Logical Succession

As we were compelled to empty the basement for the waterproofing work, it seemed a good time to take stock of what was actually down there and possibly cull the herd a bit. Lady Epiphany & family helped out immensely by getting their township to host a town-wide yard sale, so we filtered items into three piles, scrap, keep, and hope-to-sell (hts). Scrap and hts seemed to be the biggest piles, so there's a bit of a chance we'll actually have some elbow room in the basement even after we can move things back in. We dragged the hts pile over to the next town and enjoyed modest success at the yard sale Saturday, coming home with a bit of cash even after substantial investments in beer and coffee.

Things I've determined are necessary for a good yard sale:

1. Friends. Having a yard sale on your own is just not as much fun.
2. Beer. Having a yard sale without is just silly.
3. Firemen. Isn't everything better with firemen around?

Things every yard sale should have but which will never sell:

1. A lawnmower for $1. It even works - the price was clearly too low.
2. A Nordic Trak. Nobody wants such a heavy drycleaning stand.
3. An overpriced antique doll's high chair. It annoys pesky neighbors.

On Sunday, we celebrated Lauren's fourth birthday with the all-for-nothing end bit of the yard sale (still no takers for the lawnmower or Nordic Trak), a lot of coffee, some beer, some family, some friends, good food, a load of presents (good thing a bunch of toys sold off at the yard sale!), and ice-cream cake. The kids all ran themselves silly and fell asleep as soon as we got them near their beds (well, mine did, at least). In all, a great weekend!