Interlude
We take a break from vacation blogging for these real-life updates:Here in Mac-Groveland, we had our neighborhood yard sale yesterday. Emma sold lemonade and a whole mess o' her old toys, books and games, grossing about $38. (I still have to bill her for the lemonade mix and cups; yes, I am a cruel, cruel man.)
There is much I could say about our next-door neighbors in connection with this event. And I'm sure there's much they could say about me. So guys, if you're reading this, feel free to respond in comments.
- They chose to put their stuff right next to ours (mom explicitly told dad to move it next to ours) so as to present a larger inventory. Which was fine, except that ...
- They didn't have price tags, so they "borrowed" stickers from us -- meaning all of their stuff had the same round, orange stickers that ours did. Given the previous bullet point, that meant that shoppers had no idea whose stuff was whose without being told. Twice I had to stop shoppers from paying kid-next-door for stuff that Emma was selling, and I don't know how many others I might have missed. Grr.
- At around 11:30 they decided their stuff was now all half-price, and announced it loudly and repeatedly . Consequently, people started trying to buy Emma's stuff for half the marked price.
- At around 12:00 they decided their stuff was now free for the taking. I conferred with Emma and decided it was better not to fight this, so all of our remaining stuff now was free as well (except for a few items that I simply pulled from the sale, because there was no way I was letting them go for free).
- They folded up their tables and consolidated their remaining items on one of our blankets.
- Emma went to a friend's house, and after Kristi came home from work we went to Chipotle. When we came back, the two younger kids from next door were playing with the toys on the blanket. James, the older of the two, proudly announced "Look what I made!" and showed me a three-inch hole in the blanket. I asked him how it happened, and he held up a pointed stick.
Because Kristi had a rough day at work, after Chipotle we made a spot decision to rent a movie (our current Netflix choice not being particularly cheery). She chose "Failure to Launch". Personally, I think anything with Matthew McConaughy in it is most likely a waste of time, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the deliciously quirky (not to mention deliciously delicious) Zooey Deschanel in a supporting role, which meant I could watch it without feeling it to be a major waste of time. And McConaughy is much more appealing when being bitten by chipmunks.
Labels: culture
posted by MeanMrMustard @ 7:39 AM
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