carbonel

...the wonderful garage sales of Minneapolis.

No, it doesn't scan, but that's what I did this morning. I'm not sure why I was seized yesterday with a great urge to go garage saling this morning, but it might have had something to do with the fact that if I was doing that, I could neither be running without Pat (she's running in the Race for the Cure tomorrow, so today's an off day for her) nor scraping wallpaper paste from my office walls.

There was a big neighborhood sale in the Tangletown area, and the first place I stopped at had a list of houses participating. I pretty much roamed up and down those blocks, and came home with a pretty good haul.

I try not to buy things at garage sales unless 1) I really like it, 2) I can really use it, or 3) it's really cheap. This rule kept me from buying the six hardcover Tom Clancy books at $1 each, and that's probably a good thing, though at this point I'm mildly sorry.

What I did buy:

Periwinkle blue three-piece linen outfit for $2. The jumper (American usage) is just the right length. Both it and the pants are an acceptable fit now, but will fit better when I lose 10 more pounds. Since I'm moving steadily downwards, I anticipate this actually happening. The blazer, unfortunately, is size XL (the others are L), and is really too big for me. Maybe my grandmother can take it in. I still count this as a win.

Trivial Pursuit, Genus 5, $2

Trivial Pursuit, original Genus edition, $1

Two-for-one phone adapter, $.25

All My Patients Are Under the Bed, the memoirs of a cat doctor, $.50

Battery-operated sifter, $.25 I hadn't noticed the battery part, or I might have passed at gratuitous gadgetry. Now I have to buy D-size batteries unless I have one sitting around.

Donvier ice cream maker, $3 I have high hopes for this; I've seen some promising-looking low-carb ice cream and sorbet recipes on alt.support.diet.low-carb.

Caramel Knowledge, the original Pants Press version, which has some essays that aren't in the later reprint. $1

Montgomery Ward vacuum cleaner with all attachments and a spare bag and filter, $7 I had an ancient upright vacuum cleaner that had been sitting in the basement of my old house when I moved in, but I haven't had the nerve to start it up. This one was demonstrated to work, and since I have bunches of (brown, alas) carpeting, it will be useful.

Blue dishrack that matches my kitchen and was in front of a pile labeled "free stuff." It doesn't have a draining thing for underneath, but at least it'll give me someplace to put wet dishes for now instead of in the left-hand sink.

Six sets of elegant notecards for $.50 each; those are for the Romance Exchange members.

And I think that's it. Usually I come home with more books, but there really wasn't much that caught my eye other than the aforementioned Tom Clancy books. I chose not to buy a book entitled Y2K: The Millennium Bug-A Balanced Christian Response, but that was probably the weirdest book I came across -- though How to Massage Your Dog might be a runner-up.