Today's Buys

Today was Whiskey's appt with the low-cost pet clinic. I had made the appointment a few weeks ago (they have a pretty long waiting list since they are only open 2 days a week). So I didn't tell this vet that Whiskey had recently visited a regular vet 2 weeks ago. I wanted to see what this vet said in comparison.

Good news - he got another clean bill of health - except that he is old and is a little unsteady on his feet (primarily back legs). She thought it was arthritis and recommended glucosomine chondroitin. The pill they recommended only came in a mega-sized bottle. But she said I could find it online elsewhere and perhaps in a liquid form. (Rather than a chewable pill, which Whiskey may or may not want to eat).

Whiskey was Mr. Personality in the waiting room, wanting to sniff everyone's butt. He even growled at some big dogs. Fourteen pound Whiskey thinks he is a big dog too.

Anyhow, some cat came in to get it's nails clipped and they did it on the spot at the receptionist desk. And since Whiskey and I were walking around the waiting room, we couldn't help but see and hear it. I had to take a pic - it made me LOL.



Here is a closer pic - sorry for the blurriness.


Anyhow, long story short: the pet clinic is conveniently located near Vintage Value so I had to pop in. I bought the above two jackets for $1.50 each (they were marked $3.00 each, but they had a special today - half off marked items). They used to not mark prices on things, but now they do. One is a Gap jacket for Jacob (kid size 10/12 but it looks huge). And the George (Walmart brand) brown jacket for me. Even tho it is Walmart brand, I like it.

Then yesterday I was at CVS and paid $2.89 for all this PLUS got $2.99 back in Extra Care Bucks.



The big tote bag thing (Essence of Beauty brand) was on clearance for $4.99 (had a $1 coupon off any Essence of Beauty product), so it was $3.99 and came with the neck pillow, small case & lotions. The Glade was on sale for $5.99 but I had a $4 coupon and the Paas egg thing was $1.99 but I got $1.99 back in Extra Care bucks. And I had used some Extra Care Bucks from last week to pay, so that is why I only paid $2.90 out of pocket for it all. (And like I said, I earned $2.99 in Extra Care Bucks for the next time I shop at CVS).

Swimming in Scrubs.....

Yesterday I was on a message board (not the awesome Yardsalequeen Message Board, but a different one. ) And I saw where someone posted a link to a medical supply company that had an awesome deal or was a horrible mistake, depending on how you look at it. Order two or more sets of scrubs for .34 a set. So I ordered quite a few and put it on my credit card. But my card hasn't been charged yet. The email confirmation said that the ordering was still "processing". So.....either I'm about to get a TON of scrubs for $20 or else the company will just reject the order. They've since fixed the error so I'm not going to provide a link. The fine print on the online form says they are not responsible for typographical errors, so there is a good chance I won't be getting my dozens and dozens (haha) sets of scrubs. And in the slim chance I do get them, guess what I'll be selling on eBay for the next 10 years.

Speaking of ebay, I heard back from the seller who sent me the wrong PSP case. He's suggested a refund half or send me a the right colored one. So...I just emailed him back to ask if I get the right case, do I need to return the wrong case back to China. Otherwise half off of what I paid for it (.99) would be a a huge .50 refund. I doubt they would refund half of the shipping.

Here's a funny pic of the packaging that the case came in:



The case that at game machine is protected safety. I should submit to to the Engrish website, but it pales in comparison to the really funny translation errors they have.

Chocolate, Pizza and Diet Pills

I got some good bargains at Walgreens this week. The only problem I have with Walgreens is that sometimes when they clearance stuff, it's hard to tell if the clearance price is the real price or if it's cheaper than it looks. For instance, I saw they had pizzas on clearance for something like $2.88 - but I had a feeling they would be cheaper. So I took one to the cashier and had her do a price-check. They rang up for $1.09 I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish Walgreens had a self-serve price checker thing for customers to use.

So....I bought a bunch of cheese pizzas for $1.09 and also clearanced Lindt truffles for $1.09 each. I swear, they could put chopped liver in a Lindt truffle and it would probably taste ok. Another bargain at Walgreens this week was Stride gum (on sale for .79/pack) and I had a $2.00 off coupon when you buy 3 packs. So I basically paid .37 for 3 packs of gum (which is normally like 1.29 per pack).

So to counteract the pizza and chocolate, I bought 3 bottles of Dexatrim (sealed, and with a 2010 expiration date) at $2.00 a bottle at Smile. Oh, and the Hershey's cookbook ($1) also caught my eye so I had to get that too.



I popped into Smile today for a quick look and found these cute little toy Gerber tins. Paid .75 for all 4. Will keep and put with my collection of old spice tins & crap in my kitchen. My other favorite buy of week from Smile was a half-full bottle of Donna Karan's Cashmere Mist perfume. One of my favorite perfumes. Was marked $2 but they had a half priced day, so it was $1.



Weather has been pretty dreary the past few Saturdays, so yardsale season really hasn't started up. My neighborhood association is supposedly having one on April 11th - they put it out in a newsletter that they will advertise a community wide yardsale if they hear from people interested in having a yardsale that Saturday.

I find it kinda ironic that I've given permission to various neighborhood associations all over the country to reprint some of my tips in their newsletters for their community sales, but here I am in my neighborhood and they don't even consult me about whether or not that Saturday would be a good day. (Personally I think not, because of Easter, spring break etc, too much going on). I guess I've done too good of a job blending in with the commoners in my neighborhood and hiding my yardsale royalty celebrity status.

In the mail today I finally got the PSP case that I ordered from some seller in China. It's a hard case to hold the PSP game. The auction gave your choice of colors. I emailed them and asked for a blue, black or silver case. The case I got today is a salmon/red/orange color. I complained, not sure if they will do anything.

Thrift Store News and Buys

This is what I bought yesterday. Except for the dog (he was a freebie and anyhow, I didn't get him yesterday).

.75 Goosebumps fabric
.25 old Passion Play souvenir program from Black Hills, SD
.25 Confederate Flag dish (maybe someone on ebay will want it)
.50 Ace Hardware new paint pad
$2 - old wooden curling iron (for my collection). Hard to see it since it blends in with the straps from the Nintendo DS backpack

Then at a different thrift I paid $3 and got:
Nintendo DS backpack. Will probably ebay (or else sell to Play N Trade)
Boy Scout shirt and necktie
Princess Cruise video from one of their cruises (original price $29 - on a cruise, there are videographers constantly filming the goings-on, and then they try to sell an overpriced video at the end of the vacation. So this video is the activities etc that took place on one particular Princess cruise. I got it since I am curious to see what it's really like on Princess. I've been on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines but no Princess, which is hard to believe....

DVD Nicolas Cage The Weather Man
two baby books - one a current one from Jo Frost, the Supernanny (for ebay)
3 belt buckles, one from Olympia beer and two are military related

On the Talk/Chat box over there to the left, I recently heard about a new thrift will be opening in my county. They will be part of the Vintage Value stores that I go to (again, not to be confused with Value Village). When I was at VV yesterday, I asked about it and they said they would be opening at the end of June.

Well I better get going. Gotta drop of some BJ's Warehouse cupcakes to Jacob's school and also stop at Giant and get one of my birthday Mylar balloons inflated with helium. (I paid .29 for the mylar balloons - normally was $2.99 but I got them at 90% off). I did that at Valentine's day and the balloon lasted for at least 3 weeks.

p.s. For a while now, I had 29 Loyal Followers over there on the left. And today I see it went down to 28. Makes me wonder, did someone die? That's the only logical reason I can think of why someone would stop following my awesome slice of the internet.

Kmart Double Coupons Again

I saw that my junky K-mart was having the double $2 coupons this week so I gathered up a bunch of coupons and went today. I say "junky" K-mart because there are two in my area. One that seems ok - at least it is clean and bright. And the other which is in a 70's time-warp. Of course, only the time-warped one was having the double coupon special. They even upped the limit on the # of coupons you could double - up to 75. They used to only allow 25 doubled coupons. Well today, since my junky K-mart has not apparently restocked shelves in the past few months - I managed to redeem a whopping 11 coupons. Didn't even get near redeeming 75 coupons The total was $35 before coupons and I ended up paying $10 even for the above stuff. The Venus razors were normally something like $9, on clearance for $5.59 and I had $2 coupons so I got $4 off each. The cat treats (free after doubling) will go to my brother and his cats.

Tonight I said goodnight to my 8 year old boy for the last time. Tomorrow he's 9. He's growing up so fast that I don't even realize it. He had a dentist appt earlier this week and told him to go play at the kids area in the waiting room. Then I was surprised that he didn't. Then it dawned on me, the kids area is designed for for 2 and 3 year olds.

I picked up his cake today - a free cake from a locally owned grocery store (I think they have about 5 stores in this area in Maryland). The store gives out a free cake ($6.49 value) to kids that join their birthday club (free to join). Geez, I wonder what age they stop giving out cakes. Here's a pic of the cake. Ok, so what that the big fat confetti flakes are primary colored and everything else is pastel. And the junky blue plastic Happy Birthday sign doesn't match anything. Whaddyawant for free.



Nothing much really going on, so that's why the lack of posts lately. Did get a few things at the thrift today but I don't have a pic so maybe tomorrow I will post it.

This day in history (5 years ago) ...and the .50 Cake Topper Revisited

I know what I was doing exactly 5 years ago today. Dressing my cute little 3 (almost 4) year old boy in a suit and going to my brother's wedding. Then being relieved when he decided to take a nap right in the middle of the noisy reception (he had stopped taking naps months and months prior). Happy 5th year anniversary to them. But I better email them, since I'm pretty sure they don't read many blogs. Even really exciting, entertaining, witty and funny blogs.

And here is Jacob doing his Al Bundy impersonation (while his specially prepared meal of chicken tenders & fries get cold):


And so of course, 5 years ago I ate some wedding cake. Not just any wedding cake, a slice of a $500 wedding cake with a .50 yardsale cake topper on it. I used to have the cake topper story linked on the main page at yardsalequeen.com but took the link off a long time ago. But thanks to my laziness, the page still exists for your viewing pleasure - .50 Cake Topper Story

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This is the pic I wanted to post the other day but couldn't. It's Jacob's birthday PSP toy - all loaded up and ready to go. It gets the internet and at least one really cool website has been bookmarked. I have to keep reminding DH that it's going to be Jacob's toy, not his.

Whiskey Dog Update

I took the Whiskey dog to the vets today - his first visit since 1998. Yep, I'm a bad mommy. But the thing is, the dog has been healthy as a horse over the past 10 years. I have kept up with his rabies, of course (free vaccine with donation thru the Humane Society).

Today's visit cost $100 to hear that at 14+ years old, he is getting old. He hasn't been eating much lately and sorta acting weird. But the $100 was well spent to give me some peace of mind (that nothing is obviously wrong). Whiskey has always been known as our "back-up" dog. Our first dog (as a family - and my first dog ever) was our beagle who was the best - he listened, didn't break the rules, understood English, never got picked up by Animal Control, never left the yard unattended, never dug holes under the fence, knew good places to poop in the yard (not like Whiskey who likes to poop in the direct center of the yard). However, Whiskey dog does have personality, and personality goes a long way (I like to quote from Pulp Fiction whenever possible).

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Get a free Brewmaster Kit from George Killians here When it asks for a code, put: P3W9L4T (sorry, not good in TX or CA)

And if you have a Rita's Ice nearby, tomorrow is their free ice day (first day of Spring). What? You don't have a Rita's Ice? Even podunk Lusby has one!

Bought gas at $1.43 today

Last summer if you had told me I'd be able to someday buy gas again at $1.43 a gallon, I would have told you that you were crazy. Well that is what I paid today. One of my grocery stores opened up a gas station so for the grand opening for the gas station you got .20 off per gallon for every $100 you spent in the past month and a half at the grocery store. So I got .40 off since I barely spent $200. The points are going to be re-set on Thursday so I didn't want to wait until the last minute. Then starting Thursday they are only going to give you .10 off per $100 spent.

We got Jacob his new PSP for his birthday (next week). It was $169 at Play N Trade (didn't buy the bundle pack), and I had about a $150 credit from turning in old games. I was going to have a cool pic to put on the blog to show it but somehow the camera messed up (it couldn't have been operator error) so I don't have the pic (maybe later). DH is charging it up and loading the games so it will be ready to play when he "opens" it.

I was taking all my pics off my cellphone and came across this pic that I took at one of my thrifts a few weeks ago:



It's a framed embroidered wall hanging "I sew my name with a humble hand - Mary 1846" How cool. It was priced at only $6.00 Would you have bought it?

Well.....I turned it over and found:


A $4.99 Ross sticker on it.

Garage Sale Cow Goodies

I told you the other day I got a nice surprise box in the mail, well here it is. What you see on top is a big bunch of delicious cowtail candies made by Goetzes. You know the chewy caramel with the cream center. mmmmmmm...It's good to be queen.

The fine folks at Garage Sale Cow sent me the gift box chockful of cowtails PLUS several t-shirts, pens and stickers. Garage Sale Cow is a fairly new website - their purpose is to provide free garage sale ads.



They were so generous in sending several shirts, that I have at least one to give-away. (I have to save one for my mom - you know that Mother's Day is coming up...) I'll do a bloggy give-away for it, at a later day (probably mid-April) - I have too much stuff going on in the next few weeks to do it now.

And here they are on Youtube (cracked me up when the cow checked his (her?) reflection in the mirror)

Shoppers Food Warehouse

I hadn't planned on doing grocery shopping today but ended up going because I saw an ad in the newspaper today saying that Shoppers Food Warehouse was doubling $1 coupons (so a $1 coupon was worth $2) and the ad had a coupon for a free box of cereal (your choice).

So I gathered up my coupons and hit the store. Before coupons my total was $157.82 and after coupons I ended up paying $59.16





I didn't feel like making a big display of the stuff I got, but basically I got stuff like: Stouffers, gum, yogurt, chocolate milk, TP, cheese, rice, granola bars etc.

Yardsales today weren't very good. The season is starting off very slowly. There were 2 in my area, both held indoors (they weren't estate sales, and they weren't garage sales, but a yardsale held indoors. I prefer regular ole outdoor yardsales. Didn't buy anything worth talking about here.

Free Cat with purchase of Value Village used couch

One of my friends emailed me this story below. First thought: glad they found the cat. Second thought: those buyers have got to be thrift store shopping amateurs. Because we all know, the FIRST thing you do when you buy a thrift store couch is to tear that thing apart looking for loose change/jewelry and miscellaneous animals - dead or alive. Then once all the valuables and animals are removed and it's given a good Lysol spray, THEN you can use it.

Value Village used sofa becomes cat hiding spot

On a related note, I hope my neighbors will be donating a couch soon. Their male cat keeps coming around and last night I smelled that undeniable odorous male cat smell. Yuck.



p.s. Value Village is a name of a chain of thrift stores. It is not to be confused with Vintage Value - the store that I shop at.

Thrift Store Bargains and other updates

I had a really good week as far as shopping. I got lots of great stuff at my favorite thrift and got lots of good deals shopping at Walgreens & CVS.

I also got a nice surprise package in the mail. Will blog about that in a later post. Here's a hint: Moooooooo!!!!

Took more stuff to the Play N Trade, I almost have enough credit to get Jacob a PSP (handheld Playstation game) for this birthday later this month without paying a cent. And on eBay I sold some old Gameboy games (that I probably paid .25 each for) for over $50

Speaking of Jacob's birthday, I got a card from a local grocery store (I had signed him up for their birthday club), telling me to call to reserve his free birthday cake.

But wait, there's more. I also got notification that I had won a free large Papa Johns pizza from a local website and a day later, got the free coupon in the mail.

I really thought I was on a roll when the phone rang at 9:20 this morning. I thought for sure it was Regis & Kelly calling me to answer today's trivia question. But today wasn't my day - there is always next week. It was the relentless car salesman calling about buying a truck.

Here are some of my thrift store buys from this week:




I won't list everything but the best buys I think are the Le Creuset sauce pan for $8 and the finished Serenity Prayer quilt/wall hanging for $3. Both items are for ebay. The quilt thing is nice, but it's really not my style. Maybe an A.A. member or group may bid on it since I know it's a prayer that popular in the AA community.

p.s. Oh and starting today my grocery store is having a week of tripling coupons up to .99. Today I bought bags of Rold Gold pretzels for .85/bag since my .55 coupons were tripled. I bought twenty .55 coupons on ebay a few weeks ago for $1.00. Jacob loves pretzels.

p.s.s And in the mail I got the "Save the Date" card for my niece's wedding. Ohhhh...man I need to start eating more of the 0 calorie food.

Grocery Store Savings

I did a little bit of grocery shopping yesterday and also dropped some stuff off at Play N Trade.

My grocery store (Giant) is having all kinds of deals. For one, now they are currently accepting all Safeway coupons (the coupons that appear in their weekly ads and special coupons that get mailed to my house). Plus this week they doubled four $1 coupons. Ok, I see some of your eyes are glazing over, so I'll cut to the point.

My total before coupons was $63.13 and after coupons I paid $17.50 (and with that $17.50 I got a 12 pack of Diet Coke, a rotisserie chicken, Oreos, Pupperoni, Simply Lemon Lemonade, Motts Apple Juice, Rold Gold pretzels etc etc etc) I had the nicest cashier - she even applauded when she saw my total!

And then yesterday I got an email saying that I won a large 1 topping pizza from Papa Johns courtesy of a local news website (coupon will come in the mail).

Yardsalequeen Does Baby Talk

Today I got a follow-up fact checker phone call from one of the editors at Baby Talk Magazine. I like getting the fact checker phone calls because that means the article will be appearing shortly. When you are interviewed for a magazine, afterward they have a fact checker call to verify the information you gave the writer.

I was interviewed a little while back and today I found out the article will appear in the May 2009 issue of Baby Talk. It's a freebie magazine (the above is a link to subscribe). But usually gynos and baby doctors will have copies in their office free for the taking - so I will need to pop in and grab a copy (it's not available for sale on newsstands).

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Well the Vermont interview was broadcast today. I was too afraid to listen but they will send me a copy. Do I have any visitors from Vermont here on the blog today? (If you are new, I don't mean to scare you with my evil queen capabilities).

Taking Personal Responsibility

The last couple of days I was informed of two separate websites stealing content/tips from www.yardsalequeen.com to use as their own (without asking prior permission and not crediting the originating website.

Oh no, the Yardsalequeen doesn't like that one bit. I have the ability to transform into the evil yardsalequeen full of wrath in .0002 seconds flat when some jerk comes along and takes advantage of my site that I've worked 13 years on.

I first started this website back in the fall of 1996. Yes you read that right, 1996. So when I see that my site has been victimized by losers, I fight back hard. The above picture was taken earlier today.

I wish I had kept better track of the early days of the website but if you look at the oldest entry on my Guestbook the earliest entry is from 4/1997. And I had the website months and months before I added the guestbook to it. I remember even deleting the earliest guestbook entries as I read them. oye. So that is why I say it was fall of 1996 when the site first started.

In both instances of content stealing, the individual tried to pass the blame. In case #1, the person said they had paid someone to do advertising for them and that person stole the tips and put them on a knowledge-based website and they were unaware of it.

In case #2, the website blamed the stolen content on "freelance editors" that they use and were unaware the tips were stolen. Passing the buck again. This one was particularly bad, because they were stealing content from many different websites covering a wide range of topics.

Apparently, these people didn't realize who they were dealing with. I raised a royal stink and got some satisfaction - both sites have removed the stolen content.

Good thing, or one of my next plans of attack (I have many...) was to sic my close and personal friend, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on them: (excuse the lack of fashion in the pic, again I purposely dressed as a commoner to blend in)



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In other news, DH had the day off, so we took the bike for a ride in the 60 degree springlike weather. And by bike, I mean this:



I think we will be doing some economy stimulating soon. Dh thinks it's time to replace his 11 year old truck (with a whopping 50,000 miles on it) for a new model. We test drove a 2009 Dodge Ram today that was real nice for $21,000 (or less). Since we are "savers" we usually pay cash for our vehicles, but this deal has 0% financing for 3 years.

Today was a very good day....

I got some amazing news today that I will blog about later in this post. I am so happy. I was worried about how I needed to go on a diet before my niece's fall wedding, but now, no diet for me! (more on that later in this newscast).

I did my two interviews and the one for the Vermont radio station I think came out pretty good overall (compared to other radio interviews I've done). Of course I guess I didn't need to say how much I love nuclear power but somehow I managed to work it into the conversation. Ugh. What usually happens in talking to people in real life, is that I have an uncanny ability of being able to turn any conversation into talking about yardsales. So today I get the chance to talk about yardsales and what do I do? I find a way to talk about my hometown of Clifton Park NY and nuclear power. Go figure.

Anyhow, if you are free on Monday at 12:30pm EST - you can listen to the interview from the link on the radio station website
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In between interviews (the first one I did today is for Bottom Line Secrets print newsletter that comes out twice a month) - I went to Smile and bought a few things. A pair of dressy pants for me ($2), a book (.50), and a golf dice game $1 (probably for ebay).

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And now for the information I received that will change my life. In today's local newspaper, one of the inserts/advertisements was for a local Chinese buffet restaurant that I've been to many times. Pictured above.

Looks like a typical Chinese take-out menu. But no!! They are now serving NO calorie food! I am so excited, just think, I am going to be able to eat so much shrimp, chicken and scallops to my heart's content and actually lose weight, because it has no calorie! I'll take seconds! (But I'll pass on the bean curd and Green Jade - whatever that is.)



I've already stamped and addressed an envelope to send it to Jay Leno's Headlines.

The front also made me laugh a little. It tells about how they've expanded their buffet and gives the restaurants info - complete with a wrong web address. And they also tell you their policy of: Party Over Six Would Be One Check Only!! Which warrants two exclamation points and "front page" coverage.



No yardsales tomorrow.

Also in the news lately

Is the story about the woman who called 911 after being told her local McDonald's was out of McNuggets and couldn't get her money back - read the whole story here. The story mentioned the price of a 10 piece McNuggets is $3.49

Ok, here is where a lot of people can learn a McNugget lesson if you just think a little and do the math. If you want 10 McNuggets, buy THREE 4-piece from the dollar menu. (The majority of the McDonald's I've been to have a 4 piece on the dollar menu). And you will get 12 McNuggets and only pay $3. Not $3.49. You can always throw away the extra 2 McNuggets if you are on a strict 10 McNugget diet.

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Today I took a lot of stuff to Play N Trade and got a $65 store credit. I took about a third of what I have to get rid of. I still have several Gameboy Color games and a lot of original Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Atari games to trade in. I am keeping our Super Nintendo and a few of the games that Jacob played. I have a lot of Super Nintendo games that Jacob never wanted to play - all bought at yardsales of course. Tonight I am going to list on eBay two Pokemon Gameboy items that I think will sell pretty good. I don't want to deal with listing all the old Atari and Nintendo stuff - too much work. If you don't sell on eBay, you don't realize all the work involved - taking pictures of the stuff, writing up the descriptions, packing up the stuff to mail, going to the Post Office, etc.

I thought we were going to get Jacob a Nintendo DS for his birthday but DH thinks a portable handheld PSP would be better for him. So whatever, doesn't really matter to me.

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Tomorrow I have two phone interviews. The one I started earlier in the week and the second is a radio interview for station in Vermont. Thankfully, they are taping it, and then editing it so I don't sound like a total idiot. Radio interviews give me the willies. Especially when they are "live". The time I did a live radio interview with Heloise - the Heloise Hint's lady - I consumed an adult beverage beforehand to steel my nerves. Then forgot to tell people to visit www.yardsalequeen.com

The state of the economy

Well everyone else in the world seems to be talking about the economy so it's time I put in a few cents.

I've heard a lot of people are losing their jobs and that is bad. But you know, some people deserve to lose their job....like this idiot bus driver....

Idiot Bus Driver of the Year Award goes to..

And I'm not too sad about a local donut shop recently closed. I am doing the happy dance that I won't be seeing their street spam signs every I go in town.

Boston Area Yardsale Expert Needed

Today I heard from a TV station that is working on an upcoming segment about having a successful yardsale. If you live in the Boston area and want to be a part of a fun tv news segment about having a successful yardsale just let me know. Email me at yardsalequeen@comcast.net and I'll forward you the information. And if you do it, then you gotta somehow find a way to mention www.yardsalequeen.com approximately 10+ times during the segment. haha.

I would do it myself, but they wouldn't agree to a private jet, a stay at a 6 star hotel and limo service - you know the basics.

Snow - electricity = not good

It's a March winter wonderland here. I don't have a problem with snow + electricity. It's the snow minus electricity I don't like so much. I had just finished watching the Apprentice last night and was going to watch the late news to see the weather report. Then poof, darkness came.

Went to bed and woke up at 6am to DH banging on the front door (he worked last night). We don't use the front door - we use the garage entry. So when the power goes out, that tends to make the garage door opener not work. So that woke Jacob up too. But I managed to get him back to bed and me too since I figured what the heck, no reason to get up (except that I had a 10am phone interview with a national newsletter). By 10am the house was 55 degrees and I managed to get thru most of the interview but then I got distracted by Jacob and will have to finish the interview later.

I dug out my instant hand warmers (bought at the thrift of course) - the kind that heat up instantly when exposed to air.

It's funny (or frustrating) the way that my yardsale/ebay clutter affects almost everything. DH noticed that some of the other houses in the neighborhood had electricity so he wanted to look at our breaker box in the garage to see if was tripped. Well that means I have to move about 5 boxes of stuff to be able to get to the breaker box. (It didn't help, we were still without power.)

Then DH wanted me to find the Coleman lantern since he didn't know where it was. Miraculously I found it easily. Then I start thinking....if the power is going to be out for a long time, I better get the generator accessible. So....that means moving more of my stuff to gain access to the generator. Oye.

Thankfully we didn't need the generator. Power was restored around noon. Many thanks to Pike Electric who drove up from North Carolina to help us out here in Maryland. As I shoveled the driveway, I gave the Royal Wave to the workers as they drove by. I'm sure getting a wave from the YSQueen made their day. The Queen shoveling? Oh yes, the Queen doesn't just sit on her throne all day - she is not afraid to get her hands snowy. Doing physical labor keeps her grounded and prevents her from having a superiority complex.

So needless to say, I didn't go out shopping today. Four years ago today I did some shopping. It was a Wednesday and I was at VV. I had picked out two .35 tops (a brown sweater and a Wally World Theme Park t-shirt). I saw female priest in the store who seemed to be touring it (The VV thrift is a job training facility for the mentally challenged). And as I was standing in line to pay, I got a call from my mother on my cell. She never calls me on my cell.

I heart 90% off Valentines

Yesterday when I was out shopping with Jacob, I stopped by CVS to see if their Valentine's Day stuff was 90% off or not. It wasn't, but I let Jacob get yet another plastic purse of gumballs for .74. When I mentioned to the clerk that I was hoping it was 90% off, she whispered that it would go to 90% off today.

This afternoon I went back to CVS and bought the above stuff for $4.65 They still had a ton of Russell Stover, Whitman and Hershey Valentines but I didn't buy any of those. I bought a bunch of Russell Stover candy at Christmas and I'm pretty sick of it. As far as chocolate goes, I only bought two small tins of Mrs. Fields chocolates. The total came to $4.65. I bought:

3-D Spongebob Valentines .29 - for Jacob's class next year
3 Spongebob hearts full of Krabby Patties .69 each for Jacob
2 packages of Hallmark Valentines cards .49 each - for Jacob's teachers next year
2 Mrs. Fields mini chocolates .23 each (me - haha)
2 more hearts full of gumballs .29 each (the last 2 the store had) for Jacob

Then I popped into Food Lion to buy a few things. It had started snowing so the store was a little more crowded than normal. Normal southern Maryland mass hysteria because of the snow. I only had 5 items so I went to the 14 items or less lane (this store doesn't have any self-checkouts) and got behind a woman customer that had a CARTFULL of stuff. There was something really scary about the woman. On the outside, she looked like a normal woman (with a ginormous butt) but something was really off with her. When it came time the pay, the woman handed the cashier her driver's license. Then proceeded to hand the cashier other miscellaneous cards. The cashier finally asked her if she was going to pay and the woman angrily said "Do you want to call my husband or my father?" The poor cashier, some young 16 year old didn't know what to make out of the situation, so I told her she should call a Manager. The woman then said to the cashier "I'm not going to pay a dime for any of this". It was like she was trying to be confrontational with everyone (including me). Then the woman stood there and got on her cellphone and called someone while still standing by the checkout with the unbagged food.

There's more to the story but it was all just a really bizarre experience. I told the people behind me in line that if they see the woman following me out of the store to call the Police. Then in a different parking lot today I saw a car accidentally try to drive over a big curb and got stuck. The driver thought they could drive straight thru, but didn't see there was a curb there. Then when I was on my way home, I saw where a car had run off the road and then partially down into a steep hill - but had gotten stopped by a tree. Cars were stopped, but police hadn't yet arrived. And since they were going downhill at the time, I'm sure the car was damaged and the driver probably hurt. So maybe being delayed by that woman in the grocery store was probably a good thing.

Well like I said, it's snowing here. Supposed to get the most snow we've had all winter. So since there is more than one snowflake in the roadway, I sense that schools will be closed tomorrow. So overall, I am glad I was able to get my clearance Valentines Day shopping done today. I also popped into Walgreen's today to see if their Valentine's stuff was 90% off and I think they may have gotten rid of it all since I couldn't find anything Valentine's Day related.

Yea - it's Amazing Race night and the start of the Apprentice.