Mother's Day Weekend (or, the sales spectacular!)
All in all, this wasn't a bad weekend.
Yesterday was mom's garage sale, which really was more like the front walkway sale. I sent Laura a picture of it--mom put her items on a table and a small tarp. I lied; she actually had about *two* dozen items she was attempting to sell. Friday was crappy out, but Saturday was sunny and semi-warm for once. Mom sat in the doorway inside the house, on a stool, watching through the storm door. If someone came, she'd go outside, but otherwise her companions were her phone, a book, and a couple of People magazines.
On our way back from the store, dad and I took our usual course around the subdivision and spotted a little girl with a similar setup to mom's, except she was down in the parkway with her stuff. There was a lot of pink. However, this girl was about nine, so she was cute and I hope she did well. The 60-something woman piggybacking onto a fundraiser? Not so much. However, at 11 AM, she made her first sale, and she ended up selling about a quarter of her merchandise:
--One bottle of lemon Philosophy shower gel (rats...the one item I kind of wanted)
--One pair of sunglasses that had readers at the bottom
--One Marie Osmond quilted backpack
--One Marie Osmond quilted computer bag
--Two marble racer cars (one was new, one was opened--she basically gave the family the second one free)
All told, she made $27. Not bad. And if she'd actually signed up for the sale, it would've cost her $35. Granted, she would've gotten on the official map, and gotten signs and balloons and masks and hand sanitizer for that, but, as she said, I don't care. :P She didn't want the balloons and had almost everything else, and she would've had to be out there on Friday in the rain and cold, so this was more worth it to her. And she was perfectly happy to make some money on the Marie Osmond bags, which weren't bad, but they're on the heavy side so to ship them somewhere would've been pricy. And basically everything she had out there was brand new. She's not sure she'll do this again, but she was okay doing it once.
Meanwhile, I had plans of my own yesterday. This is how backwards my family is: For Mother's Day, I actually bought something for myself. Mom fully backed this purchase, though. It's related to sharing a bathroom--mom hated my old shower caddy. It was a gift from my dad, but my frugal father enjoys spending as little as possible, and got me a super basic one back in the day, probably around 2008 after he redid my bathroom. It soon got all rusty and at this point was kind of gross, but it still functioned. Earlier in the week, mom actually texted me about replacing it. This was the weird part--I didn't get the text right away. I came home from work and she asked me about the text, and even showed it to me on her phone. I showed her mine, where the last text in the chain that I had was from the previous Saturday, sending her pictures of the shipping boxes at Office Max. Weird. The next morning--roughly 24 hours later--I finally got the text and went, can we table this until the weekend? I did want to look for one, and a good one, but with three long days in a row, it wasn't happening at that point. So, yesterday, I went searching for one on the Bed Bath & Beyond website, and they had a few different choices that were the good quality, never-rust styles, and one was by OXO. It was not cheap, nearly $160, and when it got rung up it was actually $5 more than both the signage at the store and the website. I did get the price lowered, plus I had a 20% off coupon, and I installed it as soon as I got home. Nobody has showered yet since then; I'll likely be the first in the morning. I liked that I could adjust the shelves to go wherever I wanted them to, so I can fit all my bottles standing up now, but that also means some of them are pretty high up. For now, I put all the bottles in roughly the same place as they were before, but I'm sure I'll change things around once I'm actively using it.
Once done, I made Kraft mac & cheese. We'd unearthed a family-size box when putting the groceries away and I was curious to see how I'd react to it. I haven't had a lot of cheese since Lent ended, but what I'd had hadn't treated me too badly. Well, I found the item that doesn't sit well with me for whatever reason, boo. Gotta remember a Lactaid the next time I eat that. Then, this morning, I decided to make a batch of French-style scrambled eggs. It took a half hour. All it is is butter and eggs, but they end up super creamy. Mom actually guessed what they were, which stunned me, then accused me of getting them off of Real Housewives! No...America's Test Kitchen, thanks. Apparently Countess Luanne made them at one point. Well, mom, that means what you're eating is fit for a countess. But my parents appreciate anything I make for them, even if it's weird. Mom put hers in a bowl and also had a slice of toast. We have large flour tortillas so I turned mine into a breakfast burrito. Dad might've just put 'em on a plate. I should also mention last week, where mom was the one who fed us. It was my high school band's annual hoagie sale and mom bought three of them, which was really nice. The scary part was that volunteer positions were still available, if one wanted to help make the hoagies, as of Friday, I want to say. Like...pretty sure the band members and other musicians were supposed to make those. I did back in the day. (I have a fondness for onion & oregano because of this.) There were like six different options, including standard, no onion & oregano (which were the two options back in the '90s), the Mr. Owen special (double meat--he's one of the current band directors), maybe no meat, and two more I don't recall. The label on mom's order was really nice and all fancy printed. They probably got one of the graphics classes on it.
Back to today. We called grandma, who mentioned getting my card. Mom didn't send one but will be going to see her on Tuesday and Wednesday. Grandma brought up how she never got any cards from her kids until they were old enough to go to school and bring stuff home as art projects, basically complaining about how my grandfather never did anything on the kids' behalf when they were too young to do anything themselves. Mom was like, you weren't *his* mother. And, ultimately, mom shut her down, saying there's no point in rehashing something from 60 years ago; it's not going to change anything. Grandma went, you're right. When we got off the phone, I went to talk to her about that, and mom went, when you bash your child's father to your child, you're basically bashing the child as well. I can't help who my father is. I was like, you remember this moment. Sure enough, mom started making fun of dad for something during dinner. I had to go, do you remember what you said earlier...?
Speaking of dad, mom asked me to get in touch with my one cousin to let her know about dad's birthday party next month. Uh...were you not around when we had this conversation? Dad canceled the party. Perhaps only dad and I were talking about it, but yeah, he's not up for his big bash. It's a shame, since he's been talking about it for a year now, but that was before he had to undertake the bathroom project, which--given that he's nearly 70--is taking a while. He told mom that he doesn't trust his back. He's hurt it in working on the bathroom, and he'd have to do a lot of work to prep the yard before the party, and it's just too much. I'd suggested maybe having only a couple people over, the kind he wouldn't have to impress--like a handful of his closest friends--but no, he'd want to invite family over as well, and it would be a decent amount of people, and the house just won't be ready in time. Fair enough. It probably would've happened had the bathroom not been a thing, but getting the house back into good shape is more important.
One last thing--mom's entertainment yesterday was watching the landscapers working on the yard across the street. When I came home on Friday, I could see a large pile of trimmed limbs in the parkway adjacent to their yard. The landscapers were back all day yesterday doing even more work. I think they planted different plants along the side of our neighbors' house (they face the cul-de-sac, so we look at the side of their house and their backyard) and possibly rebuilt the fire pit they have on the side of their deck. Dad was wondering if they're done or if there's more work to do. They certainly didn't come back today, so we'll see if they return tomorrow. However, with two big trucks parked across the street from us and all the other traffic thanks to the sales, I was happy to hang out at home until garage sale time was over. The landscapers left around 3, I want to say, and I ran my errand around quarter to 4. Mom claimed that part of why she was inside the house, rather than sitting outside, was due to all the dirt the landscapers were kicking up. Yes. With all the rain we've had lately, I'm very certain it was super dusty outside. *rolls eyes*
Yesterday was mom's garage sale, which really was more like the front walkway sale. I sent Laura a picture of it--mom put her items on a table and a small tarp. I lied; she actually had about *two* dozen items she was attempting to sell. Friday was crappy out, but Saturday was sunny and semi-warm for once. Mom sat in the doorway inside the house, on a stool, watching through the storm door. If someone came, she'd go outside, but otherwise her companions were her phone, a book, and a couple of People magazines.
On our way back from the store, dad and I took our usual course around the subdivision and spotted a little girl with a similar setup to mom's, except she was down in the parkway with her stuff. There was a lot of pink. However, this girl was about nine, so she was cute and I hope she did well. The 60-something woman piggybacking onto a fundraiser? Not so much. However, at 11 AM, she made her first sale, and she ended up selling about a quarter of her merchandise:
--One bottle of lemon Philosophy shower gel (rats...the one item I kind of wanted)
--One pair of sunglasses that had readers at the bottom
--One Marie Osmond quilted backpack
--One Marie Osmond quilted computer bag
--Two marble racer cars (one was new, one was opened--she basically gave the family the second one free)
All told, she made $27. Not bad. And if she'd actually signed up for the sale, it would've cost her $35. Granted, she would've gotten on the official map, and gotten signs and balloons and masks and hand sanitizer for that, but, as she said, I don't care. :P She didn't want the balloons and had almost everything else, and she would've had to be out there on Friday in the rain and cold, so this was more worth it to her. And she was perfectly happy to make some money on the Marie Osmond bags, which weren't bad, but they're on the heavy side so to ship them somewhere would've been pricy. And basically everything she had out there was brand new. She's not sure she'll do this again, but she was okay doing it once.
Meanwhile, I had plans of my own yesterday. This is how backwards my family is: For Mother's Day, I actually bought something for myself. Mom fully backed this purchase, though. It's related to sharing a bathroom--mom hated my old shower caddy. It was a gift from my dad, but my frugal father enjoys spending as little as possible, and got me a super basic one back in the day, probably around 2008 after he redid my bathroom. It soon got all rusty and at this point was kind of gross, but it still functioned. Earlier in the week, mom actually texted me about replacing it. This was the weird part--I didn't get the text right away. I came home from work and she asked me about the text, and even showed it to me on her phone. I showed her mine, where the last text in the chain that I had was from the previous Saturday, sending her pictures of the shipping boxes at Office Max. Weird. The next morning--roughly 24 hours later--I finally got the text and went, can we table this until the weekend? I did want to look for one, and a good one, but with three long days in a row, it wasn't happening at that point. So, yesterday, I went searching for one on the Bed Bath & Beyond website, and they had a few different choices that were the good quality, never-rust styles, and one was by OXO. It was not cheap, nearly $160, and when it got rung up it was actually $5 more than both the signage at the store and the website. I did get the price lowered, plus I had a 20% off coupon, and I installed it as soon as I got home. Nobody has showered yet since then; I'll likely be the first in the morning. I liked that I could adjust the shelves to go wherever I wanted them to, so I can fit all my bottles standing up now, but that also means some of them are pretty high up. For now, I put all the bottles in roughly the same place as they were before, but I'm sure I'll change things around once I'm actively using it.
Once done, I made Kraft mac & cheese. We'd unearthed a family-size box when putting the groceries away and I was curious to see how I'd react to it. I haven't had a lot of cheese since Lent ended, but what I'd had hadn't treated me too badly. Well, I found the item that doesn't sit well with me for whatever reason, boo. Gotta remember a Lactaid the next time I eat that. Then, this morning, I decided to make a batch of French-style scrambled eggs. It took a half hour. All it is is butter and eggs, but they end up super creamy. Mom actually guessed what they were, which stunned me, then accused me of getting them off of Real Housewives! No...America's Test Kitchen, thanks. Apparently Countess Luanne made them at one point. Well, mom, that means what you're eating is fit for a countess. But my parents appreciate anything I make for them, even if it's weird. Mom put hers in a bowl and also had a slice of toast. We have large flour tortillas so I turned mine into a breakfast burrito. Dad might've just put 'em on a plate. I should also mention last week, where mom was the one who fed us. It was my high school band's annual hoagie sale and mom bought three of them, which was really nice. The scary part was that volunteer positions were still available, if one wanted to help make the hoagies, as of Friday, I want to say. Like...pretty sure the band members and other musicians were supposed to make those. I did back in the day. (I have a fondness for onion & oregano because of this.) There were like six different options, including standard, no onion & oregano (which were the two options back in the '90s), the Mr. Owen special (double meat--he's one of the current band directors), maybe no meat, and two more I don't recall. The label on mom's order was really nice and all fancy printed. They probably got one of the graphics classes on it.
Back to today. We called grandma, who mentioned getting my card. Mom didn't send one but will be going to see her on Tuesday and Wednesday. Grandma brought up how she never got any cards from her kids until they were old enough to go to school and bring stuff home as art projects, basically complaining about how my grandfather never did anything on the kids' behalf when they were too young to do anything themselves. Mom was like, you weren't *his* mother. And, ultimately, mom shut her down, saying there's no point in rehashing something from 60 years ago; it's not going to change anything. Grandma went, you're right. When we got off the phone, I went to talk to her about that, and mom went, when you bash your child's father to your child, you're basically bashing the child as well. I can't help who my father is. I was like, you remember this moment. Sure enough, mom started making fun of dad for something during dinner. I had to go, do you remember what you said earlier...?
Speaking of dad, mom asked me to get in touch with my one cousin to let her know about dad's birthday party next month. Uh...were you not around when we had this conversation? Dad canceled the party. Perhaps only dad and I were talking about it, but yeah, he's not up for his big bash. It's a shame, since he's been talking about it for a year now, but that was before he had to undertake the bathroom project, which--given that he's nearly 70--is taking a while. He told mom that he doesn't trust his back. He's hurt it in working on the bathroom, and he'd have to do a lot of work to prep the yard before the party, and it's just too much. I'd suggested maybe having only a couple people over, the kind he wouldn't have to impress--like a handful of his closest friends--but no, he'd want to invite family over as well, and it would be a decent amount of people, and the house just won't be ready in time. Fair enough. It probably would've happened had the bathroom not been a thing, but getting the house back into good shape is more important.
One last thing--mom's entertainment yesterday was watching the landscapers working on the yard across the street. When I came home on Friday, I could see a large pile of trimmed limbs in the parkway adjacent to their yard. The landscapers were back all day yesterday doing even more work. I think they planted different plants along the side of our neighbors' house (they face the cul-de-sac, so we look at the side of their house and their backyard) and possibly rebuilt the fire pit they have on the side of their deck. Dad was wondering if they're done or if there's more work to do. They certainly didn't come back today, so we'll see if they return tomorrow. However, with two big trucks parked across the street from us and all the other traffic thanks to the sales, I was happy to hang out at home until garage sale time was over. The landscapers left around 3, I want to say, and I ran my errand around quarter to 4. Mom claimed that part of why she was inside the house, rather than sitting outside, was due to all the dirt the landscapers were kicking up. Yes. With all the rain we've had lately, I'm very certain it was super dusty outside. *rolls eyes*