happily, she was fine.

She was fine enough, in fact, to come home from the auction with a fair amount of goods. I don’t know everything that Mer got because some of it is a secret, but I know she got a very cool Celtic cross batik wall-hanging that I had wanted, and she got some hair care packages and such. She made out all right. Mer normally does not like shopping, but this is for a good cause, and she gets competitive, so she likes to buy things at CVCA’s auction.

The evening went well – no major tech problems. Since it was a CVCA event, there were a lot of people around whom I know, including Dubbs and Nate and Rachel, who sat at our table. The food was fine, and the company better, so it was a fine evening that sounds as if it will keep on giving for awhile yet, depending on Mer’s gift certificate supply.