Monday, October 30, 2006

Think Florida Sucks? Let Penn & Teller know!

Today I got an email from someone from the Penn & Teller Show Bullshit. Apparently they found my website because of an abundance of wacky yardsale stories submitted by people in Florida on my website.

Anyhow for the next several weeks, they are looking to hear from people who think that Florida sucks for an upcoming episode of Penn and Teller's Bullshit show. If you have a Florida story to tell (it doesn't have to be yardsale related), submit it to them and maybe you'll get your 15 minutes of fame.

For more info click here Florida Sucks

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Refrigerator Make-over





We had a refrigerator make-over last week. What a job - even just taking all the crap off the old one took a while, let alone transfering food to the new one and cleaning out the old one.

Got a good deal on the new fridge from Best Buy. For some reason they sent me a coupon for 10% off any appliance or item in the store. The refrigerator already was on sale and they offered free delivery as a promotion. So when the cashier went to ring up the 10% off she said it wouldn't take because in small print on the coupon it said it could not be combined with any other offer or promotion, and the "free delivery" was considered a promotion. So then I said "Well charge me for delivery (it would have been $49 to deliver) and then use the 10% off coupon because it would still be cheaper that way. The computer cash register wouldn't let her do that either. So then I just said "can you get a Manager?" So she disappeared in the back for a while and came back and pressed some magic buttons on the cash register which allowed her to give me the 10% off AND get the free delivery. So I was happy.

Friday, October 20, 2006

My husband leaves for Las Vegas and the roof flies off!





This happened a few weeks ago but didn't have time to post until now. My husband left for Las Vegas on a Saturday (actually it was the Saturday I bought the chocolate fondue pot and mentioned the crappy weather). In the afternoon he called to say he got in safely, yadda yadda. We hang up and I then I look out the window and see something strange in the backyard. It was part of our roof! A 12-foot section of a ridge vent that runs right at the peak of the house. And at this point, it was raining.

I go up in the attic and I can see the sky! I was like "ohhhhh craaaaaappppp!!!". We have a 2-story house, so no way was I going to attempt any roof work. Since it was Saturday, I knew it would be hard to get any roofers to come out, but I figured there must be someone who would call me back soon. Boy was I wrong!

Since it was raining, I took an old blanklet and stapled it to the gap and put down plastic. Thankfully, it wasn't raining too hard and sun was forecasted for Sunday. But by Monday I figured all the roofers would be calling me back. Nope. As it turns out, I'm glad no one did since they could have charged me whatever they wanted and I would have gladly paid it. Even the ones I did get in touch with on Monday said they could put me on their calendar for later in the month (!!!).

On Tuesday I had the bright idea to call my cranky old man friend Rick (picture further below) and told him my problem. He called a handyman friend who lives just a few streets away from me and does jobs on the side and by Tuesday afternoon and $40 later, it was fixed.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Fall in upstate NY



I took this pic the other morning while at my mom's house (my childhood home). Would give anything to have a backyard like that now - instead I have to look at a little old house full of low-class renters.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

back from upstate New York - 3 days of garagesales!




I spent a long weekend (is 5 days considered a long weekend??) back in my hometown of Clifton Park, NY. Since it's definitely fall up there, I wasn't expecting too many garage sales but I was wrong. There were several on Friday and Saturday and I even hit one on Sunday near my sister's house near Saratoga Springs.

Well I will write more later but I wanted to share this before I forgot - I packed very lightly going up and came back with a totally loaded down suitcase. So much so that the baggage clerk had to put a special tag on the bag with it's weight - 45 pounds! Five more pounds and I think I would have had to pay an extra charge or start layering on a bunch of clothes right at the ticket counter.

So anyways I was hoping that my suitcase wouldn't be chosen for inspection (maybe they all are)? But when I went to unpack it today, I saw the "Notice of Baggage Inspection" card. I would have loved to have seen the face of the baggage inspector going over the contents: Homer Simpson in a hula skirt? Not a security threat. I mean, if it wasn't my suitcase, I'd have to wonder about the person who packed a Glow in the Dark Nativity scene, vintage ice cream scooper, Deathland books, Dora the Explorer VHS tapes, coffee tin full of buttons and a wooden tool box. Good thing I didn't find any vintage Playboys or anything like that (for ebay) because if I had those would have been in there too.

And I had 5 packges of Chew-eez Carvers dog treats in the front section of the suitcase. I had 5 free coupons for dog treats (and 5 free coupons for cat treats) that were only valid at Petsmarts on 10/14 and 10/15. And as luck would have it, there is a Petsmart in my old hometown (I don't even have one near me in Maryland so I'm sure the coupons would have gone to waste had I not been in NY). I just had to pay the sales tax $1.22 for the 5 packages. I also got the 5 free cat treats (they were on a different receipt) - gave 2 to my sister for her two cats, and 3 to my brother for his 3 cats.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Yardsale buys today




Sorry for the long lapse in blog entries. It seems time just flies by and I don't have time to do anything, except shop that is. I gotta get a handle on my shopping addiction!

Only went to two yardsales today. No I wasn't restricting myself or anything, it was just that because the weather was so crappy yesterday there weren't many going on in my area. And I didn't want to drive far to find them.

I spent $5 at one sale ($0 at the other). Paid $3 for this new chocolate fondue fountain, $1 for a new Playdoh Lunchables kit and $1 for a new Disney Goofy Golf game (which I will put away for Christmas).

The funny thing about the fondue fountain is that on the fountain itself, it says "Old Fashioned Chocolate Fondue Fountain". Old Fashioned??? Just like grandma's electric chocolate fountain????

I sent in my reservation to attend a high school reunion later this month. My chance to get away by myself for a few days. Going to the reunion will be interesting since none of my friends that I've kept in touch with since high school are going.