July was just a blur for me – as an ESL teacher, it’s our busiest month; and just in case I thought I still might have too much time on my hands, I agreed to teach a three-weekend course in addition to my Mon-Fri stint.  So, I’m ecstatic for a long weekend to catch up on my science experiment (aka. my kitchen sink full of dishes) and do something just for fun. In a few weeks, I’ll be leaving my fair country for international lands… the exotic location called Deception Pass. It’s not as exotic a location as I’d like, but I’m still looking forward to it. And hoping that five nights of camping doesn’t do me in – ha!

In the meantime, I decided to take advantage of the sunny days, and hop on my scooter. This is awesome in itself, but is even better when combined with a great activity, like yard sale-ing.  I love yard sale-ing, but due to the above-mentioned weekend class, I hadn’t yet made it out.

So, Friday evening I checked craigslist and found some potential “gooders.”*  Saturday morning, armed with my map of gooders, coffee and some cash, I scooted off to the first one – toted as a “5 family yard sale.”  It was a maze to get in to it, but I figured it was worth it. I was wrong. It was easily contained to a third of one driveway, and I can only imagine that the title was a typo for five-member family.  I left within 2 min. <sigh>

Next, I drove to the furthest away, hoping for a better selection. It boasted being a multi-family sale , yet again it was easily contained to one driveway. (Side note: clearly these people, and the ones before, need ESL lessons from me – I should have left a card.)  Their offering was better and I perused around for about 5 min. They had an antique sewing machine that was built into it’s own table for a great price, but I didn’t think I could get it home on my scooter (yes, I considered it.)

These two sales might have discouraged me had it not been for the beautiful blue skies, making it an excellent day for scootering. I pressed on, confident I could find a sale worthy of the title “gooder.”

They say, third time’s a charm, and it was. As were the next few I came across.

Finally shopping tally:

• ten pre-teen books, just the right reading level for my ESL students
• a three-DVD set of the Beatrix Potter series, put out by the BBC
• a Hello Kitty purse (with the tag still on!) and a Hello Kitty mirror **
• a vintage wool blanket, in similar style to The Bay blankets, labelled The Genuine Indian Point Blanket

All of this set me back a mere $15, $10 of which was for the blanket.   Awesome.

Tomorrow is BC Day – looking forward to an extra day off!!!

* yes, I made this word up. Yes, I realise the irony of an ESL teacher making words up, and I’m comfortable with it.   Also, a yard sale that is a gooder is either (a) a multi-family sale, or (b) boasts such gems as books and games.

** not for me, although I really tried to justify it. really. My years in Japan have made me a sucker for Hello Kitty.

 

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apparently this is my 50th post. Which is both exciting and sad. Exciting because it’s a milestone, and sad because it took more than a year to get to. oh well.   Here’s to the next 50 – cheers!