Manar Afghani, founder of Long Beach audio visual production company Visual Sound, never thought his love of vinyl records would result in a collection of more than 25,000 LPs and 45s.

Afghani, 42, has been collecting records from genres such as Cuban, West African, garage and psych rock since 1995 and has so many he keeps them in a warehouse.

“I bought it for the love of it, but I started getting to a point where I was buying out record stores,” he said.

He recalls his first big purchase was 5,000 records for $50 from a Long Beach store that was going out of business in the ’90s.

But his collection, which he said has been appraised to be worth more than $150,000, is getting too big.

“I’m looking at my collection not as a collection anymore but as inventory,” he said. “I’m at the point where I want to liquidate the collection.”

Creamed by 2-year-old

Maire Byrne, 42, owns Santa Monica’s Thyme Cafe & Market and will open her second restaurant, Local Kitchen & Wine Bar, next month.

On a recent night, she came home exhausted, but thought she had caught a lucky break when her 2-year-old daughter, Quinn, went to bed without a peep at 7:30, much earlier than usual.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I won this battle tonight,’” she said.

She entered the room to get something for her older daughter, Bridget, and she heard Quinn say, “Momma.”

She flipped the light on. Her daughter was covered head to toe in Desitin, from an industrial-size supply of the diaper cream ointment purchased at Costco. The bed was covered in Desitin. The walls were covered in Desitin. Her daughter sat cross-legged in the center of the bed, rubbing the Desitin on her belly, looking pleased.

“It took a week to get it out of her hair,” Byrne said. “It always happens when you’re most exhausted.”

Staff reporters Subrina Hudson and Hannah Miet contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected]