Back from an upstate New York Wedding / David Cassidy / Urgent Care Center visit / Yardsale Shopping / Racino Gambling / Margarita Drinking Weekend

I flew back last night from my extended weekend trip to upstate New York to attend my niece's wedding (and as a bonus, went to David Cassidy's Moving Sale. I see the craiglist ad has been removed but I will exchange the broken link with a copy of the craiglist ad since I printed it out).

Will add a ton of pics later. I know you all want to see David Cassidy's rental house toilet.

The trip started off a little rough because I was so looking forward to my free rum and coke during my Southwest flight (about an hour flight) from Baltimore to upstate NY and because of "turbulance" the pilot asked the flight attendants to remain seated for a majority of the flight. If you remember, earlier this year at a yardsale, for $2 I bought a Southwest booklet of 5 free drink coupons aboard Southwest. The flight attendant took my rum and coke drink order but no one got served their drinks and not even pretzels. Ugh. Then started not feeling well after I landed. I think my body couldn't handle going without a diet coke for more than an hour and it messed me up all evening.

But I did manage to have dinner the first night (Thursday night) with my friend Bev and Donna. Friday was the day of the David Cassidy Moving Sale. I was able to do some regular people garage saling on Friday morning and then in the afternoon I went to the David Cassidy moving sale. I will do a separate blog post for that adventure. Afterward I bonded with my mom at her favorite place Saratoga Racino where I walked away as a $23 winner playing the .01 and .02 slots. I even did some high stakes gambling and tried the nickle slots.

Friday evening I ate dinner with two cousins from Nashville and one from Georgia. Saturday afternoon was the wedding but of course there were a few Saturday morning yardsales I wanted to check out. I asked the bride to be if she wanted to go yardsaling with me but for some reason she said she had other things she had to do that morning.

The wedding was great and the reception was a lot of fun. But I could have done without the part about my uncle asking me if I had gained weight. I am sure he had me confused with someone else. Right??? But just in case he didn't, the diet starts tomorrow. Oh wait, I have another wedding to go to this Saturday, so the diet starts next Monday. Or Tuesday. Anyhow, how can I be fat? My driver's license says I weigh 130.

On Sunday I got to spend more time with my cousins walking around downtown Saratoga, visiting the Yaddo Gardens and then had a great dinner with them. But of course the night was still young so we went to the Racino, where I walked away a whole $9 richer.

When I got back to my mom's late at night, she had fallen earlier in the night and said she twisted her ankle. The next morning, when she couldn't walk, I took her to an Urgent Care center (sorta like a mini emergency room) where they x-rayed and found she had fractured her ankle. Great. She is seeing an orthopedist doctor today and hopefully things will work out. Oye.

As luck would have it, I was on the same Southwest flight going home with my cousins so that was neat. And I got to drink my free rum and coke - yea. I got off in Baltimore and they continued onto Nashville.

So today is unpacking, laundry etc. I gotta to thru my pics but here is a few to get started.

David Cassidy Moving Sale - I was there

Will update my blog on Tuesday with the juicy details.

David Cassidy was my first crush. Back then, if someone had told me that he would one day live 15 miles away from my childhood home, I would have had a heart attack on the spot.

David Cassidy's Moving Sale

I was researching yardsales for this weekend - and came across this ad for David Cassidy's Moving Sale OMG - I think I love him. You don't even know how big a Partridge Family fan I am. He was my first crush ever.

And get this....I may be there if I can get the info. My flight is booked. No kidding. I even dug out my American Airlines Junior Stewardess ring to wear - it brings me good luck when I fly, and if I get bored during the flight, I can help out the flight attendants wherever needed.

Will report back and let you know if my free drink coupon booklet on Southwest that I bought at a yardsale for $2 this summer work.

And since I need some cash for yardsales, I stopped at the bank today and broke some twenty's into tens and got this guy. Not only is a small head Hamilton, its a "will pay to the bearer on demand" note from 1950. Probably still only worth $10, but it's a keeper.

Yardsale Buys from past Saturday

Video Link



Here's most of what I bought last Saturday, as I said in the video, the $1 Serta Sheep didn't make it into the pic. I always buy the plushie Serta Sheeps for ebay. The sheep each have a # on their side (like they do on tv.) Click on the pic to see a larger version.

$2 & $3 - Perfumes
$1 hairgel
$1 Lancome
.10 Rescue Heroes
$1 Irish linen that says "Glass" on it - I *swear*. haha.
5 for $1 - Playtown characters
.50 Bill Doll
$2 gameboy
$10 - Drakes Fortune PS3 game (new)
$2 ea - old D&D games
$3 Nintendo DS game (will bring it to Play N Trade)
$2 bunch of inkjets (for $3 each recycling at Staples)
$2 each - DVD boxed sets
$1 electric wall thing



One of the best buys of the day was this homemade fudge for .50 a package at a yardsale/bakesale held at a firehouse. I bought one package and ate as I went to a nearby yardsale. It was so good - and just look at the generous portion size - that I stopped back and bought $3 more. It looks a little funky in the picture since I had it in the freezer.

My Next Yardsale Challenge

I have a new thing to look for when I go yardsaling. Here's a hint



Jacob gets mesmerized by the Slap Chop commercial Then the other day I ran into Walgreens with him and he stopped in his tracks when he saw the As Seen on TV display and right there was a Slap Chop in real life, for *only* $19.99. You know I won't spend $19.99 - since I know I will find one shortly for $1. Just gotta be patient. I've been seeing those Aquaglobes at yardsales so I know the Slap Chop can't be far behind.

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Well I guess I'm not the only one complaining about bird poop at the National Mall - a new supervisor got appointed to overhaul it.

My Stove / Oven Makeover Before and After Pics

Before:


After:


I went and bought our new stove this week and Lowes delivered it the following day. They said it would be delivered between 9:30am and 1:30pm . And here's the mind-blowing part - they arrived at my house at 9:15! Has that ever happened before in the history of deliveries??? I think not.

The transformation is not complete because the stove vent thing is still the old almond color. We didn't buy a new one - I plan on just getting some black spray paint and painting it black. It's so nice having a new stove - even just the little improvements are great - like on my old stove (which was new when we bought the house in 1990), you can tell was a cheap builder's grade stove - the handle didn't even allow me to hang a dish towel off of it.

Today I was at a yardsale and I saw the seller had 2 old stoves for sale along with a bunch of other large appliances. I asked why they had so many and they said they just moved into the house recently and the old appliances came from storage they had at their old house. So that is why I don't consider myself an extreme hoarder, at least I don't save old stoves and refrigerators.

And speaking of not buying stuff, here is something I didn't buy at Smile this week. When I think about Vegas, a smiling turtle bank doesn't come to mind.




Here's my food lunch bargain of the week. It's about a half pound of cooked and spicy shrimp from the grocery store. It pays to look at the all those coupons that the cash register spits out at you. The other week I got one that said "Save $3 on any fresh seafood". And since I'm the only one in the house that eats seafood, I bought what I like. Shrimp was on sale for $6.99/pound so I asked for a half pound and they cooked it and spiced it for free. Sale price was $3.56 and minus the $3 coupon - I paid .56 for yummy lunch.




And here is the dress I bought earlier in the week. Original price $69.99 - on sale at 50% off so with taxes was around $38. The bottom part is all pleats. I like that I can either wear beige or black shoes with it. It looks better on, than just on a hanger. It's 2 pieces - I like the 3/4 length sleeves on the little jacket.


At Smile this week, I bought a like new motorcycle helmet for Jacob for only $20. It's exactly what he wanted - he just started riding the motorcycle this year (occasionally) and didn't have his own helmet (he didn't like mine since mine is a full-face helmet and I can understand where it would feel claustrophobic to someone who has never worn a motorcycle helmet before. This style of helmet is a 3/4 so there is more open space and not as claustrophobic feeling. And the fact that its the right size and the color matches the bike, is amazing. Plus the fact that its so like new clean, no funky odors or anything to make it seem used - really super clean. This helmet sells for $89 on this website plus just the clear face shield is a $20 accessory. Oh I see my new lime green soccer ball that I bought the other week in this pic.



I went to several yardsales today and bought some good stuff. Will do a separate post later with my buys. I may not be able to get to it until Tuesday.

National Harbor - Washington DC - Gaylord National

Here is a bunch of pics from our weekend trip to Washington DC. They are in random order (cuz I am too lazy to re-arrange them).

This is at the National Harbor - a sculpture called The Awakening. It was within walking distance of our hotel.




$5 Cigar boxes for sale at the DC flea market. I recently found a source where I can get free cigar boxes - so I plan on ebaying some cigar boxes in the near future. I bought nothing at the flea market.



Hanging out at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. We were walking passed it and I needed some A/C, so we stopped in a for a look-see. After I got home, I went to the Corcoran website where I see that admission is normally $10 a person - and no photography inside the museum is allowed. Oopsie. But as luck would have it, they had free Saturdays in August. I took this pic because here at the YSQ Castle, I have a room very similar but a little bigger (they must have copied me).




This is the Eastern Market that I've heard about and wanted to check out. The outside had other vendors and crafty vendors in the back.


Inside the Eastern Market. They had lots of sellers who sold meat. I wasn't planning on buying any raw meat that day. I bought a diet-coke.


This flea market was kitty-korner to the Eastern Market building.


Inside the Gaylord National Hotel - it was beautiful. I will be adding a Youtube video of the water fountain show. Our hotel was across the street and a bit smaller (a Hampton Inn - what I really liked about it, was that it was so small - only about 10 rooms per floor, so you didn't have a lot of hallway noise from other guests). And they had a good, free breakfast. No free breakfast at the Gaylord.







At a metro station, waiting to change trains. This was really pretty in real life (the photo doesn't show the beautiful colors of the clouds/sky as the sun was setting). Some Masonic (I think??) temple.


Massive bird poop on the way to the Lincoln Memorial. Gross.



Some random people at the National Harbor. A wedding party was being photographed with the Awakening in the background. Sorta looked like the big hand was about the grab the couple.


Jacob and some of the hundreds of Red Hat Society ladies that were all over the Gaylord Hotel.


Some official government agency that I never knew existed. I'm guessing its a place that all thrift store managers of America go to get official thrift supervision training. I was gonna go in and give suggestions, but they were closed.


Southern Maryland tomatoes at the Eastern Market. I didn't go all the way to DC for Southern Maryland stuff. Plus, what am I gonna do with a real tomato? Eat it? I don't think so. I have absolutely no use for real tomatoes. I got all the tomato flavoring I want in my stash of ketchup. Which I think, is one of the best foods ever invented (since it goes with practically everything).



At the Lincoln Memorial. Jacob wasn't smiling since it was hot and there was a bajillion steps to climb to get there. Plus I think we had just walked about 10 miles further than we had to (due to someone - I won't say who - and his inability to ask a stranger for directions). It wasn't me! So that narrows it down.


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In other news - I bought a dress today (I am going to 2 weddings this month) but the big news is that it had a TAG on it. You read that right - I shopped retail today.

My Washington DC weekend adventure at National Harbor (no yardsales - ackk!)

Back in January, I went to a fundraising auction where I bid and won a 2 night stay at the National Harbor. And since the expiration date on the certificate said it expires 9/1/09, I figured we better use it. So we spent this past Friday and Saturday night there. It's a little over an hour's drive away - a shopping/eating/living planned community. One downfall, in my opinion, is that there is no free parking anywhere - even though it's kinda out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest subway stop is about a 10 minute drive away. There were parking garages everywhere, which I thought ugly-fied the area. I guess I was comparing it to the planned shopping/living area we stayed at in Myrtle Beach - they had free parking garages which were pretty well hidden - not obvious.

So on Friday after Jacob got home from school, we checked in and did a little bit of swimming. Then walked around the fake town - all the restaurants were busy so we ended up eating at a Potbelly sandwich shop. Then afterward we walked around the beautiful Gaylord National Resort and rode the elevators and watched the water fountain show (I took some videos for Youtube). The place was overrun with Red Hat Society ladies all dressed in purple and red for their annual convention. There was even red hatter overflow staying at my hotel - which was right across the street from the Gaylord. The red hatters all knew better to try to recruit me since it will be decades and decades before I would even be eligible to join.

So on Saturday we rode the subway all over DC (bought a pass good for all day travel). If you've ever been to DC to see the monuments etc, you know how much walking is involved. I started off with going to the Eastern Market and the Eastern Market flea market (the website says its open on Sunday, but it was open last Saturday too). I bought a diet coke.

The strange thing is, I went to the market by myself. When we first got on the subway, DH realized his cell phone battery was dead so he wanted to go back to the hotel with Jacob for a replacement he had. So I stayed on the train and went to the Market and Flea Market by myself. I was just thinking how riding a subway early on a Saturday morning alone to a new destination that I've never been to before is definitely not a typical Saturday for me.

The grossest part of the day was seeing all the bird poop along the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial. I took pics. We just went to one museum and that was because we stumbled upon it during our route - we went to the Corcoran Gallery I didn't know anything about it, but wanted some air conditioning bad. And as luck would have it, it was a "free" day - they normally charge $10 admission (eek!!! there are plenty of free things to do in DC without paying admission). I would have liked to have gone to the Smithsonian's American History Museum (I've been there before but now they have new exhibits like Julia Child's kitchen) but we didn't have time nor the energy.

Late Saturday afternoon we went back to the hotel for a swim and to relax a while. And by relaxing, I mean walking around the Gaylord hotel again so Jacob could ride the elevators again and we took a walk at the Potomac waterfront. My legs are killing me.

Saturday night we took the train back into the city and had dinner. Sunday morning we rode more elevators at the Gaylord and saw more purple and red.

We checked out and went to a Chuck E. Cheese that is on the way home. Today is laundry day.

Check back for pics.

10% off Lowes coupon - save money on your home improvement

go to Lowes Moving to sign up to get a 10% coupon off your purchase at Lowes.

There are people on ebay who SELL these coupons - so I thought I would tell you all where the sellers get them so you can get them for free - like the way you are supposed to.

Bye bye almond colored self-cleaning stove with regular burners

It was bye bye today for my 1990 era Kenmore stove (pictured above). A little sad to see it go, the end of an stove era for me. But I won't be sorry to have to clean the stove top ever again and the spillage that seeps under the burners. And I won't miss cleaning those darn burner pans (I had black ones to hide the gunk better). We have our eye on a Frigidaire flat top model (or whatever it's called) that will match our refrigerator. It's been almost 2 years since we had our fridge makeover Lowes now has free removal of old appliances and free delivery but I figured since the stove still works fine, someone would want it for cheap. Sold it today for $30 to some craigslist person. But the way I see it - the stove was basically free - the $30 goes to me for my time invested in cleaning it up.

I think I've mentioned this before here (but I know I mentioned it on the message board). If you have a large purchase to make at Lowes, go to Lowes Moving and sign up to get a free 10% off your purchase at Lowes. People sell these certificates all the time on ebay. So there are obviously people out there that don't know about this Lowes website. I'm going to do a separate posting so maybe it will show up in the google searches.

Wine, Steve Miller Band, Hogettes and Junk

I forgot to mention some other stuff I've done in the past few weeks. I completed (almost) the Patuxent Wine Trail with my MIL. Too bad there is not also a Rum & Diet Coke trail. The above pic is of Steve Miller and the Steve Miller Band practicing before the show. Now there is a man who is not afraid to show off his fish-belly-white legs. Sorta hard to tell where the legs end and the socks begin. This was the first time I actually saw the artist practicing before the show - mostly I just hear the "Check 1 2" guys.



Steve Miller link

And speaking of celebrities, I took my MIL to see some pig celebrities that were appearing in beautiful downtown Lusby - the hogettes



And with Jacob back in school I may have stopped at a thrift store or two today. I found a few things to buy. Also went to a farmhouse that is some sort of consignment store with junk everywhere. I think the owner lives there and doesn't mind people walking thru the kitchen and seeing the old style sink full of dishes. It was a little different. On one side of the kitchen is the guy's canned goods, and the other is a shelves of stuff for sale. Well I think the stuff was for sale.







And here is what I bought today (majority of stuff from Smile):



.25 each - Valuetale books
$1 tank top for me
.25 Graham Kerr dough gadget
.50 vacuum cleaner bag
.25 Bath & Body Works hand pampering thing
.25 small vintage Springbok puzzle
.75 Bath & Body Works tube of lotion
$1 Spongebob valance
.50 repro Route 66 sign
.50 vintage Hazel Atlas Ranger Joe mug

"This is a nice piece of cardboard"

Back to school day for Jacob today. DH had to take his mom to the airport and was able to take the rest of the day off. So we did a little bit of shopping today - we went the whole summer without bbq-ing since our gas grill died. At Target the grills were 50% off and found one we both liked. With our old old gas grill I cleaned it out (relatively speaking) and filled it with potting soil and use it as a potting plants/gardening station (I saw the idea to do that in a magazine). I will dispose of our latest dead gas grill (our landfill has metal recycling so I think it would go there). Hmmmm...but maybe I need two gardening stations.

So anyhow the gas grill came in huge box with tons of inner boxes etc. I found myself saying "This is a nice piece of cardboard" (and saved it to use for ebay packing). I find myself saying odd stuff that in my previous life, I would never have thought of saying.

Speaking of saving cardboard, here is a new show my Dh told me about. Hoarders

Crappy Yardsales Today

I went to some pretty crappy yardsales today. I mean, they wouldn't have been crappy if I was looking to clothe a newborn baby girl and/or become a lizard owner but I don't plan on doing either anytime soon.

But I will be cleaning my bathroom with my new $2 Mr. Clean Magic Reach starter kit.

And maybe kicking around a lime green $1 soccer ball.

Steve Miller was good last night. Too bad the weather wasn't. Will add some pics soon.

Last week of summer vacation

This is the last week of summer vacation before school starts. My MIL is visiting from California. California - the state. Not to be confused with the huge metropolis known as California, Maryland. There was a store in Annapolis that she wanted to shop at (and since it wasn't a thrift store, I wasn't interested). So I dropped her off to let her shop. Then Jacob and I headed to Chuck E. Cheese to play for a while then picked her up after an hour. Afterward, I drove to downtown historic Annapolis and we walked around a little bit, but Jacob wasn't into it.

Speaking of Chuck E. Cheese, here's a pic I took of a game that is at the Chuck E. Cheese near my mom's. It has life-like violence mild. And speaking of my mom, here is an abstract picture that Jacob took of her. My grandmother was called Baba - and my mom didn't want to be called that when she became a grandmother. Jacob calls her Baba.





Friday night I'll be doing my volunteer bartending at a Steve Miller concert. And I'll be able to get there early for my free shrimp roll. Things should be back to normal next week.

And when things get back to normal, I'll be able to tell you about my new pet - Mr. Squiggles. He's so cute.

Yard Sale Theft

The Yardsale Gods have been angered. This article was in our local newspaper the other day (our local newspaper only comes out twice a week). The Yardsale Gods are now after the above suspects and one way or another, sooner or later, they will be punished for their evil deeds. But geez, you'd think the local paper would at least say what town this occurred in.

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I went out yardsaling yesterday and of course, bought some stuff. Nothing major. I was home by 9:30. I stopped by the local big dump to recycle my newspapers and saw these turkey vultures eying me. I've been there and saw the mega sized seagulls picking around but they must have the afternoon shift and the turkey vultures work the morning shift. Icky. I normally go to the smaller recycling center where I don't see flying animals but yesterday this location was more convenient to me.



Then driving out of a neighborhood wide yardsale (there were exactly 2 yardsales) I spotted some deer. Only got a picture of one.

JC Penney's Bargain

I did some shopping today - I'm going to another bridal shower this Sunday. But anyway last week JC Penney's sent out yet another coupon to save $10 off a $10 purchase. I bought myself a $49 frame (supposedly - I can't see anyone really paying $49 for this) for $2.11 using the coupon.

For the bridal shower I bought a cookbook and a gift card.

Yarsale

Here's a pic from a few weeks ago (I just didn't have time to post it until now). I think I just bought one of their yars for $1 at that sale.

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I am proud of myself. Today I made coffee for the first time in my life. I don't drink coffee. Neither does DH. My MIL said it was good after she added 4 cups of additional water to the coffeemaker.

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I am mourning the loss of the Crummy Church Signs Blog. I spotted one the other day that read "For all you do, His blood's for you". Playing off a Bud beer ad doesn't seem quite right to me. And this one I was going to submit to the site but now I can't. Compromise causes colapse of character. I wonder how they feel about poor spelling.

Garage Sale buys

This is the stuff I bought while in NY. Most from garage sales. Made a few buys at a Salvation Army and a thrift store. Not all is pictured - I left a small portable $3 DVD player with remote at my Mom's (she doesn't have a DVD player and has no interest in learning how to use it but it will save me from having to bring our little portable DVD player the next time we visit and someone wants to watch Spongebob). The $3 DVD player is the most expensive thing I bought. I see one thing I paid $2 for (one of the Schmid music boxes) but most things were $1 or .50 or free. I didn't take the time to display the stuff nicely. Just laid it all out and snapped some pics. The one bottle of cologne that you can't read the label is Ralph Lauren (price was .25). I think the Little Golden Book was a mistake buy. I really don't remember buying it...I think I picked it up with some other books I was buying and forgot to put it back down since there is nothing special about that book. That jewelry box was only .50 so I couldn't pass it up. I know I can resell it at my own yardsale for a little bit more.

The day before I left for the trip, I checked that area's Craigslist postings for garage sales and made a list. My mom gets 2 newspapers but I wanted to hit as many as a I could. Checking the craigslist worked out since I know there was at least 1 good sale I made it to that was not in the newspapers. And since they didn't advertise and hadn't put their signs up yet, I was their very first customer (not an early bird) and got lots of great stuff. The seller said she was grateful that people read the Craigslist ads and when I told her I drove all the way from Maryland to visit her sale and showed my car with the Maryland tags, she was impressed.

Trip to the airport today was fine. I'll be flying to upstate NY in September (I made my reservations last night on Southwest $49 each way). The main purpose of my trip to NY last week was to attend my niece's bridal shower and next month is the wedding. I'm going stag. Woo-hoo!!! Paaaaarrrteeeeee. Ooops, maybe not so much. I think I'll be in charge of chauffeuring my mother so I gotta keep a clear head. BUT I do have 6 free drink coupons on Southwest - coupon booklet bought at a yardsale for $2.

Here's a snyposis of my visit to NY:

Wednesday: drove 497 miles to NY
Thursday: Chuck E. Cheese in the morning, bowling in the afternoon (I had signed Jacob up for Kids Bowl for Free and since there are no bowling alleys near us participating, I signed him up for free bowling at the lanes near my mom's house. Also in the afternoon I hit the 2 thrifts. Visited my cousin Laura in the evening.

Friday: went garagesaling in the morning. Visited my sister in the afternoon. Went to Kohl's in the evening since they were open until midnight (and its only about 3 miles from my mom's house)

Saturday: garagesailing in the morning. Bridal Shower in the afternoon. My friend Bev visited in the evening.

Sunday: back to Chuck E. Cheese. Visited my cousin Caroline in the afternoon. Went to a playground and then went to Aldi's.Bought some non-perishables and a $2.39 pineapple to take home. Then loaded the car up.

Monday - drove back home.