Yard Sale, Craigslist Etiquette and Random Whining

So I've been gearing up for a yard sale for quite some time, and originally planned it for last weekend, but then I got sick and just wasn't prepared so I pushed it back a week.

Then after pushing it back a week Thursday rolls around and I'm still completely not prepared enough to start a yard sale the next morning, so I decide to do Saturday only.

I realized quickly that Friday's do the best in OKC for some strange reason.  I guess that is when all the hardcore yard sale folks come out because even though we had a steady stream of traffic, in comparison to previous years we were really lacking foot traffic.

By the end of the day we didn't do too shabby, a couple hundred bucks in our pocket, but we still had MANY big ticket items left that I was sure would have sold.

I'm also learning that at yard sales, you actually can make more on the tiny dollar here, five dollars there items than the big ticket things.  I decided that I would list some of our larger items online at Craigslist thinking that it would be less headache.

It wasn't.

I was wrong.

REALLY wrong.

Sometimes everything goes smoothly on Craigslist with the transaction.  You post an item for said price, person contacts you in kind an courteous manner.  They show up at said time, hand you cash, pick up the said item and are on their happy little way.

I said SOMETIMES.

There are several things that people do to annoy me on Craigslist, but I'm gonna stick to the top THREE of my Craigslist pet peeves.

Craigslist Idiot #1 "What is the lowest that you are willing to go."

Really? (In my best Amy Poehler voice)  CI?  (craigslist idiot)  Really?  If I wanted to sell my $40 item for $10 I would have posted it for ten dollars, not $40.  I understand negotiation, and wanting to get the best deal possible, and even I expect a little price negotiation and haggling, but lets learn how to do it properly.  Quote me an offer of an actual dollar amount and we can go from there.  Coming right out and asking me though "How low are you willing to go?" Really? Makes me insane.

CI #2 - "Can you please txt me a pic of it?"

Really?  I am one of those Craigslist shoppers that 99.9% of the time I will not even LOOK at your add if it does not contain photos.  Therefore I always do my buyers the courtesy of adding a quick photo or two to my posting.  Asking me to text a photo of the picture to you (while using short text) just makes me irate.  I mean REALLY? My response to this last night was the following "there were photos added to the post.  Here is a link once again to my post showing the photos." and I sent them a link.

CI #3 - "Can you deliver the item?"

Ok, I guess that maybe I may be the CI in this circumstance for not posting "pickup only" but sometimes I just think that is a given.  In the retail world I do not call up Petco and ask them to deliver me a dog crate, I go and pick up the item that I want.  If you don't want to pick it up sometimes stores WILL offer a delivery option but REALLY you have to expect a fee for this, and you definitely can't be trying to talk me down on my price while asking me to drive an HOUR to deliver you a DOG CRATE.  Really?  There is a section on Craigslist informing you where I'm located in the city so please don't act shocked when I tell you my nearest crossroads folks.

Ok, I promise I'll stop my rant now.

So, I got the purple sofas out of my den.

Here is what my den looked like if you recall:

Those overstuffed sofas just were not doing it for us anymore.  They were taking up a TON of space.  They never sold in the yard sale, but I have a couple interested folks on Craigslist, so we will see how it goes.

I've gone back in forth in my wonderful world of crazy indecisiveness over the past week whether to try to recover these two Wingback chairs that I currently have in my possession or just buy new chairs for this room.

Recovering furniture is NOT an easy task, and since the two chairs are not matching I'm afraid that it will look odd.

When we got them side by side they really don't look THAT much different.  One is slightly bigger, but I plan on putting a table between the two of them so they won't be THIS close when complete.  Also maybe I could add a "his" and "hers" pillow in each chair just to be kinda cute. 

Right now I'm like 99.9% sure that I'll recover them. 

I will probably change my mind tomorrow.

I tell you folks, I'm crazy.  I don't know how my husband puts up with me.  That's all I need is another project that I can't finish.

Oh, by the way, I finally got the baskets and fabric for my entryway bench.

forgive me for this craptastic photo of my bench

 We are almost there folks, almost there...

If I end up in the looney bin it's YOUR fault

That is my statement to my SUPPOSEDLY loving husband, whom has been "messing" with my head for several months.  So if I end up committed it is HIS fault.

We have a hospital nearby our home, and I drive by it nearly every day.  There is a cross on top of the hospital that gives the illusion of movement, however while driving by you can't really tell if it is moving or if it is an optical illusion (because it's right by a freeway that goes 70 MPH).  I used to be certain it did move until one night we were parked by the lake and I could see the hospital at night and the cross NEVER moved an inch.  This is when I started to question myself.

I have gone on and on about this thing daily for the past year, and state that I'm going to take a lawn chair and park on the lawn in front of the hospital to PROVE once and for all that the cross does indeed move.  My husband would always tell me "you are crazy the thing does not move".

Well, last week as I drove by it the cross was facing west, but when I came home it was facing north!  I was SURE now that it does move.  This was proven.  I tell this to my husband that and he again tells me I'm totally off my rocker, and that it DOES NOT move.  We argue a bit but get nowhere.

Anyhow, last night we took the access road the entire way instead of the turnpike (trying to save money and not eat up our Pikepass unless we are in a hurry).  Well, the access road has stop lights, and I'm not driving so this gave me a perfect opportunity to truly LOOK at the cross on the building.  It moved.  I saw it move and there was no doubt it was rotating.

Jamin begins to laugh hysterically.  He said "From your hospital room when you had Evie I had a perfect view of the shadow of the cross."  He paused a moment to let this sink in "The shadow moved".  I felt like slapping him.

This he says was his little way of telling me not to doubt myself when I know something is true.  I say its a way to make your wife think she is absolutely crazy.  Thanks babe.

My roots may be brown, but I'm a blonde at heart.

Ok, I'm totally calling myself out here for being a total dumb-ass.

I went up to Cartridge World yesterday to refill my ink for my printer, came home and the big black ink wouldn't fit in the printer. So I look and notice it has a number 5 on it, while my other cartridges (CMYK) all have 8's on them. I realize the lady must have made a mistake. So, I pick up the phone and call. She informs me that I have to take off the cap on the ink, then it will fit in. Oh, duh, ok, I see that now.

It gets worse.

I go to print something and the printer won't turn on. I keep hitting the button and it finally comes to life. Lovely. I IM the hubby and tell him that I think our printer is going out because it won't power on very well. I go to print my document and it shuts off on me a second time. I sit here for five minutes and hit the button over and over again and it won't turn on. I'm getting extremely frustrated at this point, and I start hitting the machine and throwing a nasty hissy fit. I'm not kidding, I really wish I was. I hit the button again, and it turns on for a second then flips off. I started to envision myself as one of those people in the commercials that throw their computer equipment out the window (which of course I totally don't have the nerve to do), but I daydream about it for a bit while I fume.

Finally this light bulb (a dim one) goes off in my head. I'll check the power cord just to be sure. The printer was not plugged in. My first thought is that there is no power cord (yeah, it runs on little mice on wheels on the inside of the machine Jules), but then I realize it MUST have a power supply.

I trace the cord down to the floor and find it lying there, fallen out of the machine. I suppose the reason that it powered on to begin with is that it was barely hanging in there...and my little punch/hissy fit to the machine gave it it's final nudge out of it's hole.

I REALLY thought I was smarter than this.

My roots may have turned brown, but deep down, I'm still a blonde at heart.