Looking for a Bargain

Today we had a garage sale. We decided last weekend that it was time, worked all week to pull things (read: excavate things!) from closets, drawers, and other dusty places. It was definitely worth it in the end. We made 500 bucks off of our junk, only carted one trash bag of leftovers to Goodwill, picked up some funny stories, and learned a few key lessons about garage sales and life in general.

First of all, garage sale regulars are a fun lot of people. Our sale started at 8:00. At 6:45 when we were standing in the still-empty driveway, a man in a pickup leaned out of his window at the top of our driveway and shouted, "Are you open?" I shouted back, "Do you see any stuff yet?" I'm a crabapple in the morning to put it nicely. He parked and came down anyway. He wanted military stuff or guns. We had neither. So he chatted us up about himself for 5 minutes while we dragged stuff out. At this point, it was only 7:00 and there were 5 other people in our driveway already. Umm, the ad I put in the paper said 8:00. People are eager and also cheaters kind of. I felt bad for the people who would show up at 8 when there would be nothing left. This was Lesson #1: If you advertise for 8, either get your stuff out at 6 or make people go away and come back. Our goal was to have it all out and then shut the actual garage door so people couldn't see our stuff plus the door that leads into our house. I'm paranoid about people breaking in through the garage, plus I didn't want people to see all of Will's garage stuff because they'd either ask to buy it or come back when we aren't home and steal it. I know this is sort of a cynical way to think about people but whatever. "Sorry I'm not sorry." (That's a quote straight from Rachel Wilkerson. Love her blog, love her whole idea of "owning it." Been saying "Sorry I'm not sorry" all week and well, loving it.)

After one major faux pas when I lost all sense of clarity and almost sold the guitar my dad gave me when I was in 9th grade for $30 dollars, the whole thing settled down and moved along smoothly. Thankfully an old man told Will to not let me sell the guitar. I appreciate that man. He must have been able to sense that I was having a little heartache over the idea of not having that guitar in my closet anymore. That was Lesson #2: Make sure you really want to sell your stuff. To make up for being a poor saleswoman, I gave the guy who wanted it an old digital camera for two bucks. He got off with a steal. That's the point of a garage sale--You get robbed more or less, but you can't let your sentimental stuff go with the thieves; that stuff you have to hang on to. Lesson learned.

Our chickens in the backyard were a huge hit for lots of people. We explained that we had them for egg laying and no, they don't make too much noise, etc. etc. to just about every other person who showed up. Lesson #3: Hide your chickens or be prepared to become a novelty.

A couple funny moments, included a lady with big white hair declaring to everyone, "I LOVE to hear hens sing!" Then, she started clucking (singing) like a hen and kind of danced around. Another good moment was when a lady was looking at Will's terracotta pot collection. Her husband asked if there was anything she'd like. Her response, "Well, I really needed a big one for the graveyards." Hmmmm. In my head I pictured her using the pots as graveyards for critters--hamsters, fish, birds, or whatever. Will and I discussed this, and he assured me that she was probably going to put them on grave sites with flower arrangements. That seems weird to me too because most graves have a little copper vase. I know this because people often steal the copper. Another woman, who was a short little round lady, tried on one of my old sweaters. It was a petite small--too small for me too, but I'd gotten it super cheap I think. She couldn't fit her arm in it. As she was pulling it off, she explained that she's a 12 petite which she said was an oxymoron and then continued to explain that her body was the shape of a square. I pictured Spongebob Squarepants, even though she looked nothing like him. She went on and on. I could tell Will was uncomfortable. Finally, she walked away. I guess the only other funny thing was when this lady was looking at a box of leftover tile that Will had marked for $3. She said, "How about a dollar?" Will told her it was definitely worth $3. In my head I was thinking, it was worth more like $25 but whatever. She laughed though and said, "Well I know it's worth $3, but it's a garage sale. I'm supposed to ask for it cheaper." Well, duh! Lesson #4: Everybody is looking for a bargain.

Read it!

Greatest post ever from Rachel Wilkerson.


Seriously should read this one every single day.

Get On Over It!

In recent weeks, I've whipped out an old mantra, "It is what it is!" in order to deal with things. (Particular things but there is no need for specifics really!) So, while driving to the beach last week, I put my Ipod on shuffle which can sometimes be risky since sometimes the shuffle feature just plain stinks like a drunk DJ who can't pick a decent song to save his life. Not on this day though. Instead, my Ipod was dead on! It shuffled through the greatest songs, some of which I forgot were even on there. And in a serendipitous (is that a word?) kind of way they were mostly of the deal-with-what-you've-been-dealt theme. I assigned this theme the label of "Get On Over It." Then I remembered the mantra of "It is what it is" and added my new label to it. So now, in a fit of panic (or rage) I just tell myself, "It is what it is, so get on over it!"

A lot of days after work, I drive home in a fit of rage because of something stupid that happened, or sometimes a list of 10-20 stupid things that happened. This is an exhausting way to drive home, and I don't want to do it in more. In an effort to fully change that behavior, I decided I should replace it with a different behavior that is more fun. To start I looked back on my Ipod to find some of the songs that the get-on-over-it DJ chose as I drove a few days ago and put together a Get On Over It Playlist. Here's the list:

1. Home--Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
2. Gives You Hell--The All-American Rejects
3. Lay Me Down--The Dirty Heads
4. Mercy--Duffy
5. Dance, Dance-Fall Out Boy
6. Authority Song--John Cougar
7. Kiss Off--Violent Femmes
8. Poker Face--Lady Gaga
9. Sugar, We're Goin Down--Fall Out Boy
10. Float On--Modest Mouse
11. Hello Sunshine-Langhorne Slim
12. When It Rains--Paramore
13. This Town--O.A.R.
14. Just Dance--Lady Gaga
15. Lost!--Coldplay
16. Hummingbird--Langhorne Slim
17. Hotel Yorba--The White Stripes
18. You Get What You Give--New Radicals
19. This Is The New Year--Ian Axel
20. Rhyme & Reason--Dave Matthews Band

Some notes about the list:

1. If you don't know Langhorne Slim, go to Itunes.
2. Some of the songs are just fun to dance to while driving and have nothing to do with getting over it but make you feel good.
3. Some of the songs are directed at someone and are angry-ish and most of them are about some unrequited love situation. Just pretend it's not about lost love and instead that it's about something that happened at work.
4. Lady Gaga is on the list.
5. I don't have a # 5 but it feels like this should be a list of 5.

The first step when using the playlist is to turn the music up loud so that if your phone rings you can't hear it. Well, unless you have an iphone. Then, the music will stop and the phone ringing will take over. I bet I can turn that off...I will get on that immediately and you should too if you have an iphone because the KEY to the playlist is that it's just for you in the 20-30 minutes it takes to drive home. By the time you get home, it's back to reality and your opportunity to get over it has maybe passed for the day. It's important to leave work at work or at least in the car. The second step is to dance it out the whole way home (that's how you leave it in the car!), singing at the top of your lungs.

I will be practicing this new behavior starting tomorrow.

Here's where the fun begins...if there's a song that you think should be added to the list, leave it in the comments because it's an ever-growing list. I really think only 2 people read this blog, so I can't wait to see what you two post! :)

Just Sayin'

It is okay when things don't work out the way you thought they would or should or could. Really, it is.


I started back to work on Thursday. After two days, you can probably make some assumptions about why I'm repeating this sage advice to myself via blog. :) It will be an interesting year!!!

Jalapen-owwww

I was injured today. By a jalapeño pepper.

This morning I made tequila lime marinade for some chicken. Here's the recipe.

Tequila Lime Chicken

Marinade:
3 whole Limes, Juiced
5 cloves Garlic, Peeled
1 whole Jalapeno, Sliced
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
½ cups Cilantro
½ cups Tequila
5 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Combine lime juice, garlic cloves, sliced jalapeno, salt, cilantro, and tequila in a food processor or blender. Pulse until combined. Turn on the blender/food processor and drizzle in the olive oil until it’s all combined.
Slightly flatten chicken breasts with a mallet or the bottom of a heavy skillet. Place in a plastic bag and pour in marinade. Seal bag and marinate for several hours or (preferably) overnight.

It's from Pioneer Woman, as usual in my life. Here's the link to her post.

You want to look at this recipe and then go immediately make it. If not today, tomorrow. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I don't make it fancy like she does. I just grill the chicken, slice it up and make fajitas. Sauté some onions and peppers, add some cheese, and done. Yum freakin' o!

So, the injury.

Jalapeños are dangerous. While making this marinade, I was still drinking coffee. Apparently, some jalapeño juice was on my hand which touched my coffee cup. After washing my hands a million times so I wouldn't get jalapeño thumbs later on, I touched my coffee cup and then apparently touched my face/nose, and that's when it happened. I was pretty positive that my nose was going to catch on fire, like with flames. Jalapeño on your nose is hot.

At this point I still didn't realize the coffee cup was the culprit. So, more coffee and then I picked up my phone. Jalapeño juice has now made it from coffee cup to face to phone, etc. So about an hour later, I made a phone call and mid-call realized that my fingers were on fire, like with flames! BAH! Jalapeño juice is insane.

Then, 5 hours later...I was thinking which leads to me chewing on my thumb and my lips were suddenly on fire, like with flames.

Jalapeno juice is EVERYWHERE! Dinner better be good!

North Western Field

Our farm now has what I'm calling the North Western Field. When people go out in the backyard and notice the fenced off section and ask, "Hey, so what's that?" The answer will be, "Oh, that? That's just the north western field." Here's a pic of our North Western Field.


It's where the bunnies live. This is Annie's blog debut.


And where Lily does her tricks. She also likes to get in the fence and herd the rabbits which have technically already been herded by the fence, but she doesn't know that. We aren't telling her because she's very proud of herself after she herds because she feels like she's earning her keep.


Then, there's Clover who is really good at eating sticks and being cute and definitely couldn't clear the fence if she tried. She'd for sure end up in a tangle.

Here's the man who built the fence, still tinkering.


There will eventually be some vine that grows on the fence, so it's less noticeable which should be lovely.

Mission: Embrace the Urge to Procrastinate

Today's mission is to procrastinate. I did not know that this was today's mission when I woke up but soon realized that it actually was. Yep, some days you just have to take it for what it's worth and have a good time doing it, whatever it is. Normally, the whole time I'm procrastinating, I'm secretly freaking out in my head and making 18 to do lists with the same five items over and over. On paper, on my phone, in a Word document. To do lists are like drugs. You feel better about how ordered your life and list of things is until the high wears off and you realize you are right where you started and can't mark a thing off the list!

Let me be specific about what it means to be productive in my life at the moment: there are papers that need to be written and another list of actual work for my job that needs to be done, but I'm not getting into it because it's boring.

It all started with the Today show. I can only take their antics and silly stories for so long. In an attempt to accomplish work, I pulled the laptop over and opened it. This huge attempt was followed by checking blogs and email and facebook and blogs and email and facebook. So after an hour passed I realized that I was apparently incapable of being productive. I managed to make myself go to the gym as another way to avoid the work and ran on the treadmill while watching Freedom Writers on the big screen. That was lovely. Another hour...gone. I came home and instead of just eating something out of the fridge, I decided I should make soup. Not out of a can but from scratch. Soup that the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld would sell in his soup shop! (I seriously just went back and added quotations around "Soup Nazi" because I feel weird writing Nazi on my blog. I have a problem.) The thermometer on my kitchen window was right at 100 degrees, but soup did sound like a fabulous idea because it would keep me from accomplishing anything on the to do list I was ignoring. So I used this recipe and ended up with the tastiest lunch I've had in a while, even though it did make me sweat.

Two things to note if you try it: 1. I used fat free half and half rather than heavy cream. I'm sure heavy cream would be amazing but seriously there's three days' worth of calories and fat in heavy cream. So, in my book there's no reason to ever use heavy cream because I think it could kill you. 2. The part where you puree it, be careful! An immersion blender slings hot soup at you.

Following lunch, I got back on the laptop to read blogs check email check facebook.

You see how easy it is to procrastinate when you didn't even know that was going to be the plan for the day? Sometimes you just have to embrace it!