Crafts, Burglars and Internet Friends

Tammy and I made it out to the craft fair at Canterbury yesterday. Hey, it's one of those things a guy does for his wife because he knows how much she enjoys going. To be truthful, I actually don't mind tagging along as I'm always interested in seeing what sort of ideas people are crafting together to sell. We came away with a few items; a suet feeder for birds that I've got hanging among our feeders outside the den window, a beautiful hand-beaded small purse for Rachel which we'll give her at Christmas and a few other forgettable things that I can't recall.

As we strolled through the fair we repeated the conversation we always have when we go to this kind of thing. We imagine what sort of booth we could have. Tammy mentioned an idea for birdhouses with real stained glass lit from within. Hmmm...that's an interesting idea. I'm not only looking at the crafts for sale but I also spend some time looking at how people construct their stands/booths. It never hurts to pay attention to the small details.

I have a friend at work who owns a dog grooming business in Savage with his wife: Pampered Paws. Tim had his shop broken into last week and while they didn't catch who it was that broke in they did capture the burglar's actions with a security camera. We like to think we take the necessary precautions to protect our property but unless you think like a thief it's hard to imagine how vulnerable we actually are. Here's the video of the break-in that Tim uploaded to his YouTube site.

I came back from today's ride and walked down to the mailbox to find an 8 x 10 cardboard envelope from 5842 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028 and the fine folks at Judge Judy studios.

Let me back up just a bit. Back in 2001, I was in a pretty serious crash on my bike after an unleashed dog ran out in front of me and took me out. It wasn't your every-day crash at 15-20 mph. I was full out at something in excess of 35 mph. I was fortunate to come away with as few scrapes and bruises as I did. I tried unsuccessfully to come to terms with the owners of the dog for my out of pocket expenses but they weren't very cooperative. I filed suit in our local county court. One week before we were to appear we were contacted by the folks at Big Ticket Productions, the producers of the Judge Judy show. Long story short; we appeared on the show.

I had only one request for the producers and that was an autographed photo of Judge Judy for our daughter, Rachel. Our request must have fallen through the cracks and after a while we all sort of forgot about it—until a month ago when somebody saw our video on YouTube and asked about the autographed photo. Steve read in the comments section where I had this exchange with somebody:

Imnotjarry11 "Wow, my lifelong dream is to meet Judge Judy. I want her autograph so bad.
You're the plaintiff right? The guy with the glasses? I want to know if you're good or bad. "

My reply:

onekgguy "I was the plaintiff along with my wife.

We actually asked the producer for an autographed photo of JJ for our daughter and they said they'd get us one but they never did. :( "

Steve mentioned how he knew some people on the inside of the show and that he would like to get us the autographed photo. Wow...cool. Steve and I exchanged some information and he went about doing his thing. He contacted me a few times along the way wondering if we'd received anything but each time I'd have to tell him that, no, nothing had arrived yet.

I briefly mentioned to Tammy and Rachel this past week that we may soon be receiving our Judge Judy photo and they laughed at me. "You're still trying to get that?" they wondered out loud. I told them about the contact I'd had with Steve and they sort of said something along the lines of 'good luck with that'.

So, today, the Judge Judy show finally came through for us. Tammy was talking with Rachel on the phone from her dad's house and I handed her the envelope. A surprised smile lit up her face as she read the front of the envelop. She handed it back to me to open it up. I pulled out the photo and gave it to her to read to Rachel:

To Rachel
My best
Judge Judy

"Now do you believe me?" I asked. I set the photo down on the table to take a picture with my cellphone to send to Rachel. As I was picking it back up to place in the envelope I noticed that there wasn't just one photo; there were two. The other was for me.

I've said it before in my blog that this is the sort of thing that I love about the internet. The ability to make connections with people we'd otherwise have no way of making. It makes our oh-so-big-world just a bit smaller.

Steve ~ thank you.



Comments

Steve Saeedi said…
These autographed pictures are very special. Two years ago, my wife surprised me with an autographed picture from Heather Graham. She signed it something to the effect, "You're hot!" I've saved it away as if it was a million bucks.

I'm happy that Judge Judy signed one for you too. Out of all the TV judges I've always liked her the best.

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