Finally finished with the San Francisco pics. Take that off the list! Yay! Keith is still working on his, so there will be a part two when he is done. Those will be the good pics.
My hubby hard at work!
Mine are the odd ones. I've never been good at typical travelogues. I'm too weird for that.
This was about the tenth or twelfth trip to SF for us. It used to be our regular vacation spot. We'd go there just about every Christmas for a couple of weeks up until we bought the house, when we started saying home for the holidays. Because we've been there so much, we've already long since done the typical tourist stuff, which means there's not a lot of that kind of thing here. We go there primarily to hang out, do a little shopping, and eat good food. You will find a lot of that kind of thing here.
Let's start with the hotel This was our room. Right next to the street. The wifi sucked and the free breakfast was a bit skimpy (but it worked), but the location was good and the rates were right. We'd stay there again, so all in all, it wasn't bad.
San Francisco is a city of many wonderful murals. I think I could have taken hundreds of pics of them. Here are a few of my favorites.
This one was on the back of an adult theater (!) across from our hotel.
Chinatown is one of the places we like to go to because the shopping is fun and the food is great. We had some wonderful hand-rolled egg rolls there. Yummy! I also got to meet Confucius. He was friendly and even told my fortune. (Which I cannot find at the moment.)
I also go just a bit nuts over all the fun details on the buildings.
Giant tooth on a restaurant sign
Close up
I love the windows on the second floor of this building!
Bear on a column
Back when we would go every year, we would stay at this place. It was several blocks up the street from our current hotel, but we had to go see it. We loved The Leland! About ten or so years ago, there was a terrible fire there, and it was closed for several years for reconstruction. Now it's senior living apartments.
I didn't get many pics in stores, because so many of them explicitly ban photography and selfies and such. I did sneak this one in a thrift because it was so cute. I think the one on the right thinks the guy on the other end took his saucer.
Surely he doesn't think the gal in the middle did it!
Sadly, some of the places we used to love are gone, including several stores. A couple of our long time favorites were still there, however.
Ephemera and more!
Super awesome music store!
Did you know that Hello Kitty has a bus? Really!
I met a couple of odd women while we were out and about.
Some pretty strange dudes, too.
Say "Aaaaahhhh!"
We were lucky enough to find two excellent restaurants right across the street from our hotel. We ate at both of them several times.
I kept intending to take pics of the food, but then forgetting about it until we were finished. Put a plate of food in front of a fat dude, and all he will think about is eating it.
Signs in a store window in Haight-Ashbury.
One of the odd things that I do when traveling is visiting Catholic churches and taking pictures of the statues and stuff. It's kind of an extension of my religion collection.
These are from Our Lady of Victory.
St Therese of Lisiuex
Our Lady of Victory
Again.
St Pierre Chanel (no relation to Coco)
St Joan of Arc
Can you tell it was originally a French-language church? I've never seen an image of Joan of Arc in person before.
These are from the Basilica of Mission Dolores, the mission around which the city was founded.
First altar I've seen for them since they were canonized.
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of my favorites!
The original altar for the mission
I have to be honest and admit that I took a pic of this information post about building the Golden Gate Bridge because it had the term "pile butt" in it.
Yes, I am 12.
One of the more "touristy" things we did was visiting the sea lions at Pier 39 on Fisherman's Wharf. Sea lions are cool.
The little dude in the foreground of this first pic was being quite the diva. He just sat there, all by himself, posing.
STRIKE A POSE!
They are so funny to watch. They just pile up on each other and crash out. Every so often, one pile will start wiggling and carrying on when the guy on the bottom gets tired of being on the bottom and makes his way noisily out. "ORT! ORT! ORT!" (That's sea lion for "Get your fat ass off my nose!")
We joked about bringing one home for Chiquito, but we were afraid it would sleep on him and smash him. Chiquito would so not be well for that.
While I was watching this one particular pile, something, uhm, interesting happened.
The one on the left with the flipper sticking out? See him? Well, he rolled over...and popped this huge erection! I am not kidding. Everyone on the dock saw it and cracked up. By the time I got the phone up for a pic, it had subsided somewhat, but it's still a little bulgy.
Sea lion chubby!
And...we've descended into sea mammal porn! You only thought this blog was all about yard sales and comic books. DON'T LOOK ETHEL!
We also managed to enjoy some special treats. We went to the Ghiradelli chocolate shops in Ghiradelli Square for an ice cream creation. Once again, the spoon was faster than the camera.
BURP!
And it's not a trip to San Francisco without an It's It! They are sooooooo good!
Well, that's the trip through my eyes. I'll have Keith's view as soon as it's ready. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have any walrus woody in it. That kind of stuff only happens to me. I also still have to talk about the thrifts.
That was such a fun trip, every bit as awesome as it used to be, except for one thing.
It's an awfully hard place to get change for a buck.
Every so often, I have this fear that I'll have nothing to ramble about come Monday. Most of my weeks are just not that interesting. Like this last one for example, where all I did was try, unsuccessfully, to catch up with stuff.
Seriously, I have so much posting, house cleaning, pricing and photo taking to catch up on that it is not even funny. I have declared a moratorium on yard sales until I get all this stuff done and, more importantly, out of the house!
There really isn't that much to share this time, but my blogging has been so very much off-kilter lately that I feel I do need to put something up. Hell, this is the second week in a row that Monday Rambles is going up on a Tuesday. Sigh!
I know that my quirky, eccentric nature is part of my charm--well, that and my boyish good looks--but this is getting to be a little ridiculous.
There are some things that I want to write about, but within the context of other things, so I need to hold off a little bit on them. Plus get organized. Plus get caught up. Plus do some other stuff.
It's a never-ending cycle, I tell you!
Ironically enough, this may be the most rambly ramble I've done in a while. Much ado about nothing and all that.
I can say that June has been a really good booth sales month. A very nice bounce-back from May. I just need to ponder how to keep that going. Interestingly, after I cleaned and spruced the place last week, my sales actually dipped! Not precipitously, but they were off for several days. That's not the first time that has happened either. Sometimes, my spaces seem to defy the generally accepted common logic.
There's a post in that somewhere.
Oh great! Something else to throw on the list.
I think I'll go. I need to trim my mustache. (That's on the list, too. I'm getting shaggy here.)
Scan tomorrow. Think I'll do some thrifting after that's done. The yard sale moratorium does not extend to the thrifts. Yes, I am inconsistent. Also eccentric and boyishly handsome and shaggy.
No Mazda shot today, although I did hit one church sale yesterday. The only thing of note I picked up was a school desk. Yes, another school desk. Couldn't resist. It was a flip top.
Instead, today we have a backpack shot.
Believe me when I say that this thing is STUFFED!
I love that backpack. It holds a TON. It may be the best 50 cent yard sale purchase I ever made. And it's stylish too!
So what do you think is in this thing? If you've been paying attention, you already know.
The problem with doing a mid-week update post, like I did last Thursday, is the potential to take the wind out of the sails of the Monday Rambles post, which is supposed to be my regular weekly update post. Not that I'm trying to be some kind of kind of strict literalist when it comes to my posting schedule, but I did start doing certain posts on certain days so that readers might have a idea about what was coming up. Assuming, of course, that I actually do post regularly.
I purposefully kept Thursday's post a little sparse, so that I would for sure have some things to ramble on about today. Now it is time to expound a bit.
By the way, I am aware that it's Tuesday. In the afternoon. Late afternoon.
Bad blogger. TREATMENT UPDATE
Last Tuesday was treatment number four, so it's time for me to have another scan to see if this immunotherapy thing is working. I'll do that a week from this Wednesday, then get the results the following Tuesday when I go for treatment number five.
At this point, I seem to be tolerating the drug fairly well. I'm not having any of the nausea/diarrhea issues, except on infrequent occasions. The same for the other main side effects. I'm still having to watch my blood sugar closely, but that's really it. I do get fatigued, but that is worst on the day of the infusion and the day after. Otherwise, I really only have fatigue issues when I go too hard too long without rest breaks. And those can carry over to the next day, usually resulting in a day in.
All in all, if this has to be my condition and status for a while, I can tolerate and live with it.
At this point, the treatment is so new that the docs still don't know how long it will last. They honestly don't know when to end the protocol. The first people to receive this drug are still receiving it every three weeks, two and a half years later. This makes me a little uneasy, mainly from a payment point of view. What if insurance gets tired of covering a never-ending treatment?
The current line of thinking seems to be that they'll be able to make that call soon, based on the experiences of those earlier patients, but that I should be prepared for at least two years of treatments. I guess this makes me "cutting edge" or something.
And that makes me think I should dye my hair pink, pierce my nose with a safety pin, and form a punk band called the Gall Bladders. I've never been "cutting edge" before.
I'm not trying to make any predictions or get any hopes up until I have that scan.
On a related note, I seem to be mostly over that damn cold now. Thank goodness. I agree with everyone who said that summer colds are the worst. Because they are.
BOOTH UPDATE
May was a struggle. I finally ended the month with an okay total. Not great, but okay and totally acceptable. Since last June, I have managed to top a thousand in gross sales every month. Sometimes, it's waaaaaaay over and others it's just barely over. My goal this year has been to get things to a consistent level every month. I want that thousand to be my net.
So far, June has been good to me. Sales have been consistently high and I am way ahead of where I was last month at this time. Furniture has started moving again, something that wasn't happening last month. Also, comic books are flying out of the booth in large amounts on an almost daily basis. I'm cautiously optimistic.
The most surprising part of my sales this month is that my booth has been totally trashed for weeks. After ten days in SF, plus several days of cold and other distractions, calling the place a "wreck" is an understatement. I spent today pulling everything out of the end booth and completely rearranging it. Now, I'll need to get a load of stuff ready to go over, so I can restock and do the big rearrange on the aisle booth.
The mall moved a bunch of showcases that used to be across the aisle from my endcap booth across the store, with the intention of creating more booth spaces. I requested three of them, hoping to move my aisle booths up closer to my other ones, plus pick up a space to move the books and comics into and expand my selection. Turns out they're only making six new booths and they've had multiple requests for those spaces. To be fair, they're going to hold a lottery for the spaces, one per vendor who gets drawn. I guess we'll see what happens.
Since it's only possible to maybe get one of those spaces, I'll use it for the books and comics if I get it. That will pull the rest of my book stock out of storage, plus I'll also need a bunch of the shelves I'm storing. Moving the books and comics out will let me move new shelves into the end booths and get more boxes out of storage, plus a few more pieces of small furniture. It would be nice to make a dent in that stash.
In case I don't get picked, I went ahead and told the manager that I would like to pick up a space for the books and comics for July. I think it's a move I need to make, even if I can't get one right near my current booths. For all the sales, it is really hard to keep the comics and books neat. They need a space away from my "curated" furniture spot.
WEEKEND UPDATE
Joy posted recently about the advantage of a church sale: lots of good loot in one place. Usually. For the first time ever, the largest and best church sale of the year let me down. Miserably. Part of the issue was a couple that had somehow managed to snap up all the best furniture within minutes of the sale opening. Seriously, we got there about ten minutes after it opened and most of the furniture had sold signs on it. There weren't even that many people there yet! I watched the buyers loading up as we were leaving. The furniture that was left was either unsuitable for my needs or overpriced.
As far as the other stuff goes, the volume was way down. This is the place that usually has about six rooms full to the brim with stuff for sale. There were still six rooms, but they were only about half full. It was still a lot of stuff, but not in comparison to previous years. The quality was way down too. There just wasn't that much to be excited about. The toy room in particular was a huge letdown. Last year, I made four trips through this one room alone, buying armloads each time. This year I didn't buy anything there! You read that right. I left a toy room empty-handed. Me. Really.
One of the shoppers remarked to one of the church volunteers about the drop in the amount of items for sale. The volunteer kind of looked over her shoulder, lowered her voice, and said:
"I hate to put it this way, but it kind of depends on how many people in the church have died recently. Or moved into assisted living."
Talk about killing your shopping buzz. Now I'm feeling guilty about all the good years of shopping I've enjoyed at this church! Welcome to the Dark Side of Resale!
Somebody leaving the sale told Keith about another church sale nearby that had lots of stuff, so we decided to hop over to that church, then hop back for the rest of the neighborhood sale around the church. Yes, Mazda can hop. Mazda's talents are limitless.
That sale turned out to be a bust--lots of stuff, but way overpriced. They weren't open to bargaining either, since they were raising money to build a well in Africa.
On the way back to the other neighborhood, we detoured for a different neighborhood sale and ended up spending the day there. The majority of what was in Mazda came from this neighborhood. By the time we were through there, the van was full, so we called it a day. Sometimes, serendipity is good for the soul. And the inventory.
Most of you all called the green chairs in Mazda. There were four of them. They are heavy and quite sturdy.
I didn't realize that this pic of these cool MCM tables came out so badly until it was too late. Somehow I didn't notice the chair legs flying across the front of the camera when I was taking the picture. It was hot and I was sweaty.
The tables are the round things.
We got the tables as part of a package deal with two small cabinets that were nothing special, but the price was right. I didn't get pics of them. I also didn't get the two directors chairs and the small book case I bought the funniest little woman. When Keith walked up to the sale, she grabbed a mirror and shoved it in his face. "You need to buy this mirror!" I hope she wasn't trying to make a comment about his beard.
Coming up, I'll show the smalls. Later in the week, the San Francisco finds. Finally. And the junk set out stuff. And the San Francisco pics. And some other stuff. And the path to world peace and inner contentment. Maybe.
REST OF THE WEEK UPDATE
This is booth week. Most everything I'm working in is related to getting my booths back in order. I'm planning in wrapping that up by Wednesday evening, so I can rest on Thursday. We have tickets to see Todd Snider play Thursday night, so I want to take it easy that day. Friday, I can see some thrifting happening. This weekend is Louisville's big annual nerdfestthe Derby City Comicon. I got half price tickets through Groupon. I'm pretty excited, as one of my favorite cartoonists is going to be a guest.
Of course, I'll be getting my shop on, but I'll be looking for stuff for me and the collection, instead of resale. Still, if an unbelievable deal pops up...
SHOUT OUTS UPDATE
I forgot to mention that the wonderful Lorraine of Clamco celebrated her fifth blogiversary right before we went on our trip. That's a lot of good reading! She offers plenty of good information about re-selling along with entertaining stories about daily life.
Super blog friend Linda celebrated a milestone birthday last week! Happy Belated Birthday wishes to her! Woo hoo!
Last week, my most beloved and admired Emmylou Harris received what is considered to be the most prestigious music award in the world, Sweden's Polar Prize. This award is considered the Nobel Prize of music. Personally, I think this is entirely deserved. There is simply no one else like her in music. Watch her acceptance speech here to see what I mean. One of the coolest things about the award ceremony is that First Aid Kit, an amazing duo from Sweden, got to perform their sublime song "Emmylou" for her. Awesome. There are lots of great clips from the ceremony available featuring a variety of artists performing Emmylou's music. Well worth checking out.
In fact:
Can't think of a better note to sign off on. Got to go load the van.
Welcome to the first anniversary Mazda shot! The sales we went to yesterday are annual ones. It was at these sales last year that I first realized exactly how much Mazda could hold.
Happy Anniversary Mazda! And thanks for all the dutiful service. All my life I wanted a mini-van, I just never realized it until last year.
One of the few shows we could get on TV when I was a kid and we were stationed in Germany:
Can't do that one without this one:
There aren't nearly as many Hee Haw clips on YouTube as you might expect. Pity that. Here's a nice overview of the show, although I do think it overstates the importance of Oklahoma to the origin of Hee Haw just a tad. The full documentary that most of this material comes from is linked on that page. I haven't seen it yet, but plan on that tonight.
I just love it when you all call me "young." Tee hee!
Yes, I am aware I have been absent for way too long after our return from San Francisco. No, that absence wasn't exactly planned. Have you ever heard about needing a vacation to recover from your vacation? That's almost, kinda what happened to me. But, not exactly.
So, let's run down the past week and a half.
TUESDAY (JUNE 2): We got back, early in the morning. Slept in the next day. Keith started taking on a cold on the trip back and woke up feeling poorly. We ran by the Peddlers Mall to check out the booth, which was such a mess that I didn't even want to deal with it. (I was still really tired.) By the time we got home, I was starting to feel poorly.
WEDNESDAY (JUNE 3): I stayed in a tried to kick the cold, without much luck.
THURSDAY (JUNE 4): Ditto. And ditto on the luck, too.
FRIDAY (JUNE 5): Junk set out weekend in our neighborhood started, and I stayed in. I am such a baby when I have a cold. Cancer? I can manage that. A cold? I need to take to my sick chamber for a week and moan and snuffle and stuff.
SATURDAY (JUNE 6): Stayed in. No yard sales for me!
SUNDAY (JUNE 7): Stayed in during the day, but ventured out in the evening to check out the junk piles. Made a few finds. Went back to bed.
MONDAY (JUNE 8): Woke up feeling better. Decided it was time to get to the booth, after hitting a few junk piles first. The pickings turned out to be so very good that I ended up spending most of the day combing the neighborhood, going through people's trash. This is such a glamorous profession.
TUESDAY (JUNE 9): Treatment day! Went to the cancer center for number 4, then home to bed, as the post-infusion fatigue set in.
WEDNESDAY (JUNE 10): The combination of the post-treatment tiredness and the resurgence of the blasted cold kept me in.
THURSDAY (JUNE 11): Felt much better, so finally got to the booth. It was not pretty. It still isn't. Sigh.
I'm feeling a good deal better today. The cold seems to finally be receding. I'm down to a residual cough. Keith is better as well. Just in time, too. The biggest church sale of the year is tomorrow, along with the neighborhood that surrounds the church. I'll for sure have a Mazda shot for Sunday, as this sale last year was the birth of the Mazda shot.
I know I still have a lot of San Francisco stories, pics, and finds to share with you all. I'm going to do my best to get caught up with all of that next week, including emails and blog comments. I just wanted to let you all know that everything is okay on this end.
We got in late last night early this morning. Good to be back home. Flight went smoothly, if long. We were afraid at one point that we might miss our connection, but it all worked out.
The wifi at our hotel was so spotty that I gave up on the idea of the photo dump I was planning for yesterday. Complicating things even more, the laptop seems to not want to install Dropbox, which I do not understand at all. I was even going to try it from the airport while we waited for the plane, but I could not get on their wifi. Sometimes, technology is frustrating.
Give me a couple of days to get everything sorted out and edited, unpacked and photographed and washed and put away and I'll have a travelogue and some pics for you all. Today, I've got to go see how bad the booth looks. Another damn shelf sold yesterday. It's occurred to me that every shelf I've put in that exact spot has sold lately. I need to ponder that.
We had a vociferous welcoming committee last night.
This was the longest we've ever been away from him, and he had a lot to say about it. He even woke us up every so often to say it again. Poor little guy,
That pic, by the way, is your Chiquito of the Month for June. Welcome to the Eddie-torial Comments age of multi-purposing! Woo hoo!
