DONUTS AND DACHSHUNDS AND A GREAT BIG Q

I think my memory is getting better. I have a cryptic note from this morning’s garaging that looks like “pot pound” and I've been wracking my brain over what that means. No, I didn’t run across anyone selling pot by the pound out of their garage, or see any cute little children pounding on an old pot (always so much more fun than an expensive toy). After some musing I have finally realized it's supposed to be potpourri—which tells you a lot about both my memory and my handwriting. I ran across someone selling homemade potpourri this morning, which I think is a first in my saling experience. I asked her if she has lots of rosebushes and she said no, just the one. Her rosebush must bloom more prolifically than any I've ever had, or else it took her a long time to gather all those petals!

A few blocks away I stopped at a sale that didn’t have much, but the lady was so darned nice. I asked (as I often do, it's a good ice breaker) if she was having fun, and she said most sincerely that she really was. “I love doing this,” she said, “and getting to say hi to everyone.”

A condo community was having a neighborhood sale, one of those sponsored by a local realtor. Around here this means that the realtor does the advertising and puts out signs, and usually goes around giving donuts to all the participants. I suppose this generates business for them, that folks are more likely to call the realtor who gave them donuts when it comes time to sell their house. So I was in one of the little garages there this morning talking to the two ladies having the sale. A neighbor stopped in and offered them some grocery store donuts, saying that the realtor was nowhere to be seen and it didn’t look like they’d be bringing the donuts around. My goodness, our feathers got fluffed! No donuts! They were being funny about it, but they really did expect their donuts. One of them grabbed her cell phone and called the realtor! Turns out she’d started her donut deliveries in the back of the community rather than the front and would be there in a bit. That sounded better, except… “Oh no, all the good ones will be gone!” said one of my ladies. “Oooh, yeah,” said the other, “nothing but glazed!” A nearby neighbor listening in said, “Could be worse, could be Hostess donuts.” And another called from her garage, “Hey, don’t knock Hostess. I am not picky when it comes to my donuts!”

I was still chuckling over the donut indignation a few minutes later when I ran into the realtor in question. I was talking to another lady about how it's always the thing you think no one will buy that goes first. She said yeah, someone actually bought her painting that was a portrait of her dachshund. In mock horror I exclaimed, “You sold your dog’s portrait?!” (which had us both giggling) when up steps a perky blonde with a stack of Krispy Kreme boxes. She must have heard what I said but not the context (i.e. joking), because she gave me a very startled look. And then of course I kept running into her about six more times. I wanted to tell her to hurry up and get those donuts to the ladies up front before they wore themselves out fretting over them.

At another garage in that community, the husband was standing in the driveway, waving people in. “My wife’s making deals,” he kept calling. “Get in here, there’s a lot to love!” He must have been on autopilot, because even when no one was near he was still barking like a carney.

Actually his wife was making deals, and one of the deals was that petting the dog was free! This is Foxy Brown.

She is a beginning Splash Dog—that sport where the dog leaps from the end of a dock into water. Here’s a film clip, in case you’ve never seen it.

Probably the most unusual conversation I had this morning was with a woman whose husband got a melanoma—in his eye. I've never heard of this, and she said it's very rare. She described the surgery, in which they detached the eye from the muscles and packed it with radiation material for 5 days, then took that stuff out and reattached the eye. (I love the way total strangers tell me the most amazing things.) Her hubby is doing fine. I don’t know whether to be terrified that there’s one more awful thing I never knew about before, or elated at the advances in medical science. Hmmm, it's Saturday, the sun is out…I vote for elated!

I spent $10.50 today and came home with:

A new stock of magazines—fifty in all! The newsstand value would be over $200. Here’s a sample—the rest are all Martha Stewart and Real Simple.
Dachshund bookends
A cute shirt and capris
Seven CDs
Two of the CDs came from a sale that had a handsome dark red coleus by the porch, and I scored a couple of clippings for my garden. Hope they grow—coleus are usually pretty cooperative.
A set of dragons for Chinese New Year. I'll give these to a children’s librarian, won’t they be fun as part of a book display?
Eight really really cute greeting cards, each still in its protective plastic sleeve.



And two shirts. I was looking for heavy t-shirts I can cut up to make my husband new ‘do rags’ to wear when he’s gardening, and these looked like they’d work.

But then when I got home and looked at the gray one, I realized this is on the back:
What else could that Q stand for but Queen of Fifty Cents? So I'm going to remodel the neckline and start wearing it on Saturday mornings. I'll find another tee shirt for Steven’s do rag next week. I can hardly wait to look!

P.S. This has zip to do with thrifting…I've been learning to use our video editing software, and I finally succeeded in putting a film on Youtube! Here’s our cat Noll Baxter in his Youtube debut.