Love Ya, Net!

Gods, I love the Net. Tonight I decided, on the spur of the moment, to put up my new-to-me 1960s silver foil tree while listening to Christmas carols and enjoying Merlot salvaged from R's garage.

Trouble hit, in the shape of a stubborn cork. I just couldn't get the cork out of the bottle. The Internet rescued me again -- I even found a video, and discovered I was going about it all ass-backwards. Gee, and I haven't even started drinking yet . . . .

Anyway, the Internet saved the evening. I don't think I'd have courage enough to own a house without it. What did people do before the Net? No, wait, I know that answer. They called friends, who understandably rushed right over to help with the predicament, laugh at the sadly inept homeowner, and to share the wine. Maybe the Net isn't all that lovable after all. Then again, no one's laughing at me.

Ya know, what? I'm not even going there. I'm in a good mood, and I'm well-fed, comfortably housed, and in good health. I'm lucky, I'm single and childless (thank Gods!) and I'm happy.

(later)

Wine is now open. It might actually have turned bad -- I don't really like wine; but I'm trying to develop a taste for it. It's as sour as I'd expect. It's warming, though, and I feel very cosmopolitan, which is a change from feeling like a court jester.



Here is the tree, complete with the wine bottle and R's Svend Jensen oil burners scattered around it. I'm happy they didn't sell in the garage sale. Of course if R ever sees this picture she'll want them back.

I think maybe the top of the tree is missing?

FINALLY -- GARAGE SALE!!

Finally, the mammoth garage sale. We had so much stuff it wouldn't all fit in the garage so we ended up lining the driveway. It was a great sale -- we met so many wonderful people, some of who came back two or three times, bringing their friends. Everyone said it had been the best garage sale in years. People were even worried that we didn't realize what we had, that we were practically giving away the stuff. Well, we WERE practically giving it away, but the goal was QUANTITY. I just don't have time to list everything on eBay.

Friday and Saturday blessed us with perfect weather. Today, Sunday, it was a little too cold. We sat out for about four hours and didn't even make thirty dollars, so we closed about 2:30. All told we made about a thousand dollars, and would have made more if today's weather wasn't so icky.

It's really tempting to save everything for another sale. We still have LOADS of nice stuff. City codes, though, restrict me to two sales in a twelve-month period, so I would have to wait until July. While it's terribly tempting I have GOT to get on with my life and clear out R's stuff.

Thanksgiving holidays are next week. My last class is Tuesday afternoon, and after that I'm going to CLEAN like a mad dervish. The house needs it, and I need it. Can't wait.

Garage Sale Pictures! I wish I had taken photos on Saturday, when we had stuff EVERYWHERE. Instead I waited until Sunday when the rain forced us to consolidate. I think seeing what's left will give an idea of what all we actually sold!


My nephew with a container full of necklaces. He refused to model.

The Welsh buffet I let a neighbor purchase for $150.00. A steal. I know it ahs a good home, though!

Can you believe NONE of this glassware went, and I was asking a nickle a piece on Sunday? The cappucino set is Fitz & Floyd, and check out those COOL black winecups.

A Japanese fish trap, something else that I thought would be snatched up. I was wrong.

Svend Jensen oil lamps. They aren't bringing much in eBay, but I really thought someone would want a few. I took a few, and now I think I'll take more.

Cool cloth -- the nationality is escaping me. I thougt this was another sure sell, but it's going to go back into the hallway.

A leather Madonna. I thought the hispanic Catholic population would snatch this up, but no one even asked about it.

Someday Soon Something Nice is Going to Happen

Like on Friday, when my long-anticipated garage sale starts. Can't wait!!

I took most of the day off from school so Mom and I could unpack all the boxes. We didn't quite finish, but we made a HUGE dent in the pile. We just don't have room in the garage for what is in there now, and we still have over twenty boxes in my living room. (and another ten of R's to go through tonight!) We'll just have to open boxes and set them in the driveway.

Weather forecast looks good until Sunday. Hopefully by then we can get everything left over back into the garage.

Yesterday I made a few purchases on behalf of my kitchen. It's now the proud owner of a new hand mixer and small food processor. The reason for the purchases stems from a commitment to make 24 deviled eggs for the faculty Thanksgiving party tomorrow, which somehow blossomed into the eggs AND a chocolate cheesecake. I took the recipe for my ever-popular icebox cheesecake and tried to make it into a BAKED cheesecake, with dismal results. It's absolutely inedible. Just awful. I might try again tonight, but I doubt it. The deviled eggs, combined with all the cleaning I have to do, should be enough of a trial.

And Yet More Garage

Hopefully tomorrow will be the end of the Garage Saga, excepting the final chapter, The Garage Sale. I can't wait to be finished. I can't wait to have every vestige of R's stuff out of the house. I want to start making the house mine. And I want to quit tripping all over the twenty-something boxes of garage sale merchandise piled in my living room.

Very busy day -- I taught, had lunch with Mom and Charlotte, cleaned out more of the last closet (I'm down to fourteen small boxes!!), ran errands to Barnes and Noble, Target, and Home Depot. Then went back to school for the web design club meeting, and afterwards had dinner while prepping a student for a job interview on Monday. (Good luck, Angela!) I came home and cleaned a little more, and now I'm very close to falling asleep on my feet, except (as usual) my mind won't shut up. I think this is the first break I've taken all day that's lasted more than ten minutes.

And in the middle of everything I found time to count all the money we have found in the garage so far, excepting the coins. The grand total includes the bonds, AmEx traveler's checks, Italian lira at the going rate, and US dollars. So far we're up to $4322.86. My family knows how to kick ass while cleaning, huh?

Cold Weather Starting

I think winter, the dreaded season, is almost upon us. Tonight it should get down to 45 degrees, so I'm debating if I should turn on the heater. I was hoping to save a little money in October and November, but it's just too damn cold. My teeth are on the verge of chattering as I type, and tonight I have to wash my hair.

Little progress on the dreaded house. I've started work on the second closet, which is possibly worse than the closet in the guest bedroom. This one is filled with stuff including boxes from R's last house. It's only 8:00 PM, though, so I still have several hours left to work, and I've run out of books to read.

My winter break starts on December 9th. Can't wait. My "master plan" is to paint the workroom, and move all my stuff out of Mom and Dad's house & store it there while I paint the living room area. My horosope should read "Aqua approaches."

EXCELLENT Shopping

Planned to go to Circa Interiors, but just didn't have enough bling for Oak lawn today. Decided to go desk-shopping instead. A new desk is a must-have, since I need to sell the existing (ugly) one in a garage sale. Mom and I went to Office Depot, but everything there was wrong and expensive. Next we went to a used office furniture store where I fell in love with two wonderful mid-century office chairs, which I (sadly) left at the store.

Next we went to Thrift Town, where I picked up another picture for my growing bad art collection. Our next destination was the Salvation Army, which ALWAYS seems to have something. Today was no exception. Mom found a La-Z-Boy Carlile recliner that needs reupholstering. I've been looking at them for a while, and finding one for a mere $69 was an incredible high. I couldn't tear off the "sold" part of the tag quickly enough. Next she found a solid wood 70s desk with a chartreuse green fomica front. Wow. It wasn't what I was after at all, but it was too bold a statement to pass up, especially with the $45 price tag. It's narrow -- that's my only concern right now, that it won't hold the laptop and the docking station. If it won't I'll have to find a way around the issue. That desk is staying.

We drove to the La-Z-Boy store just to check the prices on the Carlyle. It retails for about $800. We took it to an upholstery store in Grand Prairie, and it will cost me about $315 + fabric to get it recovered. All told I'll probably pay about $600 for the chair, but 25% off is still nothing to sneeze at.

La-Z-Boy also has the Dexter sofa on sale. It isn't totally what I like, but the price tag might make me change my mind. Face it, the Herman Miller Eames Sub-Compact in Lime Chroma is out of my price range.

What has La-Z-Boy done to their site!!!???!!! I wanted to play with fabric so I would have an idea of what to put on the Carlyle, but the site is sooooooooo slooooooow. I'm about to give up. They don't even have the Todd Oldham line on the first page. Has that relationship gone belly-up, too? Poor Todd. First Target, now La-Z-Boy.

Newest Closet

Last night I started on the closet in the guest bedroom. My game plan was to open the closet at 6:00 PM, clean it out, and go to Boston's for dinner. When I actually opened the closet I almost died of despair. A tall pile of stuff (seven foot nine inches, I measured!) stretching almost to the ceiling of the closet. The closet itself is another of the large walk-ins my house is endowed with, at least 5x6 feet.

Everything in the world seems to be in this closet, which is true in all R's closets. I've finally found the drawer to the Welsh buffet, more jewelry, lots of unworn clothing complete with store tags, more slides, and newspaper articles, and wadded-up tissues, and . . . after a while the mind just refuses to catalog any longer.

I worked on the closet a little bit today, but I just flat ran out of time. And the rest of this week doesn't look good, either. Maybe Friday . . .

I'm making a Christmas list for the house, focusing on things the house needs to be a happy home. I'm constructing the list in Amazon.com, which is a little disappointing because they don't have everything I need. Then again, who does?