sugar is going to be so mad at this...

Jack and I went to IHOP for breakfast this morning and then we went looking for yard sales--in particular for a yard sale that had one specific item for sale. Yes, yes, we were looking for a swing set for the darlings to play on together in the gardens. For years, Jack has strongly objected to any encouragement to the sweeties to play out back. The big old girls live out there and the gardens were pretty much a mess. But then Jr took over maintenance and I came alive to planting and care again and voila! the gardens are seriously coming together and Jack agrees that the girlies can play safely out back.

We headed south and watched for signs. We stopped at a multi-family neighborhood sale--three front yards of crap for sale by many families. I kept telling Jack to stop, stop, stop the car, and he finally parked by the northernmost house. I hopped out and asked if either of the salers had a swingset for sale. They both said no. As I started heading down the driveway to the next two houses, I walked past a bistro table with two chairs, and then immediately whirled around to check out the table and chairs. I have been looking for a curly wiry table and two chairs that I could redo with a mosaic tile top and ohmyheck, there it was, the set I've been dreaming about. It is all rusty and the table top is wood and the chairs have been out in the weather, so one of the seats is all ripped up and one is all faded. They were perfect! And only $25. Not so expensive or perfect that I'd feel like I couldn't tear them apart to make them like I want them and lots of potential-- character even, in an eclectic kind of way. Perfect! I could have gone home happy, except I did need to find that swingset. So we headed further south and east, following the signs.

We stopped at another sale that had cold diet coke and homemade chocolate chip cookies, which I never pass up, but not much else we really wanted. I thought for just a few seconds about buying the snoozing ernie, but of all of the words he said about going to sleep and feeling sleepy, the only thing I could really understand was when he started to snore and his belly rose and fell. Cute, but not really worth $5.

Next, we found a sale with a bunch of kid stuff where we looked at an Elmo vcr tape, an Elmo head Halloween candybag, but that Elmo head with no body was more than a little creepy. As we started towards the car, I noticed a box of little girl hats at just about the same time that Jack found some wooden puzzles, and when we saw the one with puzzle pieces of hand tools, we knew we had to buy the puzzles. And the hats. And the bag of megablocks for our toy closet, especially when we saw the bonus in the bag of megablocks--a little tiny plastic girl doll, maybe four inches tall. Must be a Thumbelina or Polly Pocket or something. That all added up to $7.

Next, we started following some superior signage--large, neon green signs with big black arrows and big address letters. We must have seen at least five signs, but in one of the only disappointing moments of the morning, the sale was next to nothing. Great signs, seriously low on good crap.

But, next to the last green sign, Jack spotted a small, storebought yard sale sign with a tiny little arrow. So we followed it. and the next one, and the next one, and doubled back to find the next one. By now, we were up against a mountain and a golf course that had both golfers and deer playing on it--the golf course, not the mountain, although there may have been both on the mountain too, I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I can't be certain about that.

The driveway of the house at the end of the little signs and arrows had one rack of ski clothes and old robes, two matching wooden rocking chairs, a travel bag, and a wall sculpture that caught my eye. We got out and realized they were selling more stuff in the house. I was drawn to the wall sculpture, a metal sculpture of a grove of trees that I knew we needed. We set it aside while we checked out the inside of the house.

We learned from the owners that they were moving to a smaller home in California to be near their grandchildren and before long, we realized they didn't want money for their stuff, they just didn't want to have to pay to move it. After twenty minutes of browsing and a return trip with our trailer to carry all of the crap we bought from them back to our house, this is the list of stuff we bought for $150:

2 matching wooden rocking chairs
1 metal wall sculpture
4 paintings/pictures
1 sturdy wicker magazine stand
1 chrome firewood holder
1 lamp made of metal in the shape of an ornate bird house
3 large pots for jr to plant annuals in for the gardens
1 decorative metal heart shaped box hanging on a piece of ivy
1 healthrider
1 barbeque with propane and all kinds of accessories
1 solid oak home entertainment center for the big screen in the basement tv room
1 antique Lane cedar chest that looks just like my dad's mom's cedar chest
2 ladders, one wood, one metal

And probably more crap I can't remember right now. This was the jackpot of all jackpot yardsales. We didn't ever find a swingset, but I've put it out there in the cosmos and sometime in the next month or so, it will appear, the perfect swingset, at the perfect price, with lots of potential.

Sugar, you've got to see this stuff. Hopefully you're still talking to me...