Gillian was thrilled when she found out that the Police were coming to town in June. She loves Sting. She got me to agree to go the concert. All week she looked forward to Saturday morning when the tickets were to go on sale.

When she wants something she sets her mind to it and usually prevails. I expected buying tickets online would be a piece of cake. She lives and dies by her calendar on Microsoft Outlook and made an entry to remind her when the tickets were to go on sale. She told me we had to be home at 10:00 A.M. on Saturday morning. No problem I said.

During the week we received an unexpected call from friends who were in town. They stayed for a few days. On Saturday morning we decided to cook breakfast instead of going out to eat. After all, we had to buy the tickets that morning!

On Saturday morning I trekked to the store and bought a dozen eggs for omelets. Gillian anxiously awaited for the 10:00 bell. There we were in the kitchen, gathered around while I cooked. The music was on throughout the house. We were having a good time. I sauteed the vegetables for the omelets and broke three eggs in a cup and set them aside. When the vegetables were done, I set them aside, planning to use the same pan for the eggs.

Suddenly, the CD got stuck and Gillian went upstairs to the network closet to tend to the problem. While she was gone, I poured the eggs in to the pan. The pan was too hot and the eggs fried before I could scramble them. Shoot! Then the kitchen buzzer went off. With eggs ruined and the buzzer going off, I absentmindly shut off the buzzer without thinking about it. Three minutes later, Gillian came back.

I told her the buzzer had gone off and asked her if she knew why. She immediately freaked and said that it had been set to remind us to buy the Police tickets. It's a good thing we had company, else I might have suffered the same fate of John Bobbit.

Gillian frantically tried to buy the tickets on line, but to no avail. She couldn't get thru to the server and in ten minutes all 22,000 tickets were sold. Now she was really mad at me. And I had just ruined my first three eggs. While I recovered and made three good omelets, Gillian moved to plan B. Attempt to buy tickets from an online broker.

It was amazing. Five minutes after selling out, tickets were already on eBay and going for a giant premium. With luck, Gillian found two tickets for $423.12. Face value $50 each. Ugh! What a cost I paid for our breakfast!

But those eggs sure tasted good!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive