According to the website, they have "limited availability" but this is the closest that I've gotten to my Canon D60 Camera in four months. I sent them an excited e-mail raving about how thrilled I am that the cameras are in stock, but they haven't responded in kind as yet.

[*sigh*]

I got a phone call today from an old friend. Peter used to work at my company's London office, and we see each other every year at the conference in Monte Carlo, the Rendezvous du Septembre. Several years ago, we were both invited to a dinner on the Thursday night of the convention - a small group of reinsurance people who congregated for the "Ten Franc Dinner". I went for the next few years, but for the past few years, I haven't been able to go as I have left the conference before Thursday night. This year, however, they are having it on Monday night - hurray!

The only rule of the Ten Franc Dinner is this: no one can talk about business. Sounds easy enough, but keep in mind that a) we only see each other at this one dinner every year, and b) reinsurance is the only thing we have in common.

[Or so we once thought.]

So the rule is that we cannot mention in any way, shape or form, work, our jobs, or the industry we are in. If we do, we are fined ten francs, which goes into a kitty with which we all gamble at the Casino at the end of the evening. It makes it interesting, to say the least.

Each year we talk about topics such as art and travel and children and politics, to name a few. In addition, we always convince Alan to recite Woody Allen's "I Shot A Moose" routine - no matter how many times he does it, we always dissolve into hysterical laughter by the end.

[To everyone at Jim and Jacque's wedding - this is where I learned the "Travel Game".]

Given the recent switch from Francs to Euros, my only comment to Peter was, "What currency are we using?"

Quote du jour:

"Laughter is, after speech, the chief thing that holds society together."

-- Max Eastman (1883 - 1969) US author

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