Off to the Faire

Weekends are so short!  Last Friday, I arrived at the mobile home, as usual, puttered around a little bit, cleaning and pulling some weeds and just decompressing after a long week.  Then we loaded up the car with dogs, suitcases, and food and drove 30 minutes to the house in town.  I can't even remember if I made anything for dinner.  I was thinking about cooking some fish sticks but the lack of ketchup in the house made me put it off. 

The next morning, the dogs were up at 6am but I convinced them to let me sleep until 8.  After feeding them I cooked some eggs and bacon...mmmm...bacon.  My nephew isn't a bacon fan.  More for me and the dogs.  The dogs are definitely bacon fans.  After breakfast we got in the car and headed north to the Renaissance Faire.  Now, I had been warned that it was an hour and 45 minute drive and I had drawn myself a map.  My nephew was driving and I was the navigator.  2 hours later, I realized that we were way off course.  I had missed the turn off.  We turned around in a tiny town called Mammoth and I bought a map at the gas station, for future use.  3 1/2 hours later, we found the Renaissance Faire.  I was happy that we finally found it even though I would have rather been at home. 

First stop, stand in line for the bathrooms.  Next stop, buy some questionable food.  I wish I had seen the pizza before I bought the flauta platter.  It was chicken and green chilies inside a flour tortilla rolled in panko bread crumbs and deep fried.  The bread crumbs were overkill.  Next stop was the wooden sword shop which drew my nephew in like a magnet.  He didn't find the right style so we wandered to the next wooden sword shop.  Still no luck so we wandered some more.  It was my goal (and his, sort of) to find a show that he could watch and review for his school assignment.  Finally, I saw one starting in 15 minutes so we walked some more and came back for the show.  It was a musical group called Ghazaal Beledi with fire-eating belly dancers.  Definitely not boring.

After that, I was ready to leave but my nephew still wanted the perfect sword.  He found out where the other sword-makers were located and mulled over his choices, and mulled, and mulled.  He finally pick out a painted sword for $35 but I convinced him that it would be better to buy an unpainted sword for $20 and paint it himself with my many cans of spray paint.  He agreed.

I drove home and it took us 2 hours and 15 minutes with one quick stop for gas.  I was so happy to be home and out of the car.  It was a good experience compared to my nephew being inside playing computer games all day but I missed my Saturday to relax.  Oh well, maybe next Saturday.

Summer Rains and Garden Stuff

That was a busy weekend of cleaning, working in the yard and watching Doctor Who.  My nephew was watching Doctor Who while he was here and I got hooked.  I did 5 loads of laundry including all the bed sheets and the puppy towels.  My house got a few sprinkles of rain on Thursday and Friday and then got pounded on Saturday.  I was watching my trees bend in the wind and hoping they didn't snap.  Luckily, I didn't have any damage but I could hear a neighbor doing a lot of hammering after the storm so I am assuming his wooden fence fell down.  I did have some surprising indoor flooding when the wind, rain and hail was hitting the east side of the house.  2 of the windows on that side were not caulked well and the living room had water creeping across the tile.  I was in the middle of making my dinner when I saw the water and ran around grabbing towels to soak it up before it reached any wooden furniture.  In one of the bedrooms the carpet was wet under the window.  I put a towel along the windowsill and that was all.  The carpet was dry a few hours later.  Today I chipped away the old caulk and put some new caulk down.  Now I need it to rain again to see if I did a good job.

The backyard was a pond for a few minutes until it soaked in.  It gave me a chance to see where the water flows and today I was out there digging ditches to direct the water to my trees and garden.  I planted beans, corn, sunflowers, squash, watermelon, and devil's claw along the wall and patio.  Hopefully, something will come up.

When I finish the ditches I will line them with cardboard and fill them with wood chips to create a sponge and to deter the weeds.  I learned that from a permaculture book I read last month.  It's finally time to put some of that knowledge to the test.

I also had enough time this long weekend to look in some of my old boxes.  Soap collection, Cabbage Patch Preemie, camp cookware still in box.

Sure, I took them out and looked at them, but did I donate them or list them for sale?  No.  Not yet.  I did start a give-away pile and threw out some things.  I was able to get rid of one box.  That's not a lot but I didn't stay in that room very long because the dust was causing my nose to run like a faucet.  An allergy pill and more Doctor Who and I was back to normal.

Isn't It Friday Yet?

Today really felt like Friday. I don't know what tomorrow will feel like. Maybe a Friday re-play. It seemed like every time I sent out an email I got a return notification that another person was on vacation. Next year that will be me too! I can hardly wait for 3 weeks vacation to make my holiday weekends even longer. Now there's something to look forward to.

I checked on my bank account and made sure that my checks had cleared and my credit card statement had gone through. It looks like I will be able to safely put $2,000 towards the mortgage this month. I have enough plus extra to cover the $800 automatic mortgage payment on the first of the month. That payment is going to suck out extra money for my escrow fund again but I will get it refunded 30 days after the loan closes so I am not too worried about that. Besides, keeping that money out of my account and out of my hands is a good thing. When I do get that escrow refund I need to put it in a separate account right away so I am not tempted to use it on anything other than property taxes and insurance.

I took all the videos and pictures off of my little netbook and put them on a memory stick. It seems to have helped. The netbook isn't running as good as it did before but it is much better than the snail pace it was struggling to keep up. I priced out some laptops and netbooks today. Looks like I can get one with 4 GB of memory for $370. And then a printer with scanner only costs $40. My netbook only has 1GB. I didn't think I would need much but with all the pictures and videos I take, I definitely need more. For now the memory stick is helping a lot. It is an 8GB stick. I also miss having a DVD player. I keep getting free Redbox rental coupons but my DVD player is in the RV and I don't spend that much time in there to watch a whole movie.

Live and learn. I don't want to be buying a new computer every year. This one still works and the next one will be even better.

Gathering Stuff To Sell

Work was annoying today. It was the kind of day that makes me regret not having my mortgage paid off. How nice it would be to choose when and where I work instead of working to pay my bills. I did get a free lunch and donuts so it wasn't all bad. The bad part was later when I got blamed because other people don't pay attention. They said I am too nice and don't yell when things are late. Yelling is not the only way to get things done.

Anyway, I am really tempted to take a vacation day tomorrow. My new dog has a vet appointment and although a friend of mine (my puppy-nanny) offered to pick him up from my work and take him to the vet, I don't really want to take him in to the office when the boss isn't thrilled with me. Plus, another friend is letting me bring some things over for a garage sale on Saturday. I am hoping to sell the dinette table and four chairs, the drafting table and the glider rocker. That would open up so much space in the back room. There is a lot more that I would like to sell but I would need a week at least to get organized. It is going to take two trips to get just those three things to her house. If I had all day tomorrow I could find more things to bring and not be rushed. I could also sleep in, something I won't be able to do on Saturday morning since the garage sale starts at 7am.

Spending Spree

Oh no! I seem to have stumbled in to a craig's list shopping spree. I am getting my free dog run on Friday or Saturday and that got me looking for a dog house since it is the law here that a dog left outside must have a dog house. While I was looking, I noticed a lot of wire crates for sale and I need one because I always have to beg and borrow one. I have an extra large one but it is such a pain to carry and it takes up too much room at the adoptathons.

I bought one dog house and one crate for $35 each and then I saw another crate for only $25 and so I bought that one too. And those people were setting up for a yard sale so I ended up buying a cupcake pan for a dollar and a rubber pet hair remover for 50 cents. I guess I have to bake cupcakes for the dogs now. I would still like one more crate that is the inbetween size of the ones I have. But maybe I should stop looking before I find even more stuff I "need".

4 Days Until The Weekend

Work went by very quickly today. We had a visitor from another office so there was a lot of standing around and chatting...I think it's called 'office bonding'. It rained a little. I got maybe 50 gallons. That's a weeks worth of water for me so it's not bad. I brought my trash to the dumpster behind the office. Now my recycling is empty and my trash is empty. I love it when everything's empty.

The automatic lock on the passenger side of my truck has stopped working. It is very annoying to have to manually lock it all the time. I am so spoiled. I don't plan on getting it fixed right away unless I have to take the truck in for some other reason. I sure hope I don't find another reason. That last repair bill put my mortgage plan back 1/2 a month.

That's all that happened today. Time to relax with some Hulu TV. I'm a Hulu addict now.

Cat Cafes, The Wave Of The Future

There were two things that I found on the internet this week that I thought were particularly funny. The first was a cat cafe in Japan. For $9 an apartment dweller who can't have cats at home, can come to the Cat Cafe and hang out, play with and pet the cats. I think that is the funniest thing. I wish I could think of something like that here. Of course, no one is going to pay $9 to pet a cat around here. The Humane Society just had a $1 cat sale. Cats are pretty easy to get. I guess the closest thing we have to the Cat Cafe would be a petting zoo. I once thought of having a miniature petting zoo with miniature and dwarf animals. Mini horse, mini cow, dwarf goat etc...I wasn't sure who would pay for that though.

I was also thinking of buying a couple of pieces of sod for my dog run. When it rains it gets very muddy. A few pieces of sod would give the dogs a walk way through the puddles. I saw this ad on craig's list today.


I got excited when they said they were giving away their patch of grass. Then I saw that is was just a waiting list for their patch of grass in case the first guy didn't show up. How funny is that? How often do you see a waiting list for a patch of grass? I did not sign up. I didn't want to get my hopes up.

Old School TV In A New School Way

At lunch yesterday my coworkers and I were talking about TV shows that we are watching now. Well, they were talking and I was saying that I had never seen them. One was hooked on a show on Showtime. Another was watching a series on Starz (even the lady with Showtime didn't get the Starz channel). The other was talking about HBO. Then they asked me what I was watching. I said season one of Eight Is Enough online. They all laughed. The guy with Starz didn't even know there were old TV shows online, not that he would watched old shows anyway.

I don't care. I am having fun watching my old shows on my netbook, MacGyver, Simon and Simon, Eight is Enough. I even found the first episode of Misfits of Science (but sadly, only one). And I can watch new shows like Chuck and The Office. There is plenty online to keep me occupied and after that I can get those cable shows on Netfix if I am that interested, but so far not.

Pizza Stone Update

My Pampered Chef rep. got back to me on Tuesday and said that Pampered Chef would sent me a replacement pizza stone. That was great even though they were going to send it to my home address instead of my sister's house. The next day she emailed me again and said that I needed to send a piece of the broken pizza stone back to the company. Ok...but when I called my sister, she had already thrown it out. I forgot that other people are not pack rats like I am. And other people have weekly trash pickup, unlike me. So, no replacement pizza stone. Oh well. I was impressed by Pampered Chef's quick customer service though. Too bad it wasn't a little quicker, like quicker than the trash man.

50% Off...Oh No

I admit it. I am one of those people who's ears perk up at the mention of a sale. I went over to the Habitat Store at lunch today to look for some tension curtain rods. The sign on the door said "1/2 Off All Store". The little voice inside my head said "Oooo...Ahhh".

First I looked in the furniture. I saw a tall microwave cart, the kind with a cabinet below, a shelf for the microwave and a cabinet above. It had a $120 price tag. 1/2 off would be $60...nice. I wanted it but there was no way I could fit it in my carpool's car and really, I couldn't think of a place for it....although now that I am thinking about it I could move my tall bookcase in to one of the back rooms and put the microwave cart where the bookcase was. Well, I don't really NEED it, but I do want it.

Next I looked for curtain rods and they did not have any of the tension type. Too bad. I need to cover the gap above the door in the hallway and that would have been an easy fix. I'll think of something else.

Then I remembered that I need a mirror for my new bathroom. They had a traditional medicine cabinet with mirror for $15. 1/2 off was $7.50. I'll clean it up, maybe touch it up with some spray paint and shelf paper and hang it on my wall.

And then, I looked for a something to use as an outdoor water trough for the dogs. I settled on this bowl. I'll put it in a hole that the dogs have been digging and let them play "doggie water park" out in the dog run. Maybe that will make them forget about playing water park in the house. The bowl was 50 cents. 1/2 off was 25 cents.


Later I was thinking of other things that I need for the bathroom and I went back and got 2 towel bars for $1.50 each, one paper towel holder for 50 cents and one toilet paper holder for $1.50.

Total bill $12.75.

Guess what I am doing this weekend? Hanging all my new items!

Chairs And More Chairs

I have to drive myself to work tomorrow so I am bringing my excess chairs. I thought about listing them on freecycle or craig's list but then I would have to wait for someone to call and arrange for them to come out and get them. It is much easier to drop them off at the Habitat store on the way to work.


I love finding deals on craig's list but selling stuff is a chore since I am out here in the rural part of town. People say they want to buy stuff and then never show up or try to get me to meet them closer to town. Unless I am going to get more than $20 for it or can't lift it myself, it's not worth putting it on craig's list.

It will be good to give the chairs away. They took up a lot of space. I bought them from the Habitat store a few years ago for my rental house. They have been very useful and now they can go back and make a little bit of money for the Habitat store again. It's kind of like the circle of life...or more like one of the loops of life.

Digging Dogs And Broken Stones

I am so glad it is Friday. I want to forget this whole week, except for the birthday part. I took my 3 dogs for a walk when I got home and the little guy went after some ground squirrels with fierce determination. Cairn Terriers were bred to root out the vermin in the rocks of Scotland so these was some serious instincts kicking in.

I saw 2 ground squirrels come out on the other side of the cactus and look around to see what horrible creature was disturbing their evening. My dog didn't even notice. He wanted to get in that hole. I eventually dragged him away since he was getting filthy and full of cactus needles.

Then my sister called and said that the Pampered Chef pizza stone that I had given her had broken in half the first time they used it. What a bummer. I have been keeping that stone in my RV for the last 2 years waiting for the right opportunity to pass it on. It was brand new. She said it has a 3 year warranty but I was sure that I had thrown out the receipt. I had that receipt for 2 years and then, since I finally found a home for the pizza stone, I threw away the receipt. And I emptied my trash can yesterday. But just in case I was being extra environmentally friendly, I checked my recycle bag. I haven't taken my recyclables to the big bin in a while. What do you know? The receipt was in there but I had ripped off my name, address and credit card number.

I looked up Pampered Chef online, not the official site but the other ones where people actually tell you real info, and people mentioned that they had to go through their representative for returns and replacements. My receipt had a contact email so I sent her a note. I don't expect to hear back from her but it is worth a try. It is very disappointing when I spend extra money on something that is supposed to be high quality and then it turns out to be junk. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Oops, A Little Late

I completely forgot to post last night. I took the puppy to work with me again so that I wouldn't come home to a nasty surprise after work. I decided to go to the county fair with my sister and all the kids. A friend offered to puppy-sit for the evening which was great. The fair was fun. The food choices were the usual fair food...deep fried twinkies, snickers, oreos, cheesecake, just about everything that could be fried was fried. The boys had turkey legs. I ended up with pizza.

Then we went over to the rides and the kids had a blast. I have a lot of blurry pictures. After the fair I picked up the puppy, went home and went straight to bed. I was tired. This morning I got up and turned on the modem and I didn't have any internet service. I checked all the cables, no problem there. I didn't bother to call to complain to Qwest because these problems are often caused by construction or an accident and I don't want someone to have to come out to my house if it won't help. If I don't have internet by Monday morning then I will call them.

Anyway, for now I will have to settle for posting on my netbook at my sister's house. Good thing I have that option. They will only be here for 2 more weeks. After that I will have to go to McDonalds, a coffee shop, or the library if my internet goes out. Luckily, it doesn't happen often.

One Box At A Time

Instead of watching TV with the dogs tonight I decided to get one box of stuff together to give away. The dogs thought it was great fun to check out the things in the box and I even let them play keep away with a foam cell phone holder. It got destroyed but that's ok. It served it's purpose as a dog toy.

A lot of my stuff is for crafts. Paints, paper, art kits, colored pencils, sewing supplies. I don't want to get rid of all of it but there is no way that I need that much of everything. I don't even have space or time for crafts. Another large category is decorative items that came from my house. Fake flowers and foliage, picture frames and vases, so many things that I don't have a place for right now. The hardest category is childhood memorabilia. I have a lot. I'm not even going to try to sort that right now. I have plenty to do first.

All of this sorting takes up a lot of time. Shopping for and buying the stuff took time, moving the stuff took time, and now sorting through the stuff is taking more time. I need to be more vigilant in the future about bringing stuff home. I can think of many more fun things I would rather be doing with my time than sorting stuff.

Odds And Ends

The wind is starting up tonight. Every time it is windy and the RV starts shaking it reminds me that I want to get out of this RV soon. After work I go hang out with the dogs in the mobile home and I look around and try to picture it fixed up. Last night I found some white cardboard and nailed them to the ceiling to cover the holes where the water leak used to be. I ran out of cardboard so I used a white trash bag and duct tape for the last hole. I know, I know, the people at work like to tease me and call me a redneck and trailer trash. I don't care. It's not a permanent fix, I'm just trying to get a sense of how it would look if I put some time and money in to it. Not too much money. Just enough to make it comfortable.

Tonight I painted over the red wall where I had painted flames on the motorcycle tank for a friend. Then I hung a picture over a hole in the wall. I didn't take a picture because it doesn't look very good. I would put new panelling up if I was really going to fix it up. I think I will try to do one think to make it look nicer every night.

Tomorrow I should sort out my kitchen stuff and make a pile for the thrift store. Do I really need 2 microwaves? I never use any of that stuff because I have a whole other set of kitchen stuff in the RV. I still find it hard to get rid of things. There's the cast iron pan that my renters put in the dish washer (it rusted but I will fix it some day...), there's the marble cutting board left behind by the other tenants, there's my blender that I don't use because I don't have room for it in the RV (but I would use it in the mobile home! Mmm milkshakes), there's the dish set for 8 (am I ever going to have 8 people crammed in there? I don't think so), there's the back-up waffle maker (do I really need a back-up?), there are at least 2 dozen glass glasses (they are pretty but I use plastic for every day use). It's time to make some decisions and finally let some of these things move on to better homes where they will actually get used.

Finally Sold The Bench

I had a bench listed on craig's list for weeks now. People would email and call and act all excited but never show up. Finally tonight one of the people made it out here to get it. While he was here he saw my small porch swing and asked if I wanted to sell it too. I said I wanted $30 and he happily hauled it away.

A little part of me is sad that I don't have a porch for my swing and a yard for my bench. But I know from experience that time and the elements destroy all possessions so it is better that someone use them now instead of me waiting until the dogs decide to chew them or pee on them or who knows what destroys them while I am waiting for my porch and yard. Even when I lived at my house I didn't want to put my furniture outside because it would get ruined. Next time I buy a bench I'll get something a little less fragile.

The best part is that I have a lot more room in my mobile home kitchen area. I can start moving things around and get a little more organised. Now what shall I do with my $50 I just got? It's probably going to go to dog treats and squeaky balls. They are so spoiled.

Losing Time And Money

Being unorganized not only looks bad, it is a major waste of time. I have been meaning to sort my stuff for months now and I have used one excuse after another...too hot, too tired, not enough time...etc. Now I want to find something and I just wasted 2 hours digging through boxes and still no luck.

See, I have a watch that I want to sell on ebay. I was going to sell it in the Spring but I decided to wait until Christmas time because I thought I might get more money for it. So, I put it in the mobile home with the rest of my stuff...at least I think I put it there. Today I was chatting with a co-worker about watches and he said he was interested in buying another watch. I showed him what mine looks like online and he said to bring it in on Monday. When I got home I started searching, and searching, and searching.

Now, I am messy but I can usually find things. But this time I have added all of the stuff from my rental house, moved everything around to block off the doorway when I got the dogs, and then moved everything again when I put the cat in there when the air conditioner broke in the RV. It was 95 degrees today and I was sweating and miserable as I opened box after box and racked my brain to remember where I put it. I have no idea.

If I didn't have to work this weekend then I could find it but since I do have to work I don't have the time or energy to look for it now. Too bad, he was going to pay me $150 if he liked it. Maybe he won't mind waiting for 3 weeks until I have some free time to do a thorough search.

Easy In, Snail's Pace Out

Buying stuff is so easy to do. Just buy it and bring it home or get it delivered. On the other hand, getting rid of stuff is a chore. I can haul it to the dump (a lot of work plus $10 a load), give it away if it is still usable (manual labor involved), or sell it. Selling it is great but time consuming. I have 2 items on craig's list right now, both furniture. I can't lift either of them myself so that means I have to wait for people to email me, arrange a time for them to come out, explain how to find the place, and help them load the things. It takes patience. And then there are the people who don't show up. So far one person didn't show up, one wants to come out tomorrow and another is interested. I will be thrilled when that stuff is gone and I get more space in the mobile home.

In other random news, I bought a house coat today. It's all part of my transformation in to a crazy cat/dog lady. Just kidding. My boss was saying that house coats should never be worn outside and he was so horrified by the thought that a co-worker and I decided that we should wear house coats to work for Halloween. I paid $8 for one at a discount store near where I work. I'm sure I could have found one cheaper at the thrift store but I don't have time to go there since I'm working Saturdays. I suppose $8 isn't bad for a costume. I have slippers and curlers to go with it already. It's a small price to pay to scare the boss. :)

Stuff Gone And $72 In My Pocket

I spent 3 1/2 awkward hours at the sewing club this morning. The ladies wanted me to join the club not just visit and pawn my stuff. Maybe I will get back in to sewing later on after the mortgage is gone. I have learned a lot from that experience, the most important lesson being that I didn't need to spend all of that money on machines and supplies. I buy most of my clothes at the thrift store and it would be nice to learn how to alter them so that they fit better. The ladies in the club make their things from scratch.

Anyway, I sold half of the stuff that I dragged over there. I wish I had sold it all. I am tired of carrying that stuff around. To reach my $500 goal for the year for selling stuff (which is going towards my mortgage), I needed $70 more. I got $72 so anything else that I sell will go towards my own bills. That is good because I totalled up my September budget and with the $82 left from the puppy stuff bill and the $198 for the air conditioner, I am $209 short for the month. There were also 3 birthdays in September and my electric bill was the highest for the year since I was running one AC in the RV and another AC in the mobile home for the animals. Hopefully I will be able to catch up in October.

If anyone is interested in a bunch of elastic you can contact me at tucson daizy girl at g mail dot com. I'll probably end up putting it on ebay, which is where I got it from. I'm trying to think of ways to use it but nothing is coming to mind. Ideas anyone?

Letting Go Of Stuff

There are 3 main ways to get rid of stuff. Sell it. Give it away. Or throw it away because it is junk. I have a lot of stuff. The puppies are helping me get rid of my stuff by turning it in to junk which can be thrown away. This is not a good thing since I should really be selling or giving my stuff away before it reaches junk status.

For example, I have a 6 gallon water heater in the mobile home. I haven't used it in 4 years. It might be rusted out inside. I should have taken it out a long time ago and given it to someone who would use it. Instead I kept it around and now the puppies have chewed the cord off. I know cords can be replaced without too much trouble but I think my water heater can be classified as junk now. It could be unsafe and I wouldn't want to be responsible if it blew up.

I have a lot of other stuff that needs to be given away or sold before the puppies turn it in to junk. This could be the motivation I need to speed up my sorting. Either I will be hauling it to the thrift store or I will be hauling it to the dump. Same amount of work. At least the thrift store doesn't charge me $10 per load.