She sells seashells by the sea shore

Went to Goodwill today to return the Slik tripod from last week.  I've got a "real" tripod and 2 Gorillapods now, so the extra tripod wasn't really necessary.  And, $6 is $6.  While I was there, I of course had to look around.  Not much to speak of, until I saw a big seashell misplaced amongst the furniture.

 Bigger than my hand, in really nice shape, and only $3.

And, it was sitting next to a bag of shells, also in lovely shape, also $3. 

 
So, I didn't come home with $6 more than I left with, but I've got some gorgeous shells, and can at least pretend I've been shell-hunting at the beach. 

Estate sales 2/2/18 and other shopping this week

Only one estate sale in town this weekend.  It was in an older neighborhood, where the streets were definitely not laid out in any sort of grid.  One street name actually jumped streets here and there - three sections of street, not connected to each other directly, with one name.  Very confusing.

I bought a carroms board set for my mother.  Missing some of the game pieces, but vintage.


A neat pair of crocheted Christmas ornaments, similar to the trio of pandas I found a few months ago.  These have "Made in China" stickers.

A handful of china animal figures.  There were more the first day, but I missed seeing them and they sold before I went back on day 2.  I did buy a horse (marked Germany), a trio of bone china swans made in Japan, a Hagen-Renaker dragon with a missing tail tip, and a Hagen-Renaker Canada goose.  Wish I'd bought the frog and pair of chickens.

Earlier this week, I checked out the local Goodwill.  It was a good day - a full-size tripod for $6 (although I may return that, since we have one tripod already), a large-ish Joby Gorillapod for $3 (score!), two like-new manga books for the Burrito, and a French copy of The Little Prince.  Oh, and two sets of battery-powered "sno lites" that won't be used for snow around here. 

In illogical Goodwill fashion, the manga were $1 each because they apparently aren't "comics" or "childrens books" (I'd dispute both of those, although realizing that manga aren't always for kids), but Le Petit Prince was considered a 50-cent kiddie book. 

Estate saling

This week's haul at the thrift and estate shopping:


Goodwill:

• Wrebbit lighthouse puzzle
• Pippi Longstocking, early HB from Oxford Univ Press
• The Silver Gryphon
• neat Japanese/Chinese picture of a bird, half price

Upscale

• 3 shot glasses
• Jacqueline Cochran autobio from the 1950s
• something else
•  
•  

Estate sale #1

• 2 nail polish ($1, .50)
• 2 crochet booklets .50 each
•  

Estate Sale #2

• 2 boxes of staples $1 each
• ceramic origami crane ornament $1
• beaded bird ornament $1 
• mustard can .25
• woven basket with lid $1

The 2018 Reading List

Presenting, the reading list for 2018.  A work in progress. . .

I'm attempting the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, so it should be a fun ride.

1. A Bollywood Affair, by Sonali Dev
2. knitting book (find picture)
3. model railroad book
4. Aunty Lee's Delights
5. Maigret - Pietr the Latvian (1/10/18)
6. Street Magic - Tamora Pierce (1/21/18)
7. The Dark is Rising (1/30/18)
8. Ranma 1/2, books 1 & 2 (1/31/18)
9.  Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (2/2/18)
10.  Pegasus in Flight, by Anne McCaffrey (2/3/18)
11. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan - Magnus Chase series #1 (2/3/18)
12. Slightly Chipped, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
13. My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell (2/5/18)
14. Firefly: Those Left Behind (graphic novel) (2/6/18)
15. Firefly graphic novel #2
16. Tempests & Slaughter, by Tamora Pierce (2/9/18)
17. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (2/14/18)
18. Hail to the Chin, by Bruce Campbell (2/19)
19. The Revolution was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall (2/21/18)
20. Squire, by Tamora Pierce
21. Page, by Tamora Pierce
22. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith (e-book) 
23. Excuse Me, but I was Next. . . : how to handle the top 100 manners dilemmas, by Peggy Post
24. Who Knew? 10,001 Easy Solutions to Everyday Problems (lots of bogus ideas)
25. Crazy like a Fox, by Rita Mae Brown 
26. The War that Saved My Life
27. Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9/18)
28. Slayers & Vampires: the Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy & Angel, by Edward Gross (3/9/18)
29. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (3/10/18) 
30. Murder on the Orient Express (3/13/18) 
31. New Minimalism (3/15/18)
32.  The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (3/15/18)
33. The War I Finally Won
34. The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover, by Susan Wittig Albert (3/21/18) 
35. Life Below Stairs: true lives of Edwardian Servants (3/25/18)
36. Confessions of a Shopaholic
37.  
38. Queen Anne's Lace, by Susan Wittig Albert (4/5/18)
39. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (4/9/18)
40. Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and Other Book Tales, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (4/9/18) 
41.  
42. The Life I've Picked, by John McEuen (4/10/18)
43. Best Food Writing 2011 (4/23/18)
44. Death of a Gossip, by M. C. Beaton (4/15/18)
45. The Missing Kennedy, by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff (5/3/18)
46. Soviet Daughter, a Graphic Revolution - by Julia Alekseyeva (5/3/18)
47. Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (5/3/18)
48. Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi (5/8/18)
49. Emperor Mage, by Tamora Pierce (5/8/18) 
50. What do You Care What Other People Think, by Richard Feynman (5/14/18)
51. I am Not a Number, by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer (5/15/18)
52. Arctic Adventure, by Dana Meachem Rau (5/15/18)
53. Great, by Glen Gretzky and Lauri HOlomis (5/15/18)
54.  Chu's Day, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
55. Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman (5/15/18)
56. The Day the Crayons Came Home (5/15/18)
57. The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (5/19/18)
58. Death Need Not Be Fatal, by Malachy McCourt (5/23/18)
59. 
    

The holidays

Christmas:  Four weeks (or more) of guilt, stress, guilt, headaches, stress, and more guilt.  Followed by a 3 day period of trying to be two places at once, driving too much, not enough sleep, not enough food, and too much rushing around.  Capped with having "our" Christmas at home on about December 27th if we're lucky. 

I hate Christmas. 

In fact, I hate the whole last quarter of the year, October through December.  It sucks.

Luck

I was lucky today.  Chase sent a replacement credit card, and it arrived on Friday.  I tossed the mail in the front seat for the school run, and somehow the Chase envelope fell out in the school parking lot.  Which I didn't realize until later last night when I was looking at the mail. 

Drove back to the school lot today, and there's the envelope, right where it fell. 

Whew.

Oh, Hallmark

The trip to Hallmark didn't go the way I'd planned today.   Instead of spending $30 or so in coupons and about that much in cash, it ended up being $80 plus cash and $3 in coupons. 

I've been finding all my old Rewards coupons roaming the house, sticking them all on the fridge as I went, so I wouldn't lose them again.  I need cheap birthday cards this week, so I thought I'd go spend my coupons, get my ornaments for the year, and hit the 99cent card racks. 

Turns out, the local store isn't accepting expired coupons anymore.  I can send them back to Hallmark and they'll re-deposit the points, maybe, and IF they're less than a year old.  Ha.  I found a coupon that expired in 2011.  Also, the 99-cent coupon rack is now 20% 99-cent cards, and the rest is 2/$4 "bargain" cards.  The 99-cent cards are mostly for kids, too.  So, off to Dollar Tree this week for the 2/$1 cards.  For a bonus, the store was out of the free-gift item I had a card for, and I didn't have the card for the one they did have in stock.  Le Sigh.

So.  Came home with 4 cards, 3 ornaments, and this year's singing snowman.  I got the Trek ship, Spotlight on Snoopy #20, and the blue Beauty of Birds ornament.  Still haven't bought this year's Pony for Christmas, and there's an anniversary Spotlight on Snoopy, too.  And, for pete's sake, a new Peanuts Band set that I hadn't seen yet.  Which I WILL resist - I've already got the Peanuts Band set and the Tree Caroling set.  And I can't afford, or justify, the cost of another 5-piece set at $15.95 per piece, plus the other item you have to buy to get the $15.95 price.  Plus tax. 

It's time to reconsider the Hallmark ornament collection.  Most of them never hang on the tree lately, since they're boxed and not with the decorations.  I hate to think how much I've spent on the silly things over the years.  Too depressing.  Definitely need to focus on a few series and skip the rest.  Doing the summer pre-order option that the local store offers might be a good idea, at least as far as cutting down on impulse buying.  But then I'd miss out on the extra points scattered through the fall, plus the free gifts and such.

Preliminary series list to focus on:

• Beauty of Birds - just started a few years ago, gorgeous, but I'll never have the early ones unless I run across them at a yard sale
• Pony for Christmas
• Spotlight on Snoopy
• Star Trek ships (because I've got all of these back to the first one)
• Star Wars characters - have most of these, but honestly, why?
• Rocking Horses - series is closed, but I have most of them

I need to haul them all out one of these days and cull the herd.  Some of my older ones may bring enough money to be worth selling on eBay.