Month: April 2007

Garage Sale Day – 2007

Last year for the town Garage Sale Day, we actually had a garage sale at mom & dad’s place. This year, I thought I would be at a meeting over the lunch hour, so I didn’t get stuff ready for selling. Only to discover earlier this week that the meeting was canceled. (It was our pre-planning meeting for B-WISER, but with only 11 girls signed up so far, there’s a chance we may cancel the camp this year. Eep!)

However, nothing was stopping me from going around to other people’s garage sales. When I headed off to the post office this morning, I checked out some of the garage sales around. And I stopped at my cousin’s house to talk with Aunt Becky, Deanna, and Taylor. I then moved onto the gas station to buy a two bottles of cream soda and get some cash. When I got back home, I wrote a check for a bill I’d forgotten about and retraced my steps. (The weather was beautiful, so walking around town was quite a pleasure today).

This time, on the way home, I got in line at the Texas Tenderloin caravan which set up just for the town garage sale day. (I’d seen the caravan on my walk home yesterday and decided then that I’d have a Texas Tenderloin sammich for lunch on Saturday.) The line was pretty long, but, as I said before, the weather was wonderful. In front of me was a young girl I’ve seen around who will most likely be a future student of mine some day. A bit before her were two sisters talking, one of whom is a current student and the other a former student. Was kind of neat to see the timeline there in the lunch line. Heh.

I ordered a sammich and fries and walked home. And thought about how nice it would be to have local restaurants within walking distance of home. (Well, other than the one pizza joint in town.) Lunch was yummy. Linus wanted some, but I assured him that tenderloins (well, the breaded & fried type like I was eating) are not good food for kitties. And not good food for humans either, but there ya go.

Later on, I decided to go on a bike ride. It’s my first time out for the season, so of course the tires were a little flat. However, the Free Air at the gas station wasn’t working. So I popped around to the folks’ to see if dad would fill my tires with his air compressor. And my timing was perfect. Mom was home from work and ready to go garage saling. So I went along with them.

Dad bought a balance at the first sale (their neighbors, so he walked ’em home after buying). Mom bought puzzles at the second. And then we were back at my cousin’s where Becky & co. were still selling. Mom bought a puzzle and a puzzle mat there (Becky said we didn’t have to pay, but dad got rid of some quarters to pay for ’em – heh). While they were pondering just what someone could do with a quarter these days, I suggested to Becky that she should save up her garage sale revenue and take her favorite niece out for Chinese Buffet. And that inspired our evening adventure at the Chinese Buffet.

Whenever I upgrade my computer, I always give the old one to my Aunt Becky. I will admit, the last upgrade, I decided to try building a linux box out of my old machine so that I could play with it, but I just never used it as I’d wanted to. So after nearly 2 years after my last upgrade, Becky finally got her upgrade. She promised to take me out for Chinese Buffet in thanks for the computer – and who am I to turn down Chinese food?

So with my subtle hint, plans were made to have Chinese buffet for supper. Becky picked the folks and I up, Deana took the girls (Taylor & Sydney), and my other cousin Bill and his wife Connie and their youngest, Braden, met us at the Piqua China Garden Buffet. We had a pleasant evening having Chinese food and chatting. And the little ones were pretty well behaved. Afterwards, Deanna took the girls to their mom (the garage sale was at their dad’s place) before she herself headed home to south Dayton. Becky dropped the parentals and I off. And Bill & co. returned to their place.

Once home, I saved the latest Doctor Who (which was done downloading from before supper time) to CD and watched it. It’s fun to watch new Who on my big screen TV while chatting with folks on my laptop. Mmmmm, technology!

(Oh, and if you were wondering if I ever got to ride my bike, the answer is “yes.” After returning from the garage sales – we hit about half the town before returning – dad pumped my tires and I rode around town for awhile. Yay for bikes!)

Trina on the Greene

Since we have so much fun shopping around Christmastime, the lady staff decided to try a Spring Shopping Spree this year. The destination? The Greene, a new shopping complex (think inside-out mall) in south Dayton. The one drawback to a Spring Shopping Spree is that it takes place in the Spring. And as many teachers can tell you, Spring is a chaotic time for us. So how many of us lovely ladies were able to attend? Three…

Still, we met at Tammy’s house & MBA drove the three of us to the Greene. There are several clothing stores which I’ve seen at malls (Talbots, Victoria’s Secret) and some I’ve only seen catalogs for (Coldwater Creek, J. Jill). And as an added bonus, Books & Co. has a branch there. It’s a nice two-story affair. Thank goodness I didn’t find any books that I had to have. I’m still reading from the last two crops that I got. (A trip to Books & Co. during spring break had me buying several more books.) I did buy 2 little votive candles from Yankee Candle – vanilla cupcake. I liked the scent of those – very yummy.

For lunch we agreed to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I’ve never been in one of those before. Quite an impressive array of cheesecakes! And geez, they give you enough food to feed a third world country. (And folks wonder why Americans are fat?) Tammy & I tried the Georgia Peach beverage, which was quite tasty and, since it’s a vodka based drink, I barely tasted the alcohol. I chose the lunch portion fish & chips and was treated to the best beer-battered fish I’ve had in ages. Not at all greasy and very tasty. And for dessert? Cheesecake! Since I knew they couldn’t compete with elsaf‘s cheesecake from a couple of weekends ago, I decided to get one of their specialty flavors. I went with vanilla bean cheesecake, which was very decadent. And very vanilla-y. Yum! I’m still full from lunch!

After we returned to Tammy’s place, she had to show me the Wii. Her son (who’s also a student of mine), Tammy and I played a round of bowling with the Wii. It was quite fun. And I even broke 100! (109 to be exact). Tammy stomped on us with 154, but her son held his own as well, such that I came in third. 🙂 Not sure it’s enough to convince me to get a console, but it was certainly interesting!

Once I got home, I tried to make a dent in the mess that my house has become. I’ve at least taken the trash out and cleaned up all the paper the kitties have strewn around the house. I’ve got a long ways to go, but it feels good to have at least done something for once. 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m taking the parental units out for lunch. Actually, we’re meeting at the Piqua Cassano’s, but I’m buying. (They’re at the Lake now, enjoying their anniversary weekend and beautiful weather.) It’s not the classiest anniversary present, but I know it’s something they’ll both enjoy. 🙂

I’m in!

I just received an e-mail from University at Buffalo – I have been accepted into their degree program! Woohoo! I should be getting a mail packet soon with the name of my adviser and all that jazz. Sweet. And I’m now printing out the FAFSA worksheet to see about applying for Federal Student Aid. Which I may or may not need.

Yay debt! 🙂

(In other good news, my amazon.co.uk order arrived today, so I will be watching Doctor Who: Survival tonight. Woot!)

PS: Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

The $7 post

I checked into the airport earlier today while still at judiang‘s. And right before we left, I checked flight info & all was good. So then I take the red line to Jackson and the blue line to O’Hare and when I arrive, I discover my flight has been cancelled. No matter, they had already booked me on the next flight to Columbus, which is at 6:35pm CDT. I decided to take advantage of O’Hare’s widely advertised wi-fi. It’s $6.95 for the day, so consider this my most expensive post on LJ. (I also e-mailed the folks & Judi while on this.)

Anyhoo, here’s hoping my luggage and I shall be reunited in Columbus! And I get to see my kitties tonight. Yay!

The Feast of Elsa

Wow, it’s always wonderful when I get together with elsaf & judiang (and sometimes hergrace can join us too). We know how to celebrate the joy of FOOD.

We started out the day slow. Elsa was up first, then me. I played CoH for a bit (on Judi’s PC) and then worked on my LJ post. While I was finishing that up, Judi showed up. Wow – Judi was awake and we didn’t have to get her up! We then got ready and headed up to the penthouse to exercise for the second day. I played with the two bikes and the elliptical trainer. Shame the regular bike has a dead battery cuz it would be neat to try some of the settings.

After exercising, Judi was still nearly comatose, but we promised her latte after brunch. Elsa drove us to Chinatown to our regular Dim Sum place, Three Happiness. Once again, Elsa showed enormous restraint, sticking to steamed dishes (and having the smaller half of one of my sesame rolls). We still ate well, despite the conscience eye on avoiding excess. The little steamed items are SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. And damn, but those sesame balls are wonderful. Judi got 3 more right before we had stuff tallied up and took 2 home with her.

Elsa then drove us to Target where we found a few essentials (and Judi and I magically caused a Starbucks to suddenly appear so that she could get her hazelnut soy latte), and then to Dominick’s (which I haven’t been too since that fateful day when Judi made alryssa, tiger5 and I walk across the Long Ass Bridge the night before Thanksgiving. I can still hear Carole saying “I’ll pay for a cab! I’ll pay for a cab!” the whole way there & back, with Judi completely oblivious. Heh heh.) Dominick’s thankfully had the phyllo dough that Elsa needed for one of her dishes for the evening meal. Oh, and I picked up 3 bottles of white wine for Judi. A Chapel Ste. Michele (sp) Riesling, Turning Leaf Pinot Grigio, and Fetzer Gewürztraminer (my mom’s favorite). We put the Riesling in the fridge when we got back, but the other two are now on Judi’s new wine rack (one of her “garage sale” purchases of the day before).

The rest of the day has been spent with Elsa furiously making Yet Another Ultimate Judi Birthday Supper and me cleaning dishes. And once again, Elsa has topped herself. She truly rocks.

While light classical music played on Judi’s TV (digital cable, you know), dinner started with an appetizer of grilled shrimp with pineapple salsa. The soup course was next with the mushroom soup (with sherry) which she’s made before and which I love. For salad, she had arugula with a lemon vinaigrette and goat cheese souffle in phyllo cups. There was a small break while I cleaned a few more dishes and the lamb rested after being removed from the oven. Then we continued with rack of lamb with mushroom sauce (morels – yummy), asparagus, and rice pilaf with brown & wild rice and wine soaked cranberries. Very tasty. By now we were nicely full from a fabulous meal. It was time to open presents.

Judi got nice sheets and a mini food chopper from Elsa and noise-cancellation headphones from me. Oh, and a photo of David Tennant for her to squee at. I’d also scanned in the other DT photos that I recently bought in an eBay auction and gave her a CD of that. (The things I buy when I’m shopping for Sylvester McCoy photos!)

After present opening, I vegged for a bit and finally got the strength to finish cleaning the kitchen. But before I was done, we messed up my table again in order to eat CHEESECAKE. Yup, Elsa once again made her wonderful cheesecake. Very yummy. Judi had the biggest piece of the three of us, and then proceeded to have a sliver more. But hey, it’s her birthday and if you can’t live it up on your birthday, when can you?

Dessert over, I was able to finish cleaning the kitchen, and now I’m here, dishpan hands typing this entry. Believe me, it was worth all the cleaning. 🙂

ETA: that bit about Starbucks – just remembered it. Heh.

Yesterday’s Shennanigans

Yesterday morning, elsaf and I got up at the same time. judiang, however, had gone into hibernation. Still, she eventually got up and we forced her to exercise up in her apartment complex’s exercise room. It’s fun watching a near-comatose woman exercise. Today we intend to torture her again – even though it IS her birthday. Maybe especially because it IS her birthday.

When we returned from the “gym” (which has some very nice pieces of exercise equipment), we still had 10 minutes to spare at the city equivalent of a Garage Sale. Someone in Judi’s apartment was having a Moving Sale. So we popped up to room 1606 and poked around. The couple were young & very nice. They are moving out Friday and heading off to Switzerland. Cool beans. Their two little ones were off at the grandparents, so couldn’t protest when Elsa bought their TV and DVD player. Judi bought a lot of bakeware (which I fear will only ever come out when Elsa’s around) and I managed to avoid buying anything. Well, at this place. Money would be leaving my wallet soon enough.

For lunch, Judi had found an Indian Restaurant which was near to our afternoon destination, Intimates. We took the #3 bus, which originally we were beginning to doubt the existence of due to it being quite absent. I became abusiestic while Judi decided she was more agbustic. However, I had an epiphany when the #3 finally showed up. We were off, moving up Michigan towards Ontario. (Sounds like we were planning a trip to Canada, no?)

Lunch was at the Indian Garden, which promised us nervana and nearly delivered. We all got the buffet because Judi FORCED us too. (Well, actually she was just telling the server that she wanted the buffet, but he thought she was speaking for all of us.) There were many good things on the buffet. Basmati rice, dal makhani, saag paneer, samosas, chili chicken, etc. etc. There were two dessert items, one made of carrots (which the girls originally thought was made of sweet potatoes) and the other made of goat cheese soaked in milk, sugar, and pistachios. The food was very good and I think I had the best aloo gobhi I’ve ever had. (I prefer Jeet India’s saag paneer & dal, but you can’t have everything. Heh heh.)

After our very filling lunch, it was on up Michigan to Intimates. This is a store where they have professional bra fitters. We made appointments and then moved back down Michigan to the Borders that we passed.

At Borders, they had several books in a 3 for the price of 2 sale. Damn them! Damn them all to heck! I found 2 books right off the bat, then went looking for a third. Eventually I found a possible one when Judi then said there were other 3 of 2 displays in the store. Of course, at the next display, I found 2 more books. Damn! Some more searching found me a third for that set too.

The books that I sprung for were:

  • Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

  • In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

  • Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (freebie #1)

  • Lamb by Christopher Moore

  • Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore (freebie #2)

  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Stupid book sales!

We returned then to Intimates to fullfil our appointment and the rather amusing incident is something that I have shared with just the girls, hergrace, and the lovely women in my family. The rest of you will just have to imagine it. Heh heh.

Anyhoo, it was time to return to the roost. I’m sure Lance was crossing his legs when we got home. While Judi was walking him, I was busy downloading some very important torrents… The new Doctor Who ep and it’s corresponding Confidential. Once Lance was back, the three of us walked off to Grace O’Malley’s for supper.

Since I was in an Irish pub, I decided I needed to have a reuben. I also ordered the Guiness cheese soup for starters. The girls split a grilled salmon meal which they claimed was very good. (I’m not into salmon, so it could have been heavenly and still not tempted me.) The soup and reuben were great, though the fries were only so-so. Since Judi’s birthday was just looming around the corner, she decided she was gonna have dessert, damnit. So we ordered the 4 layer cake (with ice cream). Elsa got the tip of the cake and Judi and I had the rest. (Judi and I have been so proud of Elsa, who has not succumbed to our excesses. Today’s dim sum will be the ultimate test for her. If she passes, she is, indeed, the rockingest dieter that ever lived.)

Once we came back home, we had a few moments of technical difficulty regarding making the CDs for the evening’s viewings. But Judi finally convinced her CD/DVD recorder to finally make the CDs of Doctor Who & Confidential. So we all gathered on the sofa to watch. Even Lance joined us and kept running back and forth across our laps so that he could sit with all 3 of us at once.

Although I will miss Rose, I am loving Martha. It’s about bloody time there was a cute black girl as an assistant. And Freema is just perfect for the role. I’m looking forward to series 3 of Doctor Who. Woot! As far as the Confidential goes, I must admit that I prefer the Cut Downs that show up on the DVD sets. This went on too long and repeated too much. No matter, when I’m on me own, I don’t actually watch the Confidentials (mostly so I won’t be disappointed when I buy the DVD sets later.)

Anyhoo, yesterday was a blast and today should be as well. Once Judi gets up, we’ll drag her to the exercise room. Then we’ll stop for a hazelnut soy latte so that Judi can wake up enough to enjoy dim sum. Elsa’s plans are to make us a fabulous supper (and hopefully we’ll find some filo dough today!) And then Judi gets to open her presents – thankfully the one that I ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday – woot!