It's finally here, the annual Lion's Club Flea Market, a sale as predictable and peculiar as Malibu itself. Vendors from throughout the state spread their wares on the Civic Center grounds. Venues range from blankets and bed sheets spread on the ground to elaborate tents stocked with all the comforts of home. You'll find antiques and books and clothes and tools and furniture and toys and jewelry and stationery and photographs and food and even, occasionally, something you actually need.

This is the place I found a 1934 copy of the WPA Guide to California, a beautiful tour guide to a vanished version of our state. My husband, David, takes it with us on every road trip, reading, sometimes wistfully, about what once was. This is also where my tiara comes to visit. It's a lovely thing, that tiara, sparkly cut crystals set in a stately frame, perfect for cruising the Cove in a golf cart. I'd buy it but every year the woman who owns the booth won't let me touch it, let alone try it on. Every year, there it is again, beckoning.

So Sunday starts with the Pancake Breakfast - at $3.50 a deal anywhere - cooked and served by our local Lions. The sale runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Civic Center, just a block from PCH between Webb Way and Cross Creek Road. Entry is free but parking costs a few bucks. It's worth it - great stuff, a fun day, and profits from the whole shebang go to the Lion's Club's charitable projects.

And if you manage to get near that tiara, please tell it hello.