Archive of Marcia's Musings August 13-19, 2001
Sunday, August 19, 2001
The End
The Official End of the Move has happened-- the garage sale went off and, while I didn't make enough money to retire, I made more money than I have ever made in a garage sale before today. Now, considering that I've never had a garage sale before, I did pretty good needless to say. Over $200.00 which finances the food for the housewarming party in a few weeks as far as I'm concerned. Not a bad deal, all in all.
Now, from the picture that Brian had posted on his site for today, the only things left are all of the clothes and some of the kitchen items-- we're certainly more than half wiped-out. That which did not sell will go to a charity and some of the bigger ticket items, i.e., CD changer and microwave will stay until we find someone who specifically needs them or until I get sick of seeing them in the garage, whichever comes first.
As Brian and I were putting things up from the sale, I slipped on some flattened boxes in the garage and, while I didn't hurt myself, I gave us both a pretty good scare when I went down, landing on my butt. I jarred myself pretty well. I have noticed however that, as a result of the sale today, I've found new muscles that apparently haven't been used in the last two weeks and now those are also sore muscles. I had no idea that I had that many muscles in my body-- if I find any more that hurt, I may have to trade myself in for a new model!!
Oh, well, tomorrow I can go back to work and being sedentary except for riding my bike-- I've missed that, indeed but I figure I've been getting enough exercise so I'm not too worried about what not bicycling has done to me!
Thanks for bearing with me and my moaning and growning (literally in some cases) for the past month-- it has been an adventure, hasn't it??
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That said, I'm outta here-- I'm gonna relax for the last few hours of my vacation and see what is on television to watch (that's another story that I'll get to tomorrow or Tuesday). Thanks for coming by and have a nice evening!
Saturday, August 18, 2001Drawing to a Close
The "vacation" week is almost finished-- I've got another week scheduled in about six weeks when my cousin, Barb, will be coming out from Michigan for a visit. I'll be grateful for the time off that time, I think!! While we didn't rise to the alarm this week, there were very few days when we did anything remotely close to "relaxation" but, the good news is that we have a really nice home that we can be proud to have our family and friends see and visit.
We've pretty much decided on having an Open House-Warming Party on September 1-- you're all invited, of course!! More on that as plans are made and things firm up-- I've gotta find some invitations, don't I? MORE PRESSURE!!! Oh, man, does it ever stop??? ;>) (Yes, I know the answer to that: when we stop putting ourselves under that kind of pressure!!)
The garage sale stuff is ready including going out to buy a table and umbrella that we wanted for the backyard. Tomorrow, I'll use it for the payment area at the garage sale. I'm selling all of my five sizes too big clothes (!!) and five pairs of shoes-- don't get excited, remember I found five pairs a week or two back so I've still got 56 pairs. I've got change for people buying (I hope there are a LOT of those people!!) and I've got boxes for all of the stuff they're going to haul off, as well as bags for those who are a little more conservative. Remember: "One man's junk is another man's gold". I sure hope there are a lot of miners out there tomorrow!! We haven't done any pre-advertising because we don't want people banging on our door at 6am. By 8am, we'll be "open for business" and I'm hoping we'll be sold out by 2pm!! If not, its going to Goodwill Industries because I'm not willing to sit on the pile of stuff for a week as I had originally planned. Brian was wrong in thinking that we were never going to use our garage as a garage-- there is nothing I want more!!
If I've enough energy tomorrow night, I'll post and let you know how the garage sale went-- in the meantime, take care and have a nice evening!!
Friday, August 17, 2001Onward and Upward
I almost said "Moving On" but anything with any form of the word "Move" in it tends to scare the you-know-what outta me right now!!! Yeesh!! Of course, I say "Never Again" but I also know better-- this is a rental and there are other possibilities elsewhere. Oh, well, I'll get over it soon enough, I'm sure . . . maybe!
When I drop something on the floor, I find myself with a thought flashing through my head "Oh, the neighbors!" and then, remember that we don't have downstairs neighbors anymore. Last night, I ran two loads of laundry and the last one didn't end until 11:45pm-- I couldn't do that at the complex. There are lots of new things to get used to, that's for sure and I'm going to savor each and every one of them!!
Plans for the Day
I've got a party to go to this evening (again) for my departing manager. This is an event planned by the director and no spouses are allowed this time. Between now and then, I'm hoping to get the garage a little more organized and get the rest of the garage sale stuff price-marked before Sunday. I've got today (approximately 5 hours remaining) and tomorrow after I get back from my nail/pedicure/hair appointments. Then, Sunday morning, we're off!!
Relaxation?
I shouldn't say that-- we did kinda relax yesterday afternoon and last night, Brian played his new game instead of doing the dishes or helping with the laundry. He's been working really hard for over two weeks now-- I don't think "taking off" a few hours is gonna kill the forward momentum! I made and drank a half-pot of coffee last night and, surprisingly, had a hard time getting to sleep-- I don't usually have a problem after drinking coffee. Hmmm, maybe its all catching up with me? Nah!!! Coffee is my friend!!
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Anyway, I'm going to sign off for now and see you tomorrow or Sunday some time. Thanks for coming by and tolerating the irregular posts this week-- its been worth it, believe me. Brian will post pictures at some point in the near future-- probably after the wall-hanging stuff is done.Have a nice day, evening and weekend!
Thursday, August 16, 2001We're Done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, I'm a little happy about that!!! The only things left to do is hang the art and ready the garage sale stuff!! YEAH!!!!!!!
No, there is still no rest for us because we do have the above bits to do-- oh, well, in a way, this has still been a relaxing time this week. Well, okay, maybe not relaxing but at least fun from the perspective of arranging things and going through things and throwing things out and... you get the picture.
More later perhaps or ?????
Wednesday, August 15, 2001Another Brief One . . .
Yesterday was another fun day in this move-- it actually started on Monday when we were shopping for bedroom furniture and found a 5-piece set for a decent price at a consignment store about 5 miles from our house. We went to a second consignment store that we were told about but had no success there-- still we hesitated. Bedroom furniture is a lot of money for a complete set these days-- maybe it always was but it is a serious decision.
Remember when you were young and hmm'd-n-ha'd over ideas and decisions? Well, that's what Brian and I have been doing for the last 48 hours. After finding that set at the first store that we liked, we had them put it on hold-- we went to their second store in another town south of us. We saw the exact same set with a different head/footboard but no "High Boy"-type chest. We thought that was fairly odd (more on that in a minute).
We still weren't sure, so we came home, had lunch and, after we finished eating, went to one more place to look to see if what we were getting was a good price. We went to the store that we have bought a lot of our furniture from and, their prices were a lot higher than this set.
The set that we were looking at was a 5-drawer "High-Boy"-type chest, a 7-drawer dresser, two night stands and a head/footboard. We asked at the first store why the second store had the same stuff and it turns out that a guy makes the stuff as a hobby-- no wonder it looked so good-- its hand-made!! We were really impressed by the dovetail joints on the cedar drawers, among other things so we decided that we would "invest" in it. While it is something that technically depreciates over time, it is very well made and it will last for years so it is an investment in our future.
Man, do we feel like grown-ups!! No more college-style bedroom
furniture (piece-meal that doesn't match or fit together!)-- all of that
is going to be history this Sunday in our garage sale!!Today . . .
We might get the living room completely finished-- there's a lot to unwrap, set up and hang up but I have high hopes. I've also gotta finish sorting through my clothes closets: first, get the stuff that fits into the closet in our room, second, I need to pull out the stuff that is toooooo big so I can sell it in the garage sale and third, sort the stuff that's too small that's been sitting in the back of the closet thinking it was never going to get worn again! Hah!! I fooled it, didn't I???
So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to it-- you have a nice day, a nice evening or a nice whatever wherever you are!
Monday, August 13, 2001Very Brief . . .
I've just finished 99% of my office-- I've got three plastic storage boxes, sitting on the futon (for guests) in my office. (More about that in a moment.) I've gone through things twice now-- once coming out of the box and the second time going into a spot on my desks. I've thinned out as much as I can and I can't thin out anymore!! I've really thrown away three large wastebaskets of stuff and I didn't have that much to begin with because I didn't have an "office"!!
My office is going to be used as a spare/guest bedroom. It is better than sleeping in the living room which is the set-up that we had in the apartment. Unfortunately, the queen-sized futon overwhelmed the room so it didn't fit but the double-sized fits nicely. I went out this afternoon to look for fabric for curtains and, because the cover of the futon is velvet, decided to go with a contrasting texture: burlap-- it'll look good I think. Its a color a little lighter than the base color of the print of the futon; yes, I plan to put it through the dryer to relieve it of the burlap smell before I make it into curtains. I will line them, too and, as I may have mentioned yesterday, it'll block the sun that causes glare problems across the computer screen in addition to giving guests an additional layer of privacy. (If you come to visit and want to sleep in the living room on the queen-sized futon, you're more than welcome to as we have linens to fit both beds.)
I had a dentist appointment to get my teeth cleaned this afternoon-- always a lot of fun, especially on vacation and, on my way home, decided I'd better get my prescription from the grocery store. While there, I ran into a co-worker who was just returning from vacation-- in fact, it was her sales rep that did the impromptu conference call with me last Wednesday. She looked really rested which is a good thing, indeed!!
Tomorrow the Cable Guy comes and Brian goes to get our new bookcases. From there?? We've still got our room and the living room to unpack but much of the living room will get done tomorrow in view of the new bookcases arriving. Its hard to unpack when you can't decide where to put stuff!
I'm gonna go tackle those last three storage boxes-- have a nice evening!
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