heidi's blog

Today was our community yard sale, so of course I had to bop around & see what everyone had. I should have cleaned the house & had one of my own, but I'm either too busy or too lazy. Maybe next year.

Although it was a little warm & I'm not a fan of being out in the sun for too long, I put on my big, floppy hat & walked around & around. It was fun. Didn't find a whole lot, but then, I don't really need anything. :-p

I did find a couple of new monkeys to add to the collection, though. (Gads, I'm not supposed to have a collection. I didn't set out to have a collection. I don't need another collection!)

The first (on the left, though it's not a very clear picture) is a little wall sconce/votive holder. Kind of peculiar-looking, but cute, too, & he was only a dime. :-) I already hung him on my office wall. Whether or not I'll actually burn candles in him is a different story. What if he falls down? What if a cat knocks him over? What if I light a candle, then walk away & the whole house burns down? So we'll see. I may give him a test run & see how it works out.

The second is one of those stuffed monkeys with velcro on his hands so it can hang around your neck. I've got about six of these now...& don't need a single one of them. But they're cute & I like them, so I'm keeping them. So there! I actually hung this one on the front of my exercise bike...mostly just to get him out of the way for a while, but it turns out he looks really cute there, so I may leave him. We'll see how that works out after the next time I use my bike. Don't know if he'll flap around & drive me nuts or keep me from sticking a bottle of water in the holder or what. Again, we'll see. :-)

Oh, & I found a little set of frogs to add to that collection. (Not looking. Not trying to collect. These things just keep falling into my lap & I don't have the will to resist them!)


So that was my day, & now that I'm home, I need to get back to writing. Oh, & finding some clothes that seem to be MIA so I can start lining up my outfits & packing for RWA. :-p

I'm home, & rather than keep you in suspense, the winner of the Sherrilyn Kenyon Born to Be BAD book giveaway is...


Congrats, Bonia! Hope you actually have time to read it, what with a sick baby & all. But e-mail me with your mailing address & I'll send it out. :-D

So the reason I wasn't home yesterday is because I volunteered to help set up for the local AAUW (American Association of University Women) book sale. This is the first time I've ever done it because my mother just joined & members were allowed to bring friends & family members to help. Well, let me tell you, I can understand why! My goodness, is that a lot of work.

First, it was hot. Just before I left, it got cold & rained, so I changed from shorts into jeans. Big mistake. By the time I got there, it was hot again, & by the time we got to work, I pretty much wanted to strip out of my pants & run around in my underoos. The building we were in was air conditioned, but either A.) they didn't have it on, or B.) even if they did, it didn't make a difference because the doors were open to haul in all the books. So we were sweating & huffing & praying for a cold front to move in.

Second, there were a lot of boxes of books. We must have unloaded five or six truckloads, then we had to haul them into the building & to the correct tables, set them up, & sort them. Thankfully, they were mostly sorted already. Those university women are smart; they sort them bit by bit as the donations come in so it's less work before the actual sale.

I have to tell you, though, I had a blast. It's sad & pathetic, probably, but I actually enjoy that sort of thing. Since my house is full of boxes of books very similar to all of that, I was in my element. LOL Other folks were complaining or looking at it as work & I was like, "Are there any more? You mean we have to leave already?" Needless to say, the lady in charge told me she's putting me at the top of the list to help out again next year. I guess the unloading is the part they have the most trouble finding volunteers for, since it really is a lot of hard, heavy, sweaty work. But I was thanking her profusely for letting me help, so she's either delighted to have found me or maybe thinks I was smoking something in the parking lot before going in. *vbg*

Also yesterday, I hit a couple of yard sales. It was one of those "third time's a charm" thing, because the first two were uneventful, but the last was very productive. I found a couple of tops, a winter coat, & a ring. Now, I paid $40 for the ring, but you'll never believe this...it's 10K white gold with real diamonds. (Not big diamonds, mind you, but real ones.) At least that's what the little girl running the yard sale with her grandmother said.

Would I have simply taken her word for it? Give me a little more credit than that. *g* I actually didn't believe the diamonds were real at first, but I looked inside the band expecting to find that .925 stamp that verifies sterling silver. Instead, I found a stamp verifying it as 10k gold. And they wouldn't put fake diamonds in a real gold band, would they?

So I thought it was worth the risk, & the next step will be to take it to the jeweler & ask them to check it out. I'm expecting good things & it really is pretty. I'm wearing it now & will probably wear it at the RWA conference next month. If you're there, stop me & ask if I'm wearing my yard sale ring. :-D