Joey + Rory Concert

Hope you are having a great Memorial Day weekend. I worked at the Joey + Rory and Josh Turner concert last night. Oh yeah, he touched me, of course. Would love to stay and blog some more and share some pictures, but that will have to wait. Ebay is doing a big promotion (free to list up to 100 auctions) and the promo ends tomorrow night so I gotta get busy today and tomorrow doing that. In case I've failed to mention it, my house is a teeny tiny bit cluttered.

Joey + Rory + Josh Turner

I'll be doing my volunteer *work* this weekend, bar-tending at a Josh Turner concert. So been watching me some Josh Turner - he's not too bad to look at - here's my favorite song of his. And yes, Josh Turner, to answer your question, I will go with you, especially if you have a list of yardsales in your hand.

I am also looking forward to hearing the opening act Joey + Rory who just won a country music top new duo award. I can't copy their regular youtube videos so here is a non-official video. I am kinda bummed since the crowd generally is non-stop ordering beers and sodas when the opening act is on. And I probably won't get a chance to sneak away for a peek.

Birthday gambling money and a snake

My birthday celebration continues. Earlier in the month, I got my free $20 credit to gamble at the faux casino, which I had to do before the end of May. If you remember last year during my birthday month I managed to turn my $20 free gambling credit into a free $28.95 in cold hard cash.

Well this year I think they changed it. You had to actually gamble your $20 in credits before you could cash out any winnings. I don't think I had to do that last year because I remember after getting the $20 credit ok'ed and showing my ID etc, the attendant asked me what machine I wanted to play and she inserted $20 in cash.

But today after getting the birthday credit ok'd, I was given a $20 promo ticket to put into the machine and it wouldn't cash out until I used all of my initial $20.

Long story short, I still walked out with $14.90 in winnings so I am happy.

===========
Oh and here is a snake that was in my yard yesterday.



I had just finished a trek through the jungle-y part of the yard, knocking down some wild ugly stick trees with sharp points on it when I saw this guy. Needless to say, I was done walking thru our rendition of jungleland.

Family Circle magazine

Almost forgot to mention, remember a little while ago in one of the pics here was the June 2010 issue of Family Circle? Well the reason why I bought it was because there's an article about my friends at Sassy Signs and they got YSQ mentioned in it. It's just a short mention, but it still counts as another notch on my media list (which I should update one of these years).

No yardsale video or pics from last Saturday's yardsales. It seemed to be the weekend of people trying to sell used propane tanks for BBQ grills. Weird. I really need to start selling again on ebay (so that I will have room to put new purchases).

Chick-fil-a Porn

So I had to stop at the library again today and while I was there I got on one of their computers (long story - I'm having trouble with my computer regarding cookies, and there was something I wanted to do online that required cookies so I figured it would just be quicker to use the library's computer than fix mine.) So since I was there, I checked my email and saw Chick-fil-A is giving out a free spicy sandwich if you sign up. Needless to say, the library saw it as porn and I couldn't sign up and now the site is temporarily down. The last time I was at Chick-fil-a, they accidentally gave me the wrong sandwich and I bit into one of their spicy sandwiches. I will choke down a free one, but really, they don't need to mess with perfection, which their regular chicken sandwich is.

=====
Looking forward to tomorrow - several nearby church yardsales.

.10 a book? Too expensive in my book

Ok, so pictured above is the yardsale I went to on Saturday where the seller potentially had restrictions on what she would sell you. Books were .10 each but I didn't want to waste time only to possibly be told I wasn't allowed to buy something.

On Monday I went to the library to return some books and of course, had to check out their used books for sale area (.25 each or fill a grocery sized bag for $1). The same 4 or so boxes of books that were at the yardsale on Saturday were at the used book table at the library on Monday. You can tell since they didn't even remove their yardsale sticker. I bought a bag of books and my dollar went to the library.



And enough already with the small tv's at the thrift stores.

Bad Yard Sale Sellers

Today was just an overall annoying yardsale day (or should I say morning). Went to one that was advertised as a community yardsale. It consisted of 2 small yardsales plus a woman with a small table of stuff. Pitiful. I spent a quarter at the "community" sale.

Then a little later, at one yardsale my total came to $6.50 - I handed the seller a $10 bill. She asked me if I had anything smaller. Really? She didn't expect people to need change? There was also a sign posted on the books for sale "I reserve the right to not sell you a book. I wasn't able to to thoroughly go thru them all. Thanks" Sheesh. I get where she's coming from but it turned me off from even looking at the books.

Then there were just a few that I had on my list to go to - but the sales were just non-existent. Like the person changed their minds on having a yardsale.

============


I love getting mail. I look over every piece of junk mail that I receive looking for the next great *deal*. Yesterday I received this sheet of coupons good at a local shopping center. I haven't been to the Dynasty Chinese take-out place in a while but I wonder if they've gotten all fancy, calling it a "restaurant". That's like calling McDonald's a restaurant. To me a restaurant has servers, not a walk up and order thing. And now their special is a $35 General Tso chicken dinner. For $35, it better be a ton better than their $5.25 General Tso chicken lunch special that I normally get.

Today's Buys

This is what I bought today at CVS for $1.84 (plus I got a $4 Extra Care Bucks, plus will get an additional .25 Extra Care Bucks money for scanning my Green Bag Tag.) For my birthday, CVS sent me a free $3 to spend at CVS then today I got a $3 off a $15 purchase coupon. So the cashier deducted those first, then deducted the manufacturer's coupons, so that's how it got down to $1.84 Both Walgreens & CVS had a great deal with that Shick Razor this week - since there was a $5 coupon in the newspaper last Sunday. My mom mailed me her two $5 coupons so I used two at Walgreens and one at CVS. (Walgreens was the better deal but they ran out so I used my last coupon at CVS today).




At the thrift today I purchase (.25) an odd jigger glass from Dr. Seuss. Official When Hen from Seuss Navy / Esso. It will go up on ebay. I've been taking an ebay break for a while but I gotta get back into it soon.

Yardsalequeen in Real Simple Magazine

Next time you are standing in line at the grocery store, check out the May 2010 issue of Real Simple magazine. Page 188 to be exact. Lots of good info I assume. But I haven't read it yet. Makes me nervous to read what I've said in a telephone interview.

p.s. Note to Real Simple - if you had asked, I would have provided a 1990's era Glamour Shot of myself to use on the cover - instead you used a bottle of cleaner. Really???

Saturday's Yard Sale Buys

Here's the stuff I bought on Saturday. In the picture I forgot to include a $5 Longaberger teapot. And in the video, I forgot to mention that I paid .50 for the Santa - which is called a Smoker Santa. You put an incense cone on a little tray inside Santa and I guess it will look like smoke is coming out of his mouth. I will probably put it on ebay eventually. And the Clarks shoes are a little too small, so I will probably ebay those too.

Mother's Day Gift to my Mom

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. Surprise, surprise, I got a Slapchop and Jacob helped me open it :) I told my mom that her gift would be delayed - especially since I just finished it today. A while back I bought the bracelet on the left from a yardsale seller who mostly had scrapbooking supplies. I am scrapbooking impaired but I did buy the $2 bracelet which has room for 5 photos.



Walgreens had a deal yesterday for a free 8 x 10 collage print - so I uploaded 20 photos (the max that the collage can handle) hoping that I'd be able to cut out 4 that would work in the bracelet. I already had a tiny pic of Jacob that would work. My mom doesn't read my blog so I don't mind showing it here since she won't see it before it comes in the mail. The bracelet has my dad and the 4 grandkids. For someone who isn't crafty, I think it turned out nice.

Bought lots of stuff yesterday. Will post about it on Monday.

Amazing Race finale tonight - come on cowboys - the inhabitants of the YSQ castle are rooting for you guys!

Burger count for the week is up to 3

The diet starts next week for sure. And if not then, the week after. Today I went and had my free birthday burger at Ruby Tuesdays. I ordered the bison burger (the most expensive burger - I wanted to get the most bang out of my free burger coupon), which apparently is healthier. And if its not true, please don't correct me. Just let me think I was eating healthier.

As promised, here's my two piece I'll be wearing this summer. Did you think I meant a bikini?? Ummmm no. This has more material to it than my current one piece so everything will be hidden, concealed and sucked and tucked in. I just love it that the bottom is just like a pair of shorts but bathingsuit material. It will be sooooo much easier for when the queen needs to use a throne.

Gifts being bestowed upon the Queen

Happy birthday to me! I'm right smack dab in the middle of the gift bestowing festivities. Last week was the wedding anniversary, birthday today and then Mother's Day on Sunday.

Here's what I'm getting for one of my gifts. I know cuz I bought it. I saw this Vera Wang handbag at Kohl's a week and a half ago, it was on sale for $35 and liked it. I went to Kohl's yesterday to see if it was still on sale. It wasn't. It was on clearance! Woo-hoo! And I had a 15% off coupon, plus a store credit (After Christmas, I returned something that I received as a gift that wasn't my style - the person who gifted it to me doesn't read my blog). So my $79 handbag cost $3.86 out of pocket.





Love my new handbag - its so huge. You know I love storage. It's what I call a "big mother purse". A few years ago, when I when I visited my niece at the University of Vermont, my sister and I were commenting that we could easily be mistaken for co-eds ourselves (given our youthful looks) but our "big mother purses" were giving us away.

The day is just getting better and better - my boyfriend David Cassidy sent me a special email. I didn't think he would remember, but he did. I can't tell you what it says, it's personal.

2 Days, 2 Patty Melts

Yesterday I went to the mall. The mall that I hadn't been to since August, 2009. We just really don't need to go to a real mall very often anymore. Plus, its a 45 mile drive to get there.

Anyhow yesterday after shopping, I ate my free birthday meal from Red Robin (you get a free birthday burger every year after joining Red Robin's email club). My birthday is coming up soon. If you didn't get me anything yet, that's ok. My special day is still a few days away and I will accept belated gifts.

At Red Robin, I chose a Patty Melt since I do love a good patty melt. A Red Robin is being built nearby, so next year I won't need to travel that far for my free birthday burger. Then tonight we went to another email club party at Cheeseburger in Paradise When they re-do the menu, they throw a free get-together to try out sample sized portions of their new foods. We had sweet potato chips, boneless wings, pesto shrimp, two different salads, pretzel dipper things, and our choice of one of their new burgers. I choose the patty melt. That came full sized. I took most of it home.

And sometime before May 9 (cuz that's when the coupon expires) I gotta go to Moes and get my free birthday meal.

And did I mention I bought a 2 piece bathingsuit for myself? Yes I did. I thought my days of wearing a two-piece were over, but they aren't! Will take a pic of my new beach-wear and share later. I told my sister I bought a two-piece and she was shocked.

Well enough about me. Let's talk about what I bought at the yardsales last weekend. Here's a pic and video. Most expensive thing was the $5 Wii game.

Where did April go?

I went to Walgreens yesterday and realized that I hadn't been there in 3 weeks. I've been slacking off at my hardcore bargain hunting. April just seemed to fly by. Well anyway, the deal I got yesterday revitalized my love of Walgreens.

I bought the 4 things pictured above. Total paid (after coupons) was $11.37

But $12 in Register Rewards printed out. So basically I got the stuff for free, and made .63



p.s. what is the deal with people tossing out their used dental flossers in store parking lots? I swear, I cannot walk thru a parking lot without seeing someone's gross flosser laying on the ground. I am not the only one who has seen this, right?

Yardsale Buys from last Saturday

My yardsale buys from last Saturday are pictured below. I started off at a church yardsale that started at 7am. I think it was the first time I'd been to that particular church's yardsale. But I will definitely try to go back next year! It was one of the better-organized church sales I've been to in a while. Some of the things that stood out: they had a large collection of empty cardboard boxes available that you could take upon entering the sale to hold your purchases. They had an area set aside for "sold" things so you didn't have to carry around large items while you shopped. They had roaming volunteers throughout the sale to help customers and to hand out shopping bags (in case you didn't picked up a box on the way in). They had helpers to help carry large purchases to your car. Just really a well put together indoor church yardsale.

Here are some of the things I bought. It's been a while since I did a Youtube video of my purchases so thought I would start doing that again. One thing I forgot to include in the picture was a .10 purchase - a mini karaoke machine that works with my Hit Clips collection. Will have to take a picture of my Hit Clips collection and post it. Cuz I have a feeling many of you may not know what I am talking about.





And speaking of Slapchops, I was watching Regis & Kelly the other day and guess what? She wants a Slapchop.

Today I decluttered....

To all the skeptics who don't believe I can declutter - ha! I already decluttered something today. I opened a kitchen cabinet and a thermos thing fell out and crashed into a dirty drinking glass that was on the counter and shattered it into a million pieces. So basically, the way I figure it, I threw away a million things - all before 9am. Big congrats to me!

So there. Proof that I am able to declutterize.

Bennington, Vermont Radio Interview

I did a radio interview yesterday that will air tomorrow (Saturday). So if you are wide awake tomorrow at around 7:20am EST and want to hear it, you can listen live on WBTN just click on the Listen Live button. And actually, if you just want to yardsale vicariously, you can listen every Saturday to their Saturday morning radio show about yardsales and stuff for sale, see their other website at Tri State Bargains If you listen tomorrow you may hear me discussing a little bit about nuclear power, ranting about the Bennington Monument being closed and my love of David Cassidy. Oh and some yardsale tips stuff too. But I'm not sure what they plan on editing out.

So if you new here and heard the WBTN interview - welcome! And I'm glad I didn't scare you off!

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and a Bus

We are planning a family vacation. Personally, I really don't like vacations since it cuts into my yardsaling time. If I could do a Sunday-Friday vacation only, that would be ideal. The bulk of the planning is complete. It will involve various modes of transportation. It starts off with a mini adventure just to get to the airport. I will be amazed if it all works out. Goes something like this:

Drive to a Metro (subway) station that has free long term parking. Cross fingers that the car doesn't get stolen. Take the subway to another station that has a bus service to get to the airport. Fly to Long Beach, California. Rent a car and spend several days in Los Angeles. Then drive to Big Bear Lake, CA and spend a night. Then continue driving to Vegas, baby. Spend two free nights at Mandalay Bay (cuz DH got a promotional flier from them). Win tons of money. Visit the Pawn Stars pawn shop. After checking out of Mandalay Bay, drive to Oatman, Arizona and feed wild burros some carrots. Continue driving to Lake Havasu and see the London Bridge and what else Lake Havasu has to offer. Jacob loves bridges. Spend a night. Leave Lake Havasu and drive to Palm Springs, CA. Maybe spend a night there (undecided). Then drive back to Los Angeles for a few more nights. Then get on an Amtrak train (with a sleeper car) and take the train back to Washington DC. Once off the train in downtown Washington DC, take the subway back to where our car is parked. Then drive the 50 miles home. Then relax.

You're probably thinking "why not just drive to the airport?" Well silly, that would mean we would have to pay to park. If we were flying roundtrip, that would be logical, but we aren't. And since the airport is so far away, asking someone around here to drive you to the airport is equivalent to asking for their firstborn child.

While in Los Angeles, we may go to Disneyland (I have some old Hopper passes that have some unused days on them - I was told they never expire. Will have to research that). Also plan on visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific Originally we had planned to fly to Los Angeles, driving to San Diego and then going to Vegas. But in researching hotel prices in San Diego and seeing that admission to Seaworld is a crazy $69.99 per person for ages 10+, I got to thinking I really don't need to see San Diego this time around. And just going to the aquarium in Los Angeles at $24 a person will be good enough. Would like to see a taping of a TV show. May try to go to The Price is Right taping. Would love to go see Ellen

DH lived in Los Angeles during his teen years and when in Los Angeles we'll be staying at his mom's.

If you have any tips about any of the places I mentioned, just leave a comment.

================
About a week or two ago, Jacob's school sent home an order form for spring pictures. Normally they have the date printed on it telling when pictures will be taken. But there was no date printed on it. So yesterday when I went to the school to do some volunteer work, I asked the teacher when pictures are being done. Well wouldn't you know they were done yesterday. And as luck (???) would have it, he wore the EXACT same shirt he wore when the fall pictures were taken. Ugh.

=================
Update on that missing garage saling mom in Ohio. She was found safe in Florida with her mystery man. No comment (that I want to share, that is).

I found it! I found a SLAPCHOP!!

Had a great day today at my favorite thrift. I found the item I've been wanting to find at a yardsale (or thrift store) for a while now. A Slapchop! It was on my *list* of things to find this year. Jacob loves the commercial and he's always looking at them at the stores. And I refuse to pay $19.99 plus tax for one. Back in April, I said my goal was to find one for $1 or less. But I don't mind at all paying $1.50 for it.

Well I got one today, still new in the box, for $1.50! And my thrift was having a sale on all clothes - everything was half priced. I bought a pair of shoes for my father-in-law for $2.50 (would have been $5) and a pair of pants (.75) and a shirt (.50) for Jacob.

I will talk about the shoes on another post. Umm...they have a 3" heel.

And I bought myself for $2.50 a gauzy long sleeved hoodie with tags, from QVC.

I took pics, but had to use my cellphone camera. For some reason my computer isn't playing nice with my digital camera.




You can see a much better picture of the hoodie on the QVC Website

Since Jacob's birthday was last month and Christmas is still a ways away, I will wrap up the Slapchop as one of my birthday gifts from my DH. That way it will be like the Slapchop was my gift even though Jacob will be the one playing with it (under supervision). We don't want him getting spoiled by getting a Slapchop for doing nothing.