Our local park hosted a community garage sale on Saturday. For $10, residents could rent a space and sell their unwanted junk. We didn’t participate, but we did go to check out everyone’s else stuff. It was so much fun! We spent about an hour visiting all the booths and while there were some professional vendors there, most were just regular people trying to make some money on their old treasures. Everyone was really nice too. I wish we had the kids because it would have been a lot of fun giving them $5 each and seeing what they got for it. I only spent $0.50 and that was on a Harlen Coben paperback. It doesn’t even look used; the binding is pristine. I almost got a Trivial Pursuit game for $5 but decided against it since I suck at that game. Now I have garage sale fever. I’m guessing these community garage sales must happen in other towns, so now it’s just a matter of locating one.
Category: Neighborhood
No Indiana Beach
As you can tell by the timestamp on this post (on the permanent link), we didn’t go to Indiana Beach. I am very disappointed by this, but we didn’t feel like driving two hours each way just to hang out in the cold. It’s only in the 60’s today and cloudy. Throw a lake breeze into that mix and brrrr!!! I’m really getting tired of Mother Nature interfering with my plans. Next weekend? 90’s. But we have the kids. Why does this keep happening? It’s some cruel joke, right?
We ended up sleeping til 10:30 am. Wasn’t much point in getting out of bed. Joe made french toast and we haven’t done anything else except look at the Sunday paper. Haven’t even showered. I feel like I’m wasting my weekend away. I want to go out and have fun but what is there to do? I don’t feel like going to the movies and I feel as if we’ve covered all the good nature-related sites in the area for photography. Ugh, I’m in a rut and I need out!
I guess I’ll go take a shower, but if anyone is reading this, suggestions are welcome. Kevin, maybe you know of some nice places out your way. We’ve been to that little (disappointing) “zoo” in Aurora already, but I’m so bored I’m tempted to convince Joe to drive us there anyway. Even though it’s “cold” out. There’s a Fuddrucker’s on the way back. Heh, like I need to be eating anymore fattening food this weekend. I probably gained 5 lbs. this weekend just from the brownies and chips I ate on Friday night.
Elmhurst googles sex? Not necessarily
This story that is proliferating the internet and local radio stations is a bunch of bunk. Want to know why? It just so happens that the largest Comcast headend in the Chicagoland area is located in Elmhurst. It serves pretty much all the Comcast internet users of Cook and Dupage counties. And since Comcast is the biggest IP in the area, it’s no wonder the area has the highest hits on searches for sex. So yea, maybe those counties search for sex more than others, but it isn’t actually the residents living in Elmhurst. Anyone in Cook and Dupage has an IP address that traces back to that headend in Elmhurst, that’s all. I live 10 miles from the town but my IP address goes back to Elmhurst too. You’d think someone would have figured this out by now. So don’t believe everything you read. Google isn’t God. But apparently people in Illinois are horny.
Just stuff
Been up since 8 am doing … laundry. Fun, right? When we moved here I thought the convenience of having a washer and dryer in our place would allow me to do laundry whenever I felt like it, but I’ve found that I still save it all up for the weekends. In my defense, there’s only two of us, so if I did loads during the week, I’d probably have the same number of loads to do at the end of the week, only they’d be smaller, so what’s the point?
Anyway, Spring has finally come to Chi-Town! Friday we bought some flowers and Joe planted them in pots yesterday for the patio. We even had the windows open all day which was a nice change. I love the smell of the outdoors, at least when the neighbor isn’t sucking on their cancer stick, that is.
We also got the fluffiest, softest bath towels (in Lavender Frost) at Kohl’s. They normally sell for $19.99 each but were on sale for $9.99 each, plus I had a 15% off coupon. I am in love with these towels. I could live in them, I swear. I also wanted a new pair of sandals but couldn’t make a decision on the two pairs I liked, both Skechers. The one with the strap at the ankle was more comfortable, but I felt like it could keep slipping down while I walked, which would be really annoying. So instead I ended up with a white pair of Keds. I couldn’t believe how comfy they are! They are made from microfiber and are really cushy inside. I still need a black pair of sandals, though. I was almost going to get brown ones, since I don’t own any brown shoes, but black shoes would better match my outfits and even though I currently own more shoes that I ever have in my life, I don’t want to go insane.
Last week when we had Joe’s son birthday party, we spent some time outdoors even though it was on the chilly side because we had bought him a bike. He really wanted one, so Joe was teaching him how to ride. Joe’s daughter kept bragging how she doesn’t want a bike or want to learn how to ride one. Is that cool nowadays to not have a bike? Every kid, including myself, had one growing up. It was weird. She did say she wants one of those Razor scooters, but she said she wants it for Christmas and not her birthday, which doesn’t make any sense since she’d get more use out of it getting it for her birthday since it’s in August. Apparently she’d rather have yet another GBA game which we’ve already decided she’s not getting from us. So a scooter it is, but I hope she’s not expecting the motorized one because a) it costs too much and b) she could use the exercise. Plus I honestly can’t see her using it very much at all. She’s just not very athletic like her brother. She’d rather sit in front of her computer all day or watch tv. Gee, that sounds like me, actually, but I’m an adult. As a kid I got more exercise than any of the kids nowadays do. God that makes me feel old. ;)
Anyway, one thing she had outside with her was a jump rope. Admittedly, not a good one, although I was able to teach her how to anticipate when to jump since she kept tripping herself. It made me miss grammar school and playing double-dutch. Did any of you do that in school? It might be a black thing because it was usually the black girls who always played double dutch. The white girls would try, but we didn’t have the same coordination. I loved it, though. It was very exhilarating to play, not to mention challenging. And I guess they even have leauges now. Cool.
Going to my parents’ in a bit to celebrate Easter, although like my boss’ boss likes to say, I am a recovering Catholic. Happy Easter to all who celebrate!
I love my library
Do you support your local library? I do. Well, kinda. Actually, I support the library of the neighboring town because I don’t like my town’s library. It is poorly designed, the selection is terrible, and they lost half the items I returned the first time I ever used them!
So I’ve been using the other library exclusively since last year. I’d consider myself a voracious reader as I visit the library at least once a week and read several books within a month.
One thing I like to do when I frequently use a library is purchase a canvas bag from them. I guess I could just use the bag I purchased from the library I previously used, but something about that seems wrong to me. Plus that money goes toward the library and I want them to do well so they will continue to have new books for me to check out.
When I think about all the books I’ve read in this year alone, I imagine it would equal hundreds of dollars had I purchased them. So $8 for a bag is nothing. This library in particular has an even better bag than the library in my old town because this bag is larger and it zips closed. I guess you could call me an organizational junkie, but I like this because I keep the library books on the bottom shelf of the table in our foyer and it looks neater with them hidden in the bag.