Elmos and Eichlers

My friend Stephanie came out garaging with me this morning, and since she lives way up in north county, we decided we’d meet about halfway between our houses. This put us in quite a posh area of the OC; figured if we didn’t find many sales we could at least look at the high-priced neighborhoods.

We figured right! I have new respect for my usual route, which has proven so fruitful over the years. Didn’t buy one darned thing, and Steph ended up spending a whopping fifty cents. But she spent it well, as you will see.

Some of the neighborhoods really were lovely, with beautiful landscaping. But even those areas of million-plus dollar homes had their stinkers, like the two story stucco house painted a very odd shade between pea green and acid yellow. We stopped at one sale in a neighborhood of houses that all appeared to be Eichler houses. Turns out they actually are Eichlers! We got kind of excited when we saw some open house signs, both of us perfectly willing to be looky-lous. But then we realized it was only 8 a.m. and the open house would not yet be open. I just checked some real estate sites and most likely the signs were for this house. Which would have been fun to see, but I have my own MCM house that I’ll be seeing in the near future!

We met a few dogs. This little guy was recovering from surgery and I tried hard to pet the Lab half of this pair but she was so excited I could hardly touch her before she bucked away in excitement.

Little Roxie was rescued from the pound. She has an absolutely gorgeous coat.

Handsome storm was shopping with his owner on Roxie’s driveway.

I hope he had better luck with his shopping than I did. Bought nothing. Zero. Zip. Of course, since I’m moving in the near future this is not a bad thing! Here’s proof that we’re getting serious about this whole retirement/moving to Oregon plan:

 

We’ve already moved part of our stuff! We’re putting our OC house on the market very soon and needed to clear it out so it will show well. It’s feeling quite spacious now! So if you know anyone in the market for a great house with an amazing yard in PRIME yard sale country (this week notwithstanding) send ‘em by.

So, back to Steph’s fifty cents. Her husband asked her before she left what she was planning to bring home, which of course one never knows. So we started watching for something silly she could take him, and we found the perfect thing.

Everyone needs a talking Elmo, right? When you tilt his head back he says various things, or just laughs. We cracked up the whole morning every time we hit a bump and Elmo said something from the back seat. Several stops later she scored a new change purse.

It’s the sequins on the kitty’s butt that make it really special. And so here we have Portrait of a Happy Garager.

Guess it pays to shop those posh neighborhoods!