Queen of Fifty Cents: Spring? Really??

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Spring? Really??

I’m almost afraid to believe it’s really Spring. I think it was the snowstorm in mid-March that did it.

But there is quite a bit of evidence. Trees went from a bare haze of green a week ago to being leafed out, or hysterically in bloom. (That haze of yellow behind the trunk is the daffodils in my front yard.)

But that’s not how we really reckon the change of seasons, is it? That’s right – we count the number of garage sales available to us! And since there were more than I could go to yesterday…it must be Spring!
Not that I came home with much. Finding a lot of desirable items might be how we know when it’s summer. But at my first stop I was able to double my collection of Pampered Chef items. I now have…two.

This is one of those gadgets I’ve always kind of wanted to try out, and for twenty-five cents I can. I handed over my quarter and was heading to the car when I spotted this, and I admit it, I was tempted.

If I were still a children’s librarian, an owl hat would certainly have been something I couldn’t resist. But I took a deep breath, remained strong, and just took a picture instead. But then I noticed something else I hadn’t seen before. (You should always go around every sale twice!)

A set of makeup brushes! Not for me, I gave up makeup years ago (and no one noticed, which is a really good reason to stop bothering). These are for my BIL Biker Bob. I see you scratching your head, wondering what a Harley-riding dude would want with makeup brushes. Well, he’s not just a Harley guy. He’s going to be a clown in Portland’s Rose Festival this year, and clowns wear makeup. If you go to the Rose Parade, he’ll be the ring-master-esque clown with the drum set in the little red wagon. Be sure to yell out, “Hey! Biker Bob! The Queen of Fifty Cents told us about you!” I’m sure he’ll be impressed, and I will feel like I too am part of the Rose Parade.
Made several more stops, bought nothing. (I take that back, found an ornament, more on that in a moment.) Then at the last one before I had to scoot home to pick up Zoë to go to puppy playtime, I scored a DVD and a conversation about the relative merits of various movie stars past and present. The general consensus was, Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant were way, way classier than anyone around today, but De Niro is a damned fine actor.

Zoë made a new friend at puppy playtime, Keela. From the loud growly noises both were emitting you might not have thought they were having fun, but those were just what we call purr-growls. Half an hour of this and their tongues were hanging on the ground.

This is SO much fun!

A tired puppy is a good puppy! Which is why, when I noticed another sale on the way home, I took Zoë with me – her first garage sale! She met Bobby the dog, and got to go into the house to look at things with me, and said hello to a bunch of people and sniffed new smells. We even met a professional dog trainer…hi, Tori! And I spent another quarter.

First thing my hubs asked was, what are those things? I suspect they started out as inserts in an egg poacher. But I’m hoping to take a class soon on making whirligigs out of found objects, so that’s why I shelled out that quarter so happily.
Now, the second thing Steven asked was why the heck I brought this home.