Weekend Update: DIY Projects and Yardsales

Over the weekend I did two little projects that really didn't take much time, but I had procrastinated doing for years. It felt good tackling those little projects, felt like I accomplished something.

First was painting a door. We've lived with this dirty, blemished door for years and years. The door that leads from the garage to the house. Even when it was installed, it had the discoloration in the center. But it didn't seem to bug me or DH that much since we've lived with it for 15 years, give or take. (This is the side that faces the garage). I remembered I had a gallon of some paint that I bought for a quarter years ago at a yardsale and figured anything would be better than how it was.

We are having visitors again soon, so it's time to start spiffing up the house a little (and maybe my clutter won't be noticed. Yeah right.)

So here is the "Before" door:



And here it is "After". The sign (a thrift store purchase, says "Beware of Attack Crab" was $1.) It's plastic so I glued some magnets to the back so sticks to the metal door.



Then the second project was unfinished corner cabinet that I bought in New York at a yardsale for $5. I've had it in the garage for years. It's not some exquisite handcrafted piece of woodwork that will be handed down thru the generations, but it's storage, and I have a need for storage. Cheap storage is good.

So here it is "before". Just plain, unfinished.



And here it is after a little bit of sanding, staining and polyurethaning. Not a drastic change or anything. I'm not sure what I want to put on it, but I already had those conch shells in the bathroom. It will do for now, but I'm sure it will be changed. It's too uncluttered - haha.



Speaking of storage, I bought this outdoor corner storage at a yardsale over the weekend for $10.



And I am excited that my Coke card came for my upcoming cruise. So I won't have to go thru withdrawls!

Will blog on Tuesday

I will post tomorrow (Tuesday). I just feel like vegging out now and watching some tv shows I have on DVR. Tomorrow I will post some Before and After pics of some little projects I did over the weekend. And post a pic of my yardsale buys.

Cruisewear Dress = $3

I think I can stop buying dresses now. I went to the second Vintage Value location today and bought the above stretchy knit dress for $3 ($3.18 with tax). It's the exclusive "George" brand - only available in the finest Walmart's in the country.

LOL! I do like it though. It's very stretchy so it's almost like wearing a full body girdle. Which I should look into buying anyway. Will especially need it after eating the cruise food. I have been doing good lately though, trying to ride my bike everyday and drinking that tasteless stuff called water.

The last cruise I was on was when I was pregnant with Jacob. (We got quite the deal on that one - 7 nights for $250 a person. We bought it online, on an auction website that is no longer in business).

Going on a cruise may seem like an extravagance, but believe me, I don't go overboard in spending. Haha - get it? I made a funny. There are ways to save a cruise and here's what we've done.

Don't go crazy drinking drinks. I remember the first cruise we were on, we met other couples around our age and they said this was their "trip of a lifetime" so they were going to live it up. Getting their drinks in the glasses that you keep as a souvenir (the kind of glasses I see showing up at thrift stores from time to time). Their bar bill was equal to the cost of their cruise. Meanwhile, I was saying to myself I don't want this to be a "trip of a lifetime" - I want it to be just one of MANY trips that I take like this. This upcoming trip will be Cruise #5 for me.

I don't spend my money on the cruise ship - there's many ways they try to get you to spend. The casino, art auctions, playing bingo, shopping on board. Eating in "specialized" dining rooms which cost extra, buying shore excursions, spa services and on and on. But they also have activities that don't cost anything - food demonstrations, napkin folding class (yes, I took a napkin folding class once), using fitness room etc.

Then once we get to our destination, we usually head out on our own. Instead of buying "shore excursions" on the ship, you can find pretty much the same activities but only cheaper if you wait and get to the island. For instance when we were at the Cayman Islands, the ship had a shore excursion to go to go swimming with the stingrays for an exorbitant cost ($100?? or so, I don't remember). Once you get on the island, we saw taxi drivers holding signs saying they would do the same tour for $40.

I don't really plan on buying a lot of souvenirs. I also have my free Royal Caribbean bingo shirt that I got a few weeks ago at a yardsale. And Jacob already has a pirate t-shirt with "Bermuda" on it.

Psychedelic Frog Family

Went to Smile today and bought this vintage psychedelic frog bank for $1. It will go up on ebay once I clean it. The Minnie Mouse mug in the background is a mug I bought several weeks ago (.25) at Smile. Then a day later the matching Mickey Mouse mug showed up and I bought that too.

Also bought myself a nice long sleeved black knit shirt (JC Penney brand) for $2. And for Jacob I bought a pair of navy classic chino Ralph Lauren pants for $1.50 that will fit him now.

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Toilet Paper Update

Last week I mentioned I had 114 rolls of toilet paper in storage in the garage. I lied. Today I spotted where I had put an additional 24 pack of Angel Soft high up on a shelf. So that means the total is really 138. And in the past week we haven't had to replenish from the garage (since I also have more TP stored in the bathrooms).

Well having a large supply is TP is not the worst thing to have. The other day I found a bag of tortilla chips in the cupboard that somehow missed getting eatten. It had a "best by" date of May 2008. It will go the squirrels. Makes me think of that saying "You can go broke saving money".

Another Good Day Today

I had my dentist appt today. It was a good visit - no problems whatsoever which is nice. Usually my dentist likes to talk about replacing "old fillings" but today there was none of that. I think he's already replaced all my old fillings that he could get away with doing. On days when I don't get the "it's time to replace the old fillings" talk, I usually get the taking care of my gums lecture but none of that either. I guess my extreme flossing over the last week paid off.

Went to VV and found some nice shirts for .35 each. Including a vintage NFL shirt that says "NFL Alumni Philadelphia Eagles" on it. Didn't find any cruisewear. Also bought a boy's Van Heusen black jacket for .35. And I bought myself a Dress Barn jacket for $1.50 (pic below). I never shop at the Dress Barn. Makes me feel like a farm animal stepping foot into the place.




Also went to Walmart and bought a small (9") high velocity fan for only $5 (summer clearance.) I saw them a few weeks ago when they were $8. On some of the cruise message boards I've been on lately, some say to pack a fan for air circulation in the cabin. I like having background noise too when I sleep. Since I am driving to the ship, I'm anticipating bringing the biggest suitcase I can find and maybe a big dufflebag.

And big news, today I drove by the site of our future Kohl's store. Super yea!!!! As far as retail stores go, I love Kohl's. But not more than yardsales of course. It will be months til it's open. Our nearest Kohl's is 50 miles away at the mall and I don't get to shop there often, and when I do, I'm usually with DH and Jacob, and they cramp my shopping style so I never find anything. In previous blog entries, I've mentioned often hitting the Kohl's Night Owl Sales when I visit my mom in NY. I can put Jacob to bed and then drive 2 miles to my mom's Kohl's. This Kohl's will still be about 15 miles away, but at least I can occasionally shop there during the day when DH is at work and Jacob is at school.

And lastly I stopped by Walgreens to look at clearance (didn't buy any) but saw they had a big Health Screening Van there, so I got my glucose and cholesterol tested etc for free. They also had a bone density test. I had never had one done before, but my bones are awesome. Actually, I passed that test the best. I am glad all my diet soda drinking hasn't started to eat away at my bones yet.

Dyn-o-Mite Yardsales

But actually the yardsales today were not so dyn-o-mite, except at the one yardsale where I bought a JJ Walker from Good Times doll for $1. At that sale I also bought a Boober and a Red Foxx doll at $1 ea. (Boober, you know, from Fraggle Rock). Also bought a sealed DVD of Witness for .50 and I paid .50 at a different sale for the Wizard of Oz DVD. The blue thing on the bottom is a meshy beach bag (.50)

The church sale was ok. I didn't feel like clothes shopping. I usually find some neat vintage toys there, but not today. At that sale I bought the new Pampered Chef bowl (I think its a bowl anyway) for .25, a Eddie Bauer light jacket ($2) for Jacob to grow into (not in picture), and a stack of CDs for .10 each. I already have that Amanda Marshall CD (bought years ago at a different yardsale) - but had to buy another (I have a shopping sickness!!). I highly recommend that CD. She's someone you've probably never heard of - I just added one of her songs to my Myspace page (linked over there on the side), so if you want to hear one of her songs go to my Myspace page.

I also bought Jacob some books (not pictured). The new snorkel gear was .50 and so was those new pool toys (skimming discs). The little snowmen ornaments from Hallmark were $1 (Hallmark price tag says $18). Not sure if I will keep them, gift them, or resell them. They are cute.

p.s. To the person who was concerned over my soda addiction - don't worry I am trying to drink water. I am proud to say that I have actually had some water recently. I had some water on Friday. Really - that is an improvement over no water.

Life is Good!

I'm looking forward to two pretty big yardsales tomorrow - one is at a church. They usually have lots of neat vintage stuff at this particular church sale. They used to price most stuff at .10 or .15 each. They've gone up on their prices over the past few years (especially on their clothing) but it's still a great sale.

Then the other is a Mothers of Multiples yardsale. It used to be held in a school cafeteria about 15 miles away. I had stopped going to their sales since I don't need baby items and plus, it was 15 miles away. I typically stay within a 7 mile radius of my house. But last year, the Mothers of Multiples sale moved locations, now they are only about 8 miles away. I went to their last sale and bought lots of toys. I liked that they had a stack of generic white cheap laundry baskets for people to use as shopping baskets. Once you checked out, you left the basket there for someone else to use.

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And I almost forgot to mention, yeah! We are now in October - my cruise to Bermuda will take place this month. And I am just thrilled (really, it doesn't take much to make me happy), because on the cruise I hope to be drinking unlimited free Diet Coke.

In case you missed it, I am a diet pepsi/diet coke drinking machine. Since I am driving to the ship (Port of Baltimore), I knew I'd have to use some of my suitcase space for soda. Really. Soda is not free on a cruise ship. Royal Caribbean sells a "soda package" which cost $6/day + 15% tip. And you have to buy it for the entire length of cruise (you can't just buy one or two days of unlimited soda). Or else you can pay per the drink.

Well anyway, on MyCokeRewards.com - one of their rewards is a free soda package on Royal Caribbean. I ordered it yesterday and hopefully it will come soon. Now I won't have to pack soda.

Speaking of the cruise, I bought 2 dresses the other week at the Spot Thrift. I think I paid $4 for one and $8 for the other (they charged $8 for the second dress since it was 2 pieces. One is a black dress with embroidered butterflies. I am not a butterfly person, per se, but it looked good on so I can deal with having butterflies on it. The other is a purple (the traditional color of royalty) shift dress with jacket. It doesn't photograph well so just showing you the butterfly dress.



I have a dentist apppointment next week (Note to self: start flossing vigorously over the next few days - haha). So I will stop at VV and see if I can find more cruisewear. I always schedule my dental appts to coincide with Vintage Value's .35 sale days.

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Anyone see The View today? I caught a part where Whoopie was saying that she is a hoarder and has to have 75 rolls of toilet paper in her house at all times. Everyone laughed since 75 rolls seems sooo extreme! Oye. I went in my garage and counted 114 rolls. And that's not including the tp that is in the house.

It really is a small world.....

A little while ago I mentioned one of my former coworkers had written a book, and I oh so conveniently linked it to Amazon if anyone was interested in reading about it.



So I was at Smile last week looking at the kid's books and happened to see a Stuart Little book on the shelf. I kinda smiled to myself and then moved a few feet away to peruse the toy section. A few minutes later a mother and her daughter start looking at the books and the mom points to the Stuart Little book and says "Hey, there's that book that the little girl didn't want to read". So of course I interrupt and say "You mean Moxy Maxwell! I read that too! I used to work with the author." (Surprisingly, they didn't even ask for my autograph. Or curtsy.)

And then I go to the library and see a copy of Moxy Maxwell on a book pedestal thingy on the counter with a notice that Moxy Maxwell was the next book to read for the girl's "Traveling Pants Book Club" or something.

I was looking thru my pics the other day, (I wanted to see my old Bermuda pics) and came across a pic of my buddy Beverly (on the left) and future famous Moxy Maxwell author Peggy Gifford (on the right). We all worked together and after I quit, I moved to Charleston SC, and after Peggy quit, she moved to Myrtle Beach. This pic was taken when Bev came down from New York and visited us both in South Carolina.

Update on Lusby tragedy

The other day in my post, I said that the mother who killed two girls and abused the third was "pure evil". Well, it's not pure evil since greed was a part of it too. So it was both evil and greed. From the Washington Post: As an adoptive mother, Bowman received $2,400 a month, $800 for each of the three daughters, through a federal program that assists people who adopt foster children.

Good thing I am no longer doing jury duty because I can't imagine having an unbiased opinion. (My jury duty service is over and I never had to go in - not even once).

Not a good week to be a lightbulb in my house....

Over the past several days it seems we've been going thru a lot of lightbulbs. First was a compact fluorescent bulb - the kind that is supposed to last a million years - died in the garage. And it wasn't a dollar store compact fluorescent, it was a GE brand. Then on Saturday the big expensive bulb that is in our big screen tv died. A new $120 bulb is being delivered soon (I hope) via Fed Ex Ground. Then last night I noticed the light in the refridgerator went out. I found it hard to believe it was broken so I figured I would test it by taking out a bulb from the bathroom vanity and trying the fridge bulb in a different socket. I then proceed to drop the bathroom vanity bulb on the sink shattering it. And the refridgerator bulb was indeed dead. And tonight the bulb in the lamp by DH's computer died. Just really weird to have all this happening within just a few days.

Lusby Maryland in the news today

I wish the story coming out of Lusby today was about how some yardsalequeen in Lusby found a Picasso or unknown spare original of the Declaration of Independence, but it's not. Tragically, it's a very horrific story of abuse. Child Abuse Story Just pure evil. The mother can't blame the economy (Smile would easily cloth and feed a family in need) and it doesn't sound like mental illness. Just pure evilness.

Tire Planter Project - half way done

I cleaned out our shed a little while ago and one thing to get rid of was an old tire. I read that our neighborhood was going to be having a "free throwaway day" in October and thought we'd just get rid of it then. But then I read the fine print and tires is one of the things not accepted. For the heck of it I googled "old tire craft" for ideas on what I could do with it. One craft was making an old tire into a planter. tire planter website

So yesterday I decided to give it a shot. The above pic is what I have so far. On another website it says that if you pick the wrong tire (one too new), you're better off trying to wrestle a grizzly bear. I believe them. My arms are sore today. And I still haven't completed it. I'm sort of a point where it is stuck. Maybe if I just leave it outside for a few years, it will soften up and I can someday finish it.

Some websites also were opposed to making tire planters saying that the tires leach chemicals etc into the soil. There's millions of tires on the roads now wearing off bits and pieces of rubber all over the highways and roads and no one is complaining about that.

When I grew up, my brother & sister and I all played in a big tractor tire sandbox (directions: plop an old tractor tire in the yard, fill with dirt/sand. play).

Tried doing the Maryland Lighthouse Challenge Today...

and for the third year in a row, we failed miserably. It's the same weekend once a year where people who are really *into* lighthouses plan on visiting all the lighthouses in Maryland over the course of two days - here's the website. To me, it sorta seems like a waste of gas for the fact that participants don't really stay at any one lighthouse for a significant period of time, since it's all about getting to the next lighthouse and getting your book stamped or something. As usual, we saw 2 out of the 10. We took the free transportation to the above lighthouse which is normally closed to the public. I need to do something about the big fat fingerprint on the lens.

I had a sort of a last minute yardsale yesterday - the Parks & Recs indoor yardsale that was scheduled for a few weeks ago got rescheduled to yesterday. I signed up on Thursday so I had Friday just to gather and price stuff. With the date for the sale changed, I don't think they advertised it very well. I only made about $90 selling small crap. But some of the stuff I am glad I got rid of. And I got to buy stuff early from other sellers during the set-up time. They had kept the doors locked so there were no early birds shopping, except for me really.



I just took the pics off both my cellphone and my camera and found some pics I had taken last week. Here's a pic of my old Nissan Maxima in the parking lot at Smile. We sold it 3 years ago to someone in the neighborhood and ever since, once in a while I see it parked at Smile.



And here's a pic of Vintage Value. It looks very non-descript. I don't know why they are trying to keep it a secret and not having the name advertised on the building.



While I was in VV last week, I spotted this beautiful dress. It's so gorgeous that I can't believe someone donated it. I mean, really, its the type of dress you can just about wear anywhere, weddings, funerals, church, yardsales, etc. The only thing that could make it more gorgeous would be if it was pink. Then it would be identical to the dress my bridemaids wore for me back in 1989. I'm sure if I asked my bridesmaids, they'd agree that it is quite possibly the most beautiful dress in the world and they still wear it as often as they can. Mark my words, the whole idea of wearing a bow on your butt will come back in style very shortly.

ps. Now that I think about it, the above dress isn't a dress you would want to wear to yardsales. Because the seller would see that you are a person of impeccable taste and are used to the finer things in life so they would charge you more for the junk you are buying.

Please Vote for Sassy Signs

One of my long time advertisers - Sassy Signs asked for my help in getting the word out about a contest they are trying to win. Sassy Signs is a very small company started by two Minnesota moms who wanted bright and attractive yardsale/garage sale signs for their sale, but they couldn't find any to buy....so they had an idea to start a company to sell bright and eye-catching signs.

You don't need to register or anything to vote, just click on the vote button in the green box. Here is the link: Vote for Sassy Signs You can vote once per day, everyday, for the next month or so.

Ok ok, I know what you're thinking...WIIFM???? (What's in it for me????) Well...ok, lets assume you vote and vote. And everyone else votes and votes. Then Sassy Signs wins the contest (the prize includes a lot of free nationwide media promotion). Then because you voted and they won, the Sassy Signs Company gets all that free promotion and grows and grows. So more people will hear about Sassy Signs and buy the eye-catching garage sale and yardsale signs. So that is how it will benefit you...with everyone buying Sassy Signs, you won't have to deal with the aggravation of trying to read awful homemade yardsale signs. And with Sassy Signs, they are re-useable so the people who buy them will take down the signs and save them for their next sale. Not like the people who make ugly signs on cardboard and leave them up for months. So what's in it for you? Basically, you are helping to keep America (and in a larger sense, planet Earth) beautiful. Ok, so now go do your patriotic duty and go vote. It's a win win situation! THANK YOU!

Six for a penny nectarines

Did some grocery shopping today (had to go to Giant anyway to return my free Redbox movie rental from last night. (Watched The Brave One starring Jodie Foster, who by the way, likes garage sales. She mentioned it during a 60 Minutes interview years ago).

Anyhow, I made the rounds in the store, first checking out the Day Old bakery section (got nothing there) and then saw they had stuff on the "Not the Best, But Still Edible" Produce cart. Well that's not the real name, it's actually "Not the best, but still a good buy" cart - which I think is a stupid name.

They had some packages of apples and packages of nectarines. I am not a fan of nectarines but this package did catch my eye. Six nectarines for a penny.



Someone obviously mis-marked it. It was the only package marked for a penny. So I did what any bargain shopper would do - I bought it. Ok some of you may have taken it to the Manager and said "Excuse me, someone mismarked this, I want to pay more for it". But I am not you.

I figure whatever old produce didn't sell today, it was going in their trash anyway, so at least they got a penny out of me. Oh and I had a coupon to save 5% off my total order, so.....I got 5% off that penny.

Now, what do with them. I don't think DH likes nectarines and trying to get Jacob to eat one is out of the question. Maybe I can peel them, cut them up and make some sort of Nectarine Crisp with lots of vanilla ice cream.

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Big Brother finale tonight on TV. I am so glad its down to Dan and Memphis. I'm hoping Dan wins. My guess is that Jerry will win that bonus $25K.
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p.s. Above I mentioned getting the free Redbox rental. I think I've mentioned it before but sign up at Inside RedBox and every Monday afternoon get (via email or text message) a free Promo code for a free one day rental (good on that Monday only).

p.s.s. The above pics were taken with my trusty, banged up and abused Cybershot camera.

My Sony Cybershot Camera - It takes a licking and keeps on clicking!

I spoke too soon about the demise of my old Cybershot. When Jacob got home from school yesterday he went right for it, pressed a few buttons, and voila - it started working! I have no idea what he pressed to get it working again, but it seems to be working fine.

Thanks to the blogger who suggested I call Sony (since some Cybershots had been recalled). I was going to call them today and act stupid but now I don't need to.

I will keep my eyes peeled on ebay though - in searching old auctions, I saw an identical camera (that works perfectly) sold for $13. It would definitely be worth it for me to buy a cheap back-up for Jacob.

My Sony Cybershot finally bit the dust - I wonder why

Ever since I got my new camera back in February (new camera blog entry) I've still been using my old camera but also letting Jacob play with it (the old camera). Here's one of his last photos that he took using it. Looks suspiciously like a finger going for the lens. It still turns on, but the display screen is black and it acts like its taking a picture but turns out all black.

So now I need to start using my new camera exclusively. And find a good used cybershot for Jacob to use. Cuz once he sees my new camera he will want that, and I know I cannot let him play with it. I even tried digging out my old old crappy Canon digital camera that I had years ago, but it won't power on. I thought for sure when I upgraded cameras that it was still working. oh well.

I don't think the above pic was the nail in the coffin for the camera since there were more...

Deleting and Decluttering Food

Ok, I know I could probably make better use of my time than taking pictures while grocery shopping, but I saw this sign and thought it was funny. They are going to be deleting a particular item off the shelf. Not discontinuing it, but deleting it. LOL. I guess I just find it funny since I say that too. Like when I cleaned out my closet, I thought to myself how good it felt to delete 4 bags of clothing. I wonder how many guests a grocery store gets....

Lately I've been on a kick of trying to get rid of old food. Not throw it away of course, just making it. Today I made a Duncan Hines cake with a "better by" date of December '07 and the frosting was a can with a "better by" date of Jan. '06.

Tomorrow for dinner I am making porkchops that were bought December '06. I think after the porkchops, I'll be caught up on old food. Then will have to start eating 2007 food :)

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Here's a pic of some of my yardsale buys from this weekend (the most "valuable" thing I bought was a sealed DVD set of Season 1 of Lost for $3.). Oh and the Remington Tight Curls hair curlers (paid $2) will probably resell for around $30 - $40 The Campbell Soup Labels were free - I will probably end up mailing those to the Rowlesburg School in WV.



Got most of this stuff free:



Jacob has that bowling game already, but I left the batteries in it and they got corroded and ruined that top piece. So I am happy to find a replacement piece for free!

Christmas Gift Buying via Yardsales

My Bermuda vacation is coming up (next month) and I already got my mom a combination Christmas gift/vacation souvenir from it. I was at a yardsale today and saw these two new, crisp Royal Caribbean Bingo t-shirts. The seller had a bunch of clothes marked $1 each and I thought about buying them but passed them after making small talk about cruises. When I looked at them the second time, she told me just to take them. Yea! I may keep one for myself - maybe I'll wear it when I check in at the ship - the cruise employee will see my shirt and think "hey, this must be one of our bingo high-rollers, let's upgrade her to our royal oceanfront suite". I did buy some other neat stuff today, but a picture will have to wait.

My mom is a bingo-aholic. And she likes t-shirts that have stuff written on the back so I know she will like the shirt. The pic above shows the front and the back. I also bought her a ceramic "Casino Money" ceramic jar with an old lady sitting at a slot machine (it was .50)

Speaking of my upcoming Bermuda trip, I am still taking applications to be my friend while I am in port (yardsalequeen@comcast.net) My new Bermuda friend or friends should be available to act as a tourguide/chauffeur during my stay in Bermuda, pick up the tab at lunch, carry my shopping bags, basically just being at my beck and call. In exchange, you will be in the presence of moi and my charming personality and witty humor (and my sister will be there too).

Do not fret if you're one of the hoards of Bermudians who've already submitted an application and you haven't heard back yet. I'm waiting for all the submissions to come in then make my royal decree.

Belated Thank You

I got a nice surprise a while ago from Shara at Monkeybox Blog Before I opened it, there was a note that said "Saw this and thought of you". That kinda scared me a little because who knows what sorta thing it could be. She sent me the cute wall hanging which, of course, I put above the marital headboard. haha.

If you need a laugh, go to her blog and look around the mid-August timeframe and see the cake she got for her birthday. It made me LOL.

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Update on the ticks. I knew that they were ticks - but thought they were just baby ticks - didn't know they had a specific name of seed ticks. I was just in denial when I euphemistically called them bugs. Yesterday, I did make sure they were all picked off, but still had to put my sneaker back on when leaving the park - then got home and saw that some had transferred from the sneaker to my foot. So I got them off too. I'm just glad I got them instead of Jacob. My sneakers are still sitting outside. The ironic thing is, today my DH is complaining that his ankles have bug (tick) bites all over them and they itch like hell. I told him he should have walked faster. My ankles don't have any red marks on them the way his does.

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After having to miss yardsales last week due to the big storm we had, I'm looking forward to hitting the sales tomorrow. There is a big church yardsale first thing in the morning, then plan on hitting the other yardsales.

Mushrooms, bugs and candy

Yesterday after Jacob got home from school we all decided to go to the park for some family time. What a mistake - haha. Should have stayed home and frittered away my time on the computer.

I did see some kinda gross mushrooms growing out of a tree. No, I didn't take any home to smoke or eat.

The park also has a large playground made out of old tires. So while I was sitting on a swing watching Jacob climb the big ship tire sculpture, I noticed my ankle was itchy.



And then I see all thes little dots on my sock and they're moving and bunches of them are on my ankle. Uggh. I tell DH and he in his wisdom says "that's just dirt". I'm like yeah right. So of course I take some pics. And then start plucking them off. I took the sock off and turned it inside out. There are no trashcans at this park - to encourage people to take out what you brought in. So I didn't want to litter my buggy sock. I took it home and washed it with some dog flea shampoo. No need to throw away a perfectly good sock. (and even with my old socks, I don't throw them away - I put them in the textile recycling bin at the recycling center).





DH says the reason the bugs got me and not him or Jacob was because I walk too slow (so the bugs had time to jump aboard). So that was our nice family outing.

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I went back to Walgreens this week (I went 3 days this week). Funny how they had a cart full of that clearance laundry detergent one day, and I go in the next day and it's all gone. They also marked down some back to school supplies - I got a super cute little book light for .74. I went back the following day for more and they were all gone.

I noticed they had Russell Stover candy on clearance for $2.59 and I had $2 coupons so one day I went and bought 3 (so they were .59 a box plus tax). Then I went home and found a few more coupons so I went back the following day and got the last 2, for a total of 5. Here's a pic I took when I just found the first 3 and meant to do a blog posting that day but didn't.

CVS Summer at 90% off

CVS was having a 2 day sale (for Sunday and today) so I wanted to get some .99 nail polish. (Actually it was $3.99 but at the checkout you got a $3 coupon to use on your next purchase - known as Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). I walked in and saw a glorious sign that said "Summer 90% off". Ahhhhhh. I have no idea when the 90% off started but I saw a few things I couldn't live without.

The had kiddie pools - normally $39.99. So 90% off would be $3.99 I have math phobia but when it comes to figuring out a discount - no problem. Plus, it's super easy to figure out how much 90% off something would be. Just take the original price, example $39.99 and then just mentally chop off the last number and move the decimal point one space so 90% off $39.99 is $3.99, $8.99 /.89 , $12.99 would be $1.29 and on and on. I bought the Finding Nemo kickboard for .69 (was $6.99)

So I take the pools to the register and they don't ring up on sale. The cashier punched in $9.99 each. I feel kinda embarrassed for the cashier to have to tell them what the correct price should be - but so what. I will probably put the pool in the backyard for Jacob next year and maybe keep the second one as a back-up? Or maybe put a $10 price tag on it during my next yardsale....I'm not sure. There was a third pool, and my hoarding tendancies told me to buy it, afterall it's only $3.99, but I was good and left it for someone else to buy. Freeze-pop popsicles were on clearance for $2 a box (bought 4 boxes). I also got some other bargains using ECBs but nothing too exciting.

Also went to Walgreens. Where I live, I can't go anywhere really without having to pass it, so I always stop in to see what's on clearance. Today they had a cart full of laundry detergent at 75% off (I bought 4 bottles at $1.44 each)

Then stopped at the libary and got this book out. When I was in NY in August, I saw my friend (and former coworker) Bev, who told me that one of our other former coworkers wrote a book. We all worked at a book publisher. It was a book publisher that specialized in all things boring - scholarly books about humanities and social sciences, philosophy, religion, political science, regional studies, women's studies, cultural studies, and environmental studies...snooze fest.

Yes, the books there are boring (in my opinion) but I remember my years working there fondly (maybe my brain cells are dying off now). It was the "good ole days" for me - no responsibilities, living the crazy single life, etc. And I met my life-long buddy there - Beverly.

So when I saw this book by my former coworker - I just knew it wouldn't be boring. I'm proud to say that I am already on Chapter 4.

Went to a Top 10 Shell Beach today

A while ago, a travel magazine put together a list of the top 10 beaches for shells. They named places like Sanibel Island, Florida, Kauai and world famous (haha) Lusby, Maryland. If you don't believe me, you can read the whole article here.

Well today that particular park was having a free family day thing, so we went. I don't like swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, but Jacob doesn't seem to mind. We should buy an annual pass (its only $15) - the water there is real shallow. The beach in our neighborhood gets pretty deep quickly. And dogs on leashes are allowed. Whiskey is not a water dog, but I think he'd enjoy sniffing some different stuff.

And at this beach, you an get a water view of the best nuclear power plant in Maryland. One of the buildings can be seen in the above pic. Click on the pic to enlarge it. The big thing in the water is a liquidified natural gas terminal. We do love our energy companies here.

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If you found this website thru today's article in the Anniston Star (Anniston, Alabama) - welcome. I would link the article but you have to be a subscriber to access their site.
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Yes, the message board is experiencing some glitch. Apparently its some problem caused by the hosting company. However, it's my responsibility to figure out how to fix - and as you know, I am not a computer person. It happened once before a few months ago but I got it fixed pretty quickly. But this error message looks different. I hate programming stuff since I have no idea what I am doing. I will call the hosting company tomorrow and see if they can walk me thru the fix.

Waaaaa! No yardsales today

As I suspected, no yardsales to speak of today. I had my fingers crossed that maybe the indoor Parks & Recs yardsale would take place - but it didn't. Too much rain and people freaking out about the hurricane or tropical storm or whatever it was. Was not a big deal at all. I think our lights flickered a few times but that was it.

Our local Food Lion also freaked out. I stopped in to buy a few things today and they entire frozen food and dairy section was empty. I don't mean picked thru - I mean E-M-P-T-Y. They were afraid they were going to lose power so they moved everything to their big freezers in the stockroom that have generators. What a bunch of scaredy cats.

I did manage to list a few things on eBay. Need to list more. A ton more. If you want to see what I have listed - take a look. I got a ton of Burger King coupons to sell - so if you were planning on doing any Burger King eating within the next month or so, it makes sense to save money and get some coupons. I was surprised that a Whopper is now $2.59 - I only get them when I have a Buy 1 Get 1 Free coupon.

In high school and college, I worked at a Burger King. When I worked the late shift, I was allowed to take home a leftover sandwich. I got in a habit of doing that for a while and remember being disgusted with myself when I tipped the scales at a Whopping (haha) 130 lbs. Oh have the times changed.

Anyhow, I digress. If you want to see my ebay auctions - take a lookee YSQ Auctions

I'm tentatively sheduled for one day of jury duty next week. So....if that court date manages to be cancelled, that means my month long jury service to the local justice system will be fulfilled. Until I get chosen again.

Stupid Hurricane

I understand Mother Nature likes to do hurricanes every so often, but geez, why on a Saturday? It's 100% chance of rain tomorrow. A Sunday hurricane would have fit better into my schedule. Going yardsaling during a hurricane is a challenge (but not totally out of the picture).

Here's my food bargain lunch from the other day. A local chain of pizza places is always giving out $1.99 pizza & soda coupons so every so often I'll stop in for a $1.99 pizza & diet coke ($2.14 with tax). Gotta love unlimited Diet Coke. Then on my way home, I noticed the new Rita's Ice was giving away free Italian ice. I had the cherry flavor and I know Jacob would not have liked it - it had little chunks of maraschino cherries in it. He doesn't like surprises in his food. I think he'll be having a lot of the custards from there.

Then for lunch today my DH had half the day off so we ate at Jaspers. It was our first time there (I had a Buy 1 entree get 1 Free coupon). The inside was neat - we ate in the bar area (huge bar with jumbo screens all around). And they cook on a wood fired grill - hard to explain but when I was walking to the restroom, I could see hunks of wood burning right on the grill where the food was being cooked. I had a salad with chicken. It was good but to me a salad is not a salad unless it has cheese on it. Everything tastes better with cheese. Well maybe not an Italian ice, but most things taste better with cheese.

Haven't forgot about ya....

Just not a whole lot going on at the YSQ Castle. Today I did manage to clean up around my computer a little (sorry no pics - otherwise I'd be having the clutter police knocking at my door). When I was yardsaling in New York in August, for $1 I bought one of those under-the-office-chair plastic thingys. So I vacuumed some and got that thing under my chair now.

No exciting buys to mention. Did stop at Walgreens today and bought a brand new rice cooker for $4-something. Was originally $15.99. We have a rice cooker/steamer that works fine but....I can't stop buying stuff - haha. Our other rice cooker is old and it's big and bulky. This one is more like a little crockpot.

And I stopped at Food Lion and bought a few things. I mainly do my grocery shopping at Food Lion and Giant. I do buy other food items at other places occasionally - like Walgreens and Super Walmart. Back when the government was sending out those free money checks (economic stimulus checks) in the spring and summer, Food Lion had a deal that if you bought a $300 gift card with your check, they would make the value of the gift card $330. We ended up getting three $330 cards on 7/22/08.

And here it is in September and I am still working on using the first card. I still have $175 left on it. Which means I've only spent $155 on groceries in the past month and a half at Food Lion.

Saturday's Yardsale Results / Sunday Trip to National Zoo Washington DC

I rented a space at the weekly fairgrounds yardsale/flea market on Saturday ($10 space rental and the space you get is huge. However, I only bring as much stuff that I can cram into my mini-van. Some people have big sized vans and pull a trailer etc, and have helpers etc. I'm just little ole me and my junk. I ended up selling $144 worth of stuff (so I took home $134 after the rental fee). I tried running around and shopping at some other sales, but its a little hard to do and still watch your table.

I ended up buying a $2 Spongebob DVD for Jacob. At another table I saw a seller selling DVDs for $1 each, so I bought $5 worth of some of the ones that I thought would I could resell quickly (Bourne Ultimatum, Minority Report, etc) and sold them for $2 each at my own table.

It's pretty amazing how picky or tight some people are with their money. I had VHS tapes priced at .50 each, which I think is a good deal. There was this young man in his 20's who spent a good few minutes reading the description of the tape and then instead of just giving me two quarters for it asks "Do you know if this has been watched a million times or not?" I felt like saying "geez, its only .50 for crying out loud". I told him I didn't know and he didn't buy it. I should have taken the tape out of the case and flipped the actual tape thing open and yanked out 6' of the tape and say "Hmmm...looks pretty good to me". Just to see the look on the guy's face would have been priceless.

Then had another customer leave her empty disposible coffee cup on my shelving unit. Granted, there are no trash cans available, but put the damn thing in your car, it can't be parked very far away. This is a small flea market, I would guess maybe 40 or so sellers at most on any given Saturday. So you don't have to walk very far to park. If I had seen that person leave the cup, I would have said something but try to make it sound helpful, not bitchy.... "Oh Miss, you forgot your coffee cup". I did see a woman with a coffee cup in her hand, so I know it was a woman who left it, but of course I couldn't remember what she looked like.

The above pic was taken after I had already sold a few things...it really doesn't look like I brought much to sell, but believe me, my car was packed.

And at the end, this is all I had to pack up. I am going to go thru what didn't sell and donate the some of the still good and useable items to Smile. Blurriness in the pic is due to a dirty cellphone camera lens.



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On Sunday I suggested to DH that we drive to DC and go to the National Zoo. I haven't been there since the early 90's. DH and Jacob have been there a few times within the last several years. Jacob went there two years in a row for a field trip (preschool and kindergarten class) and DH was a chaperone both times.

It's free admission to the National Zoo, but you have to pay to park if you drive there. We took the Metro (subway) instead since riding on the subway is an adventure all in itself for Jacob. The nearest Metro station is about 50 miles away from us and parking there is free on the weekends. Roundtrip for the 3 of us on the Metro cost less than $15. It probably would have been about that much to park, and we wouldn't have had the *adventure* of riding the Metro. And with the Zoo, you can bring backpacks in, so I loaded up a backpack with a few sodas and some pretzels. I brought some of the Diet Pepsi Max sodas that appear in the food picture from last week - I think they were about .20 each since I had coupons that were tripled.

So we actually didn't buy anything at the Zoo, plus, it was so crowded that even if we wanted to buy something at one of the food stands, the lines were ridiculously long. And Jacob has no interest in any of the overpriced souvenirs they sell at the gift stores. It's not like he wants a stuffed panda bear. Now if the souvenir stores sold a National Zoo Paradise City Playstation 3 game, well that may be a different story.

I do think some of the Metro stations are cool looking - went on the longest (and steepest) escalator ride of my life.







The National Zoo is one of the a few in the country that have pandas. They had just put out food for them. One is eating an apple and the other is having fun licking a crate. They must have spread some good stuff on that crate, is all I can say. The pandas do have a big outdoor enclosure thing - I think they just feed them while inside so people can have a closer view.







I took this picture of the tiger enclosure. The zookeeper had just thrown out some chunks of meat so the tigers were active. When I get home I see what looks like a person sitting in the enclosure. Or maybe I captured the Virgin Mary cradling a baby Jesus? It does look like something. I can't figure it out, but it has to be some weird sun reflection on a rock or something. Maybe just a ghost.

The pics aren't that great because I only had my cellphone with me. I couldn't find my regular digital camera - the one with the taped up battery compartment. I let Jacob take pictures with it and that's the camera I usually still use but as we were leaving the house, I couldn't find it. Of course when we got back home, I found it within two minutes.

Had a yardsale yesterday, went to the National Zoo today

and now getting ready to watch Big Brother on DVR. So pics and details will have to wait.

Headline News: I bought water today

Yes, it's true, I bought water today. No, it's not for me to drink though - I don't need store bought water when I have perfectly fine free water that comes out of the faucet (we have well water - that tastes good, so we don't pay for water). But I did get a good deal, a 24 pack of Deer Park water for $2. A little independent grocery store sent me a flyer with a $2 water coupon in it. So the other day I went and bought one. Then when I was leaving, I saw a stack of the flyers at the register, so I took another flyer. I went back today for another 24 pack and in the cart I grabbed, someone left another flyer (and all the flyers from the register were gone). So now I can go back and get another 24 pack for $2.

I figure I can sell them for .50 or $1 a bottle during my next yardsale.

Two weeks of jury duty down, two more to go

I am on my second week of jury duty and so far both trials that I was supposed to go to this week have been cancelled. Yeah! And with next week having a Labor Day holiday, maybe they won't have any trials scheduled next week. Then I'll just have one week to go. I do need to call the jury hotline tomorrow though to hear next week's schedule.

Did a little bit of thrift shopping today. I bought this game for Jacob for $3 at one of my thrifts. $3 is a little on the high side for a game (since my other thrift normally prices games at .50 - $1) but this isn't a game I'm likely to find again soon. And I bought the game at a thrift where all the money goes to helping spay and neuter animals, so it's easy to justify making a purchase. Jacob has a game called Rush Hour also made by ThinkFun and this is just a different version with animals. His teacher last year had the Rush Hour game and told us he really liked it, so we went to Target and paid $20 for it. (Well actually we paid for it using a gift card he had received for his birthday).

I am too lazy to take a pic of it, but it's the same one that Amazon sells:



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What is with the sudden onslaught of door to door solicitors? Twice in the past week. One was some teen guy selling magazine subscriptions - I got the idea he wasn't someone local, I think it's like a summer job or something. Then within a day or two later I had a pair of Jehovah's Witness women come to the door and offer me help with "all the stress that people are dealing with nowadays". I told her I didn't have any stress. Well that's totally not true, my only stress is not having enough storage space for my buys. Maybe I totally screwed up and they were going to tell me about a Patron Saint of Storage that I don't know about?? Now that I think about it, I should have said "yes, come in, I have a messy kitchen and it's stressing me out. It would help greatly if you would do my dishes."

Whiskey gets around....

I am starting to get an inferiority complex. I think my dog is more popular than me in my neighborhood. These two incidents happened within the past week.

On Saturday I am leaving a yardsale (of course am wearing a fanny pack so I often get mistaken by other buyers as being the seller) and I pass another shopper in the driveway and she says "So...is this where Whiskey lives?" I don't know how she knows Whiskey - but she is a woman who routinely walks in the neighborhood.

Then today I was opening up an account at a different bank and when talking to the bank employee we realized we only live one street apart. And she says "Is your dog named Whiskey?" Her street is on the route that Whiskey takes when he happens to get out and goes visiting his other family. Lately he has been good and hasn't escaped.

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You would think with all that grocery shopping I did last week, I would be set for a while. No. Somehow I've managed to go to my other grocery stores both yesterday and today.

I did get a good deal on a haircut yesterday. A new hair place opened up (a franchise - Great Clips) and they are advertising $2.99 haircuts (for the first two weeks they are open). So my curiousity and thriftiness led me to see how good a $2.99 haircut would be. And actually I am pretty impressed and will go back to the woman who cut my hair. Don't worry, I did leave a nice tip. 15% of 2.99 is .45 so I'm thinking a .50 tip is pretty darn generous. Right??? Just kidding.

Double and Triple Coupons (again!)

Last night I was going through my coupons and going through the ones that came in today's newspaper (our newspaper carrier delivers Sunday's coupons and ads on Saturday). Then I realized that I wanted to go back to Shoppers Food Warehouse to take advantage of their last day of doing double and triple coupons.

So this morning I went back. They were out of a lot of things I had coupons for - but still managed to find a thing or 2 (well actually I bought 62 items; I know cuz the cash register tape said so).

My total before coupons 113.56 and after $33.58 for a savings of $79.92. Since my trip there on Friday, I saw that they adjusted their cash registers. For instance on Friday when I bought those small Starfish Tuna things ($1.66 each) - and I had $1 coupons, they doubled the coupon to $2. But today, with the adjusted cash registers, it just doubled it to the proper amount $1.66.

And I succumbed to my inner voice and bought the Eskimo treats ($1.33) that I definitely do not need. And I "splurged" and bought the heavy duty Scrubbing Bubbles ($2.29 - normally $4.29).

Yesterday's Cheap Meat and Toes

I had to go to the Giant grocery store yesterday (to use the coupon for the free mayonnaise before it expires today) and came across a great deal on stew meat. So I took a pic of it when it was in the grocery cart. The cashier rips off the $2 coupon when she rings it up, so I figured I'd take a pic of it before I bought it. So one package cost me .33 and the other .63 AND I still had a 5% off my total order coupon so it was even a few cents cheaper.