Ate at a place with cloth napkins today

My husband and I went out to lunch today. Decided to try an Italian restaurant that we've never been to. The place used to be a Perkins restaurant. But I think I got that Perkins closed down since I used to do Mystery Shopping (well Mystery Eatting) at that Perkins and my last review wasn't good. Anyhow they remodeled inside and now it's a sorta fancy restaurant. Had cloth napkins which I don't see very often. well I guess Outback Steakhouse has cloth napkins. Will have to pay better attention. Anyhow, I got a chicken parmigiana that wasn't great (dry and not very cheesy). My husband liked his lunch though.

Afterwards we walked around the nearby JC Penneys. Didn't buy anything. But what I thought was funny was seeing some very super distressed Levi's priced (on sale) for $34.99. Actually I think whoever is buying jeans like that is either stupid or lazy. Why not take a pair of your old jeans and distress them yourself and save $35? When I commented to the salesclerk who was standing nearby (I said something like "wow, these are really distressed" and she kinda rolled her eyes at the jeans and said "did you see the next table, they have paint splatters". And sure enough, the next table has distressed Arizona (brand) jeans that had distressing plus white paint splatters. When I say "distressed", I'm not just talking about jeans made to look already worn or broken in, I mean jeans that have 5" wide holes in both knees, hems that are torn and looked like they've been dragging on the floor.

Exactly 6 years ago today, I had a yardsale.

You know how I remember so well? Because the next day I gave birth! No, I hadn't planned it that way (he was 3 weeks early). And if I knew I was going to give birth that weekend, I wouldn't have had the yardsale but instead I would have packed my overnight hospital bag which I ended up having to do last minute.

There were only a handful of yardsales today. Didn't buy much. One neat item I bought for $1 was a vintage ceramic piggy bank marked "Corky Pig" on the bottom (it was made by the Hull company). See above pic.

Had an Elvis sighting while shopping at the hardware store

About once or twice a year our local Ace Hardware store has a "Ladie's Night". They are normally closed on Sunday nights, so they have it when they would otherwise be closed anyways. I went to my first Ladies night in the fall, and they just recently had one another one this past Sunday night. They have 20% off everything in the stores, freebies, goodies to eat and Elvis as entertainment. I am not kidding! It certainly is a surreal experience to be pushing your cart in a hardware store (in my rinky dink town) and see rhinestoned cape wearing Elvis impersonator strolling by belting out tunes. I regretted not bringing my camera. I would definitely describe him as the older, *fluffier* Elvis, not the trim and young Elvis. I haven't seen a ton of Elvis impersonators in my life, but I think he sounds very good. Visit the The Rockin Elvis website.

The freebies I got this time where two canvas tote bags and 4 Benjamin Moore sample paint cans (normally $3.49 each). I ran into a yardsailing friend there and she had her paint samples but then said "oh I should have gotten some darker colors for making yardsale signs!" What a smart cookie!

I didn't really buy anything. They had a good sale on suet cakes for the birds at .50 each. I had gotten a free $5 gift card in the mail from using my Ace frequent shopper card. So with my free $5, I *bought* 10 suet cakes for the birds.

March 16

Got some good bargains at my thrifts the past few days. Today I bought a little lightweight collapsible cart thingy (the wheels even fold down) for $1.50. Also bought myself a few tops at V V (it was a .30 day). I plan on going to a big indoor yardsale this Saturday so I plan on bringing it. And a bunch of other stuff.

I got a good bargain online the other week at Amazon.com We have a California King sized bed so buying sheets is always a challenge. Most brick and mortar stores only carry regular King sized sheets, not California King. Well the other week while looking on Amazon, I found brand new Cal. King sheets (300 thread count and they also flannel sheets) for only $14.99 a set. And if you spent over $25, shipping was free. Well at that price I couldn't resist and ended up buying 3 sets. I think a lot of people only think of Amazon for books and DVDs but they really have quite a selection of all kinds of stuff.

Sat. 3/11

The Message Board is down. But hey, you should be out yardsailing anyways! Not sure when they'll be back up, hopefully soon.

Chris

BJ's Warehouse Open House

Did some shopping at BJ's Warehouse today. Until March 5, they are having an Open House, go to this website to print out a shopping pass:
BJ's Warehouse

We used to have a membership, but let it expire. But it seems like they have Open Houses a few times a year (last one was in September). Then they sent us a free 3 month trial which lasted until January 1. Heck, so really, it doesn't make sense for us to buy a membership.

Anyways today, we bought an awesome deck bench with tons of storage. You know I have a thing for storage!