Decluttering the Mustard

In my post from yesterday, I didn't give the main reason why I am a little OCD about buying the freshest foods at the grocery store (even if it's dog treats). The real reason is because the fresher it is, the longer I'll be able to keep it before I have to throw it away. Oye.

Today, being a depressing Saturday since there were no yardsales, I made myself do a few chores around the house. First thing I did was boil some potatoes to make potato salad to have with dinner. I know the recipe calls for dry mustard but I just give it a few squirts of good ole French's. The classic yellow mustard was looking pretty brown so I figured since it was time to break out a "new" bottle. I grabbed a bottle from the pantry that I've had for a while and broke the seal on it and looked inside. It too looked brown. Matter of fact, it looked solid enough that I could have actually cut the mustard. groan. Then I read the back telling about a contest to enter - deadline 09/04. Into the sink it went (to rinse out the bottle for recycling). Then onto the next bottle of mustard - finally I hit a good bottle (I think I bought it recently with triple coupons at Shoppers Food Warehouse).

Then I got to looking at the mustard bottle that I've been using probably since the millennium. We don't go thru a lot of yellow mustard here at the castle. The ultimate condiment is ketchup, so no need for me to use yellow mustard on a hotdog or hamburger. And DH uses Guldens. And Jacob is living life without the use of either ketchup or mustard. I wonder if French's even makes bottles like this (on the right) anymore. Maybe I should save it as a future collectible. I just know 30 years from now I'll be able to sell it for .99 on eBay.

I know sometimes I'm wasteful in my excessive shopping. But I know for instance - that mustard that I threw away, I'm sure I paid next to nothing for it (using coupons). I still think it's better to have it and not need it, rather than needing it and not having it and having to go out and buy it at full price. Well anyway that is my justification.

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Another job I did today was some minor remodeling to my Spongebob bathroom. You know I am always trying to find ways to add storage to my life. A few weeks ago at Smile I bought a new in package bathroom shelf for $2. (I installed it a little high on purpose). And I had previously also bought a soap dish with removable glass insert for $1. I figured I could use it for small item storage, like jewelry, etc, not soap since I use liquid soap.






The store clearance price was $4.00 - but the thrift store price sticker (in orange) was $2.00

Stores selling old food

I've been meaning to mention this but I keep forgetting. One thing I've started to get obsessive about when grocery shopping is looking at the dates on EVERYTHING I buy. I'm usually good about it, but then a few weeks ago I bought a bunch of 2-liters of diet coke and something didn't taste right. This was back in December around December 1. So I checked out the date on the bottle and it said something like 12/15/08. Which means that soda had been sitting there in the store for about 2 months before it was sold. Even though the date was still good, it didn't taste right and I exchanged them all for fresher soda.

Everyone (I think) knows there are dates on milk, bread, eggs etc. But I go a step beyond and look at the dates on spaghetti sauce, pasta, canned goods, everything and buy the freshest stuff the store has, even if the food is canned. Just the other day when I was at Giant and they had Francesco Rinaldi pasta sauce for $1 a jar, I saw jars that had a sell by date of 12/31/08 on them.

I don't think grocery stores are training employees on how to stock the merchandise. 9 times out of 10, the newest stuff is the front of the display, meanwhile the older food sits in the back and doesn't get sold until a really good sale comes along, or if a GOOD stock person moves the old merchandise to the front to sell that first.

And what's up with employees texting during work? I've been a few places recently and I see employees sneakily taking out their cell phones out of their pockets and texting when they should be working. If I was their manager, they would be fired on the spot. The last time I was at Chick-fil-a, I saw someone texting when restocking the napkins/straws and just the other day when I was at Biglots, I saw a person stocking shelves and texting.

Chances are sooner or later they will be caught texting and get fired and then start blaming the economy on why they can't get a job.

Started Christmas Shopping

I bought the above tile for $1 today at one of my thrifts. It will be perfect to give to my mom either for Christmas or Mother's Day or BD or something. She likes wine. That may be an understatement. A while back, I gave her a stoneware carafe that has "Cheap Wine" written in fancy script on the side (bought at thrift). That was a big hit too. So liquor-related gifts go over pretty well. I thought I posted a pic of the carafe here on the blog, but apparently I didn't. (And in case you're wondering, yes I photographed the tile on a Christmas tablecloth...)

Hey, guess who's back to eating butter flavored microwave popcorn? Jacob saw me microwaving popcorn the other day for the squirrels and then he decided he still likes butter flavored popcorn, and has been eating it since. I guess the old saying about how you always want what someone else has holds true. Even if the someone else is a squirrel.

And was able to make reservations for a 5 night stay at a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo sometime later this year at an undisclosed location - haha. I have to keep the info private, otherwise as you can imagine, the paparazzi would be relentless. I opted for a bigger unit with a terrace so after taxes and fees (cleaning/linens), it came to $476 for 5 nights. Afterward, of course, I will tell you about the vacation. Actually I don't really care that much to go on a land-based vacation but at least I will have free Wifi when away. And maybe I can sneak off and go thrifting in a new locale. Chances are very good that where we are going, I'll be doing some shopping at "the pig" (that is a general destination clue). Our last family vacation was the road trip to Arkansas back in the summer of '07. Yes, you read that right. We intentionally went on vacation to Arkansas. I hope this next vacation is as exciting.



I stopped in my Walgreens today and bought the above body washes for .39 each. They were on clearance for $1.39 and I had $1 coupons for each. Now that Christmas is over, I noticed today my Walgreens was back to clearancing out regular items.

p.s. Obama was right about calling the DC area a bunch of wimps when it comes to closing schools for bad weather. He didn't say that exactly, but I'm sure that's what he meant. I've been saying that same thing for years! Schools were closed yesterday and school was delayed 2 hours today. The roads were dry but we did have some snow still in the grass......oh the horror!

Back when I worked at the nuke plant, and drove in during a snowy day (I was a contract employee so I didn't get paid if I didn't work). The office area was practically deserted and someone saw me there working and asked what kind of 4-wheel drive vehicle did I have. I responded "I drive a car, I'm from New York".

My Shoppers Food Warehouse Triple Coupons Haul

And let me tell ya, I am SET for feminine hygiene products for quite a while. (And this isn't even counting my humongous tampon stash!!!!I know I know - TMI) Maybe I convince Jacob the Stayfree packages are a new kind of building blocks and I need to store them in his room because the bathroom closet is already packed to the gills. Now I just hope I stay youthful enough to have to use them all up before menopause sets in. But considering I am still very young, I have years, possibly decades (ha!) before menopause sets in. These particular items were discontinued at half price, and then I used several Buy 1 Get 1 free coupons. So I couldn't pass them up at .80 a package (after coupons).

I did my Shopppers Food Warehouse (SFW) shopping yesterday. Total before coupons was $149.79 and after coupons I paid $64.36 Not the best couponing trip, but pretty good. I bought some things without using coupons like that 12 pack of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper that DH drinks. Within the past month, all of the local grocery stores stopping carrying Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper in 2-liter bottles. I called Dr. Pepper and complained. Didn't help. So when I saw SFW had cans of it, I bought it.

The Lego Eggos were free. Which is good. They were $2.19 a box, which I had .75 coupons for ($2.25 value when tripled). Jacob was disappointed that there was food in the box and not Legos. I think the birds and squirrels will be happy to eat it. I know it's such a waste, but already Jacob told me he doesn't like them. I am raising a very picky food eater. I could eat them, but not really what I like to eat for breakfast. Today I made that carrot cake mix that is the pic. Now that's what I call a good breakfast (for me), a slice of carrot cake.

The Veg-all cans of mixed veggies will probably get donated to a food pantry or something. I don't like my veggies touching each other. The Boy Scouts usually do a door to door food drive in the fall. (They leave an empty bag on your doorstep one Saturday and then they return the following Saturday to pick up donations).

We ate that Tai Pai pre-made Chinese dinner for dinner last night. It is supposed to serve 2. Two people who don't wants seconds. It was about $4 after coupon (normally it's $5.99, but on sale for $5.49 but I had a .50 coupon that was tripled). Its not something I would normally buy since I usually make my own General Tso chicken (using the Iron Chef General Tso sauce from BJ's warehouse). But I have to say, the Tai Pai stuff was tasty and easy.

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I am trying to plan a vacation. I saw a deal to get a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo with free Wifi (condo is less than a year old) for about $80 a night. I just called to reserve it tonight and they are only open during normal business hours so I have to call tomorrow morning to book it for later this year. It would be so nice to get to go away and still be able to check email, blog etc.

This is about as crafty as I get....

The other day I mentioned I was going to do a craft but don't get excited - I haven't done it yet. But I did make this today, so I think it counts as a craft too. I took an old colander - I think I took out of a freebie box at a yardsale - and attached a wire hanger to it to make it a bird feeder.

I have a big box of microwave popcorn that I need to start feeding to the birds. It's big, like a 40 mini-bag size bought from BJs Warehouse I think I purchased back in 2007 plus another box that is half-full (the eat-by date is Aug 2008). Well Jacob loves popcorn so I really stocked up when I saw it in the big size (I think it was like $6 for a 40-pack - they were designed to give out has Halloween treats - so I probably bought it October 2007). Well anyway, slowly over the course of the years, Jacob discovered that he likes Kettle Corn microwave popcorn better so he's not eaten as much as the butter flavor. And its getting older and older every day and I'm sick of looking at it (and being someone who can't throw anything away, I have to do something with it so I will feed the birds and squirrels).

And shortly after I put it up, the birds were there to check it out.



In the upper bird feeder is a homemade suet patty. A friend told me this recipe long ago:

Wild Bird Suet Recipe

Mix together using your hands (it's messy). Shape into patties and put into a suet feeder. Refrigerate leftovers.

4 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 cup peanut butter (chunky or regular)
1 cup crisco shortening (or cheap generic)

$70 richer

I've gotten $70 whole dollars richer in just the past day. Yesterday I went out to lunch with a friend to Lone Star (used a coupon of course) and then afterward I stopped at a car dealership for a free $20 cash. They sent a letter saying "give us 20 minutes and we'll give you $20" to stop in and look at new cars and figure out how much your trade would be worth. Only downfall now is that they have my telephone # and will probably be calling soon. I love my car and don't want a new one. I bought it new in 2005, so it's still pretty new anyway.

Then today I made $50 on something I sold to a guy on Craigslist. It was several school awards (they were metal medals - haha) from this area, dating back to 1929. I found them in a freebie box at a yardsale back in the fall. In that same freebie box, was a vintage Washington Redskins belt buckle that I sold on eBay for $25.

And this week I did some double $2 coupon shopping at Kmart (a $2 coupon was worth $4). And I even bought some items without using coupons. Christmas stuff was 90% off and I found an American Idol Christmas ornament for .99 (Original price $9.99. You press a button and it says "THIS is American Idol". And a Martha Stewart Russian nesting doll ornament. Thankfully it doesn't depict Martha Stewart, it's just the Martha Stewart brand. It was .49 (original price $4.99).



I also bought 25 sheets of re-positional Christmas stickers at .15 a sheet. I figure Jacob can have fun with them and maybe keep a bunch to resell when I do a December yardsale. Not a big money maker, but I can probably easily sell them at .50 each in December.

So anyway at Kmart, my total came to $99.99 and after coupons it was $38. And today I see that Shopper's Food Warehouse has triple coupons going on so I will have to get my coupons ready for that. But they are only tripling coupons up to .99. But still, having a .50 coupon worth $1.50 is pretty good. And then I got an email from Big Lots with a special 20% off my entire order coupon good for next week. So since both stores are near each other, I will hit both on one day.

Coming soon......my attempt at making a craft. (I saw something in a Family Fun magazine that I want to try to make.) I am not into doing crafts. Not into scrapbooking. Not into Etsy. Not into making anything Martha Stewart demonstrates on her show. For the craft I have in mind, I have to finish a carton of orange juice first though. So I don't need to buy anything special. Normally I just throw the Family Fun magazine in a stash of other un-read magazines that I get (free or nearly free of course). But the other day I actually looked thru it.

Speaking of Obama.....

I'm sure you want a piece of "history" to remember this day. hmmmmm...what could you buy? Let me think. Hmmmmmm, I got it! You need my old newspapers! (for the right price, of course). I have the newspapers from back in November during the election (since I was too lazy to do anything with them back then). And today's newspapers. I got off my butt today and actually listed them on ebay.

Don't think of it as just buying a piece of history (yes, I think its totally corny when people say that but maybe it will work..), think of it as adding to my Botox fund.

Auction #1

Auction #2

Congratulations Obama

I thought it would be a good chance for me to show off again my pic I took of an Obama cake that made it to the Cake Wrecks Blog back in November. Cake Wrecks is a great blog, it's almost as good as mine.

Even though DC is only about 50 miles away, I don't want to join the throngs. I like having access to flush toilets. When I drove by the local Hilton hotel yesterday, I spotted a few charter buses there from Ohio and New Orleans, so I know they were staying there to attend the inauguration.



The above pic is the mystery item I talked about yesterday, you know a Hzler Decbag&nzl Fd36ct.

And in going thru my pics, here is a buy from VV the other week that I forgot to post about. A piece of Kohl's artwork. I paid $1.25 for it. Still had the disposible hanger thing on it.

A Man of Many Colors in a coat of many colors...

On Friday, Jacob's class had a lesson on Martin Luther King and a coloring activity. Apparently he got the message that people come in every color imaginable.

And with a lot of people off from work today, many decided to go to Walgreens, CVS and Giant and they cramped my style. I am used to shopping during the day when everyone is at work (or should be) and kids are in school and its nice and quiet. I did manage to get some bargains at the stores. Got Pineapple Express Redbox DVD rental for free to watch tonight (using the free Monday promo code at insideredbox.com)

And I see K-mart is doing the Double Coupon deal this week, so I gotta get my coupons organized for that.



At Giant, they had a sale on Hzler Decbag&nzl Fd36ct for only $1.49. I really don't need a Hzler Decbag&nzl Fd36ct so I didn't buy any of them. Don't tell me you don't know what a Hzler Decbag&nzl Fd36ct is. But if you don't, I will reveal tomorrow.

People are so stupid....

Occasionally I like reading the online edition of my old hometown newspaper and seeing what's cooking. This article caught my eye A Lobster Tale (Amsterdam is a name of a city in NY). As punishment, they should make him live on SoyJoy bars for a month (now that would be cruel and unusual punishment).

Triple Coupons at Giant

My grocery store (Giant) is having a special this week. I think I mentioned that they are now doubling coupons up to .99 (which is great). But this week they are tripling coupons up to .99 - but with a limit of 5 triples per shopping trip. But its not a company-wide promotion - only certain select stores are having the triple coupon promo.

I went yesterday and did 5 triple coupons. I bought 2 boxes of Celestial Seasonings tea for .02 a box. (On sale for $1.67. Then tripled my .55 coupon for an additional $1.65 off per box). I am not a tea drinker but DH is. Also bought a box of Kelloggs new fiber bars for .75 a box (on sale for $3.00. Tripled a .75 coupon for $2.25 off). I can't remember the two other items I bought.

Then today DH was taking Jacob to the library so I told them to drop me off at Giant. After coupons, I bought: Hanover frozen pretzels for $1.00, package of Trident gum (free), another Kelloggs Fiber bars .75, Lysol toilet cleaner .25, 2 package of Ortega Chili seasoning (both free) and bottle of Aleve painkiller for $2.74 (it was on sale for $4.99 and I tripled a .75 coupon. Plus the package had 50% more in it for free).

I know that is more than 5 items but I didn't need to triple the gum coupon since by just doubling it, it was free anyhow. If the coupon amount is more than the price of the item, you just get the item free, you don't "make money" on the item.

No yardsales today, but I did dream about going yardsaling last night so that will have to do.


While at the grocery store yesterday, I spotted this junk lover in the parking lot. (I asked if I could take a pic and they said yes. They are a junk cleaner-outter so to speak).

And I while I was at Old Navy a little while ago, I snapped this pic:


I thought of buying it, but didn't. It didn't really make sense to me. I do understand what a "yardsale" is in skiing terminology, but I couldn't figure out why the abominable snowman would say that skiers weren't allowed. It would seem to me that the abominable snowman would WANT more skiers to yardsale just so he could laugh at them.

(for the uninformed - you can read the alternative definition of a yardsale here)



Took the above pic the other day, before having lunch. Used a restaurant gift certificate that I had won thru a local freebie newspaper.

Sassy Signs Sale

Oh I almost forgot to mention this but Sassy Signs is having a sale on their signs - their lowest price ever. Sale ends on January 20. Click on the "Order Now" link on the left hand side of the page to see their current promotion.

Lost Cat (?) Sign

My sister sent me this pic in a joke email that is making the rounds. I know the pic is probably a fake, but even so, I think it's funny.

Spent $355 tonight for a good cause

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may remember that back in September I blogged about a little girl in my town who escaped out of a hell hole while her two sisters lay dead in a freezer. Tonight the man who initially found the little girl and called the police organized a fundraising auction on her behalf. All the money is going to be put into a bank account or something for her.

The auction was from 3pm-7pm but in reality, the actual auction took place from 6pm-6:45. There was music, inspirational speakers, yadda yadda beforehand. Only 30 items where auctioned. I won two. First item was a 2 night stay at The National Harbor. The National Harbor is a new waterfront complex with hotels and restaurants etc near Washington DC. I paid $225 for a 2 night stay in one of the hotels there. I went to the hotel's website and see that the price for one night is normally $249 so I got a good deal.

Oye...but now I am thinking, we'll probably go on a Friday/Saturday night. And so I will miss out on yardsales. Waaaa. Hmmmm...will have to check the school calendar and maybe do a Saturday night/Sunday night. Or wait until June when schools are out.

And the second item I won was for playing golf (for two) and some expensive golf course that my DH has never played at. I paid $130 for that - which is probably too much but it does come with a $85 Greg Norman golf shirt & towel. I had stopped bidding but then the auctioneer drew me back in. Participating in a live auction can get spendy. At least there was no auctioneer's premium or sales tax.

I took some pics with my cellphone. Will post some later maybe.

p.s. The free Suze Orman download book is ending tonight (if it hasn't ended already). I saw it at CVS the other day, where it was priced at $9.99

p.s. 1/17/09 - just added two pics to this entry. Most of the pics didn't come out very well because there was a lot of sun glare as it was setting. Some of the items auctioned were something called "press plates" from the Washington Post. I had read the info that came with it and it said it was sensitive to light and they were some sort of reproductions. I did not bid. And the emcee of the event was Spiggy - a Washington Redskins Hogette. He and his fellow Hogettes do a lot of fundraising events on behalf of children. During the cocktail hour, I was talking with a woman who was fairly new to the area and she asked me why was there was a clown walking around. During an intermission, Spiggy lead everyone (not me!) in singing of the Hail to the Redskins song. boo hiss

Free Suze Orman Book Download

Suze Orman 2009 Action Plan

You can download Suze Orman's 2008 Action Plan book for free until January 15 (sometime in the evening).

Now I remember why my site hasn't been updated in so long....

I really need to clean out my inbox and all the subfolders. I need to update the yardsalequeen site with some new stories that have been submitted over the years. Here's an email dating back from 2002 that I haven't put up on the website. Now I remember why updating the website with new stories is such work. Here's a typical email about a yardsale that someone submitted for inclusion on the Stories page: (due to my short attention span, my eyes just glaze over when I attempt to read it).

all my stuff at my garage sales are mine or given to me by my family. the
last sale i previously bought a 3 wheel yellow adult bike with basket and
bell for $100.00. my hubby kept telling me it has been in the garage so
long unused put it by the curb at that time i did not know if i was going in
on the neighboorhood garage sales so i did. time for the sale you always
get customers 1/2hour early well i knew the man from the neighborhood and he
helped me put up the colorful streamer then he went into my garage and said
i did not know your motors for boats were for sale and they did not go well
he took them for a very good price that brought over the rest of my close
neighbors. but the thing that irked me was the neighbor to my north
repainted same yellow adult bike of mine and sold it and put the $in his
pocket for the price of paint. then that same year i had a second sale my
mistake a neighbor called the police on me and he said are you sure this is
your stuff i said yes all of it the other policeman said i am not telling my
wife about this 1 i said u tell her i will make her a good deal hah. the
other policeman said we are going to license garage sales pretty soon did
you know that i said no. then another customer i knew always looked at my
mom's jewelry antique marked. that time 2 she came around and asked where
is the jewelry never bought anything before i said i kept it. hubby then
came home from work. we closed shop my daughter and i came in the house
this was the biggest garage sale i ever had. i alone made over $2,000.00
just on this 1. never had a garage sale again too much trouble and now
daughter has 2 kids so she cannot help. secret if you are alone or go into
the house for something it never fails something is stolen!!!!!!!!!

gal from somewhere

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I think I am going to be ruthless when it comes time to update my site with new stories. I will only include stories where I only have to spend 2 minutes or less correcting grammar/punctuation/etc. Those emails that don't make the cut are getting deleted.

Almost Back to Normal

My relationship with computers is definitely a love/hate type of deal. Mostly love them, but they are easy to hate when they don't work right. I am back to my computer, with a new browser (Mozilla Firefox) and new operating system (Vista). We had the Vista upgrade for my computer but never used it until now.

Zakary, I saved all my old files (pictures mostly) on a little external harddrive that plugs in via a USB port. $99 from Staples External Harddrive I will eventually burn them all on disks, and the external harddrive can be used for other things.

DH was able to import all my old emails to my new Windows Mail. My inbox has thousands of emails (mostly fan mail, of course :). I have "sent" emails going back to to 2005. Sometimes I wonder if I should have just stuck with Hotmail. I still love my hotmail email account.

Only thing I think I am missing is all of my bookmarked pages. I had tons and tons of websites bookmarked. And I had a ton of sites listed on my desktop as shortcuts. I think they are all gone. I guess whatever I need to find, I will just google it.

Archive your files!

Just a word of advice - archive your files. That means all the pics you cannot live without if something happened to your computer.

My computer locked up on my a few days ago and I rebooted it like I've done before and it wouldn't come back up. The computer is not that old, maybe 2 years? And I hadn't been doing anything weird on it when it happened, like downloading crap etc.

DH had to re-install Windows on it. Then the internet connection stopped working and is still not working. It looks like it's connected by its not. Tried everything, fixed all the settings yadda yadda.

Today we went to Staples and I bought a little portable harddrive thingy for $99 - so now all the files I absolutely don't want to lose are on it. I am so thankful they aren't gone. All my pics from Jacob from 2005 to present. (Somewhere I have the older pics stored on CD/DVDs which are somewhere around here...) I really need to get my act together and get organized.

I am typing this from our laptop. I am hoping all my emails in Outlook Express aren't gone - thousands of emails there. Lots of yardsale stories where people sent me stories and I hadn't updated the yardsale stories page (in years...my bad).

So go now and make copies of all your valuable info!!

Giant Grocery Stores now doubles coupons up to .99!

One good change for the new year is that one of my grocery stores Giant Food is now doubling coupons up to .99! As far back as I remember, they would double coupons worth .50 and less but now up to .99 I think it's a permanent change, not just for a week or two (I have my fingers crossed).

I was there today and used some .75 Pounce Cat treat coupons. The treats are normally $1.59 so with the coupons, I ended up paying .09 each. Too bad I don't have a cat. But it's hard to replace Rudy, the best damn cat who ever lived. Perhaps you've even him, he did appear once in a national cat calendar....maybe someday I'll show a pic. No, he wasn't some special hoity toidy cat, just a regular awesome cat.

Anyhow, I'll end up doing something with the cat treats. I know people with cats. Speaking of pets, or animal companions, or whatever the politically correct term is....I bought a hamster over Christmas. I normally try to avoid buying stupid stuff, but I saw it and had to have it. It's a fake hamster that runs on a wheel. It is mesmerizing I tell ya. And I paid retail - 9.99 plus tax. It was at Cracker Barrel near my mom's house, I had stopped in to buy 70% off Christmas stuff and saw that stupid little fake hamster. It's stupid but I love it.

I also did some some after-Christmas shopping at Target, Walmart and CVS. CVS is not exciting me this year. I swear too much Hannah Montana and High School Musical crap leftover. When CVS has gone to 90% off Christmas stuff in the past, I've gotten lots of good stuff. Not sure how I will do this year. Right now the stuff is still sitting at 75% off.

Also while in NY, I went to a KB Toys going out of business sale. Bought Jacob some small toys and for DH I bought two talking Homer Simpson/Smithers car dashboard statues (will put away for Valentines Day). I went to the Christmas Tree Shop but the only thing I bought was Portugese breakfast rolls that I always buy there.

First Yardsale of the New Year

I accidently found my first yardsale of 2009. I was on my way somewhere yesterday when I spotted a yardsale sign. It was 11:30 so I wasn't expecting to find anything great. I spent a total of $14. Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker was $5, Jack LaLanne Juicer (for ebay) was $5, a $3 glass swirly bowl and a $1 Good Charlotte CD that I didn't have. Sorry the pic isn't too great. Disregard the Diet Coke.

Someday....I will have my own personal pew

When I was growing up, we had an old church pew in our cellar (and still do). Why? Because my Dad probably got it for free somewhere. I don't recall it ever being upstairs in the main part of the house, it was just always in the cellar. I've told my mom I want it. It's really not too big I don't think. I should measure it - I think it would fit in our foyer, if I got rid of my gossip bench seat. But I would hate to part with that. I guess I just need a bigger house.

Anyhow, you can see the pew underneath the miscellanous junk. One thing I know for sure is that those cushions are going in the trash. I don't need a constant reminder of the funky smell of my parent's cellar (although it would bring me back to my childhood).

Another interesting thing in my childhood home is this antique Detroit Iron Works wood stove:



I can remember my Dad using it to heat up the cellar and I thought it was so cool to look thru the peep hole and see the fire inside. It's too darn heavy to move to Maryland. Someday I'll probably be looking for a buyer for it. Refurbished ones sell for thousands of dollars. My mom says that when she dies, I'm in charge of the big garage sale.

Here's a pic of Jacob hanging out in a wheelchair that he had fun rolling around in.

Update on Christmas Present for Niece

In December in this blog posting, I mentioned I bought my niece something at Staples as part of her Christmas present. And how I thought it was big and ugly but there was a chance she may like it, and it was only .50 (but shushhhhh.... don't tell her that!!!)

Good news! Kelly gave it her approval the other day. As it turns out, she already has the exact same picture in her bedroom, but a smaller version. So I did good!

p.s. I cropped the above pic a little, but of course I didn't want to crop out the Queen!

Tired and Cranky - Happy New Year!

I put 500 miles on the car today so I am a little tired and cranky. Not hungover at all. Only had one glass of an adult beverage last night. Now I am home checking email, catching up on blogs etc. I had very limited computer access while away.

A lot of the free Wifi places near my mom's house either dried up, or closed early (like Panera Bread).

My car is still loaded down with presents and junk collected over the past week. I am irritated a small souvenir plate I bought (to keep) fell out of a bag while I was unloading the car and it chipped badly.

Jacob is glad to be home too. It's tough for a kid to have to go back to playing Super Nintendo when they are now used to Playstation 3. We did play Wii (for the first time) last night at my brother's house. It was fun, but of course it's fun when you win :) (and not so much fun if you happen to be sitting directly behind someone bowling and get wacked in the noggin). I think we'll just stick with PSP3, the Wii is too much like exercise.

Need to go relax, will write more soon.