A ramble through my headfull of thoughts.

Howard is out for the evening, the kids are in bed, and my brain is full of thoughts.

I mowed the lawn today. This is a major accomplishment because I had to coax an unused-for-5-years lawnmower to work before I could do it. The mower works well enough to get the job done, but it definitely has “personality”. I won’t be loaning it out anytime soon because the list of quirks would take too long to explain. (“Okay you can only get the bag off if you hold it right here and give it a kind of sideways jerk…”)

The good news is that having the lawn mowed transformed the yard. Suddenly I really wanted to be outside. Of course 75 degree temperatures might have had something to do with that as well. Since I couldn’t actually spend the whole day outside, I pulled the window screens down from the garage rafters, put them in all the windows, and then left the windows open so that I could let as much outside in as possible. The whole house felt brighter and happier than it has for months despite the fact that I didn’t get some key cleaning done. I did tour the yard a couple of times to enjoy all those blooming flowers that I planted as bulbs last fall. I’m particularly pleased with the daffodils. I purchase a lot of 25 daffodils “for naturalizing”. Essentially it was the odds and ends that didn’t get sold specifically by name. I had no idea what they would look like until they came up this spring. They are beautiful. I ended up with at least half a dozen different varieties. I’m so glad to have them and I’m looking forward to having them multiply over the years to come.

In addition to the daffodils I noticed all kinds of other yardwork that needs doing. Weeds have begun to grow. My garden plot is cleared, but not planted. Unfortunately tomorrow is the last day of beautiful weather before it gets cold and rainy for the rest of the week. Not that it matters really. I’m leaving town on Wednesday.

Urg. I’m leaving town Wednesday. Part of me has been trying to ignore the creeping approach of my trip to Penguicon in Michigan. I didn’t want to focus on it and give my brain time to fret over the whole leaving-the-children issue. The time for denial and repression is gone. Now I need to switch into high gear and get everything organized for the trip. Many of the concerns I had have been alleviated. Patches had gone clingy for awhile, but he demonstrated on a 2 hour shopping trip with Daddy that separation from Mommy was not traumatic. The measures I have taken to improve the Kiki/Gleek relationship seem to be working. At least they work enough that I’m not fearful that I’m leaving an unexploded bomb for my brother and his wife to deal with. Kiki is fairly motherly and I suspect that she’ll be right there to help if either Gleek or Patches gets lonesome for Mom.

A completely different aspect of the Penguicon trip is the anticipation for things that I’m going to get to do. I’ll get to dress nicely for 4 days in a row. With only myself to get ready, I’ll actually have time to fix my hair and match ear rings to clothing. This assumes of course that I don’t get so busy packing kids’ stuff that I forget to pack the ear rings and clothing. To be honest I haven’t even really looked at the Penguicon schedule to see what will be available. Howard is going to be there, so I’m set.

With the nicer weather lately, I’ve started hitting lots of garage sales. I look them up online at my local paper’s website. You never know what you’ll find at a garage sale and so I’ve been visiting lots in search of Christmas gifts. I want to be able to pull off Christmas for less than $200 and I can only do that if I shop now at garage sales. Most of what I see is junk, or at least nothing I’m willing to spend money on, but sometimes there is a gem. I keep hoping to run across a garage sale where someone is unloading old video games or gameboys, but it hasn’t happened yet. Yesterday morning I did manage to score a toddler bed for Patches.(Only $6!) I’d planned to just take his crib mattress and throw it on the floor for a bed when he was ready, but now I can loan the whole crib to my pregnant sister and give Patches this toddler bed. For now the new bed is in the basement because making a big change like that right before my trip wouldn’t be smart. In fact I doubt I’ll be ready to make the crib-to-bed switch until the end of May when the kids are out of school. …but that’s when the family trip to my parent’s house is scheduled…hmm. This will require further thought. No rush really. My sister isn’t due until September and I kind of like having Patches contained at night.

This morning there were a plethora of garage sales. I left the house to buy gas for the mower and ended up being gone for an hour because I kept driving past sales and stopped to see what was there. I didn’t find any big scores, but I’m slowly accumulating information which I’m using to figure out when a garage sale is worth the time and gas to find. I’m going to list them while they’re in my head so that I don’t forget:
Garage sales which advertise in the paper have more stuff than ones which just throw up a few signs on nearby corners.
Garage sales which run for two days have more stuff than sales which only run for one.
Multi-family sales tend to have more stuff.
Multi-family sales are sometimes annoying because you have to pay more than one person for individual items.
If the sale is more than 5 minutes away by car, it isn’t worth the time and gas.
I don’t have to get all the sales today, there will be more next week, and the one after, and the one after…
It never hurts to see if the seller is willing to accept a lower price.
If the price isn’t listed on the item ask “Would you take…” rather than “How much?”
No garage sale item is worth arguing over. If the seller isn’t willing to come down to a price I’m willing to pay, then I need to walk away.
Garage sales are best first thing in the morning before they have been picked over.
I don’t have to hit garage sales every week, I have all summer to slowly collect what I need.
Keep track of the kinds of things I’m looking for so I can make decisions quickly.
Take as few kids with me as I can possibly manage.
Be picky. Just because I have money with me, doesn’t mean I need to buy something.
Any time I’m considering buying something ask myself: “what will I use it for and where will I put it?”

Well lookit that. I seem to have emptied all the loose thoughts out of my head. Time to go to bed now.