Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween from the Tiars and Paige…..

and.....

Bid is 15. Do I hear 20?

I am a huge fan of garage sales and thrift stores. Something that I picked up from my mom, although I acquire a lot less stuff. Anywho....I hit my first auction this weekend with Rayna and Kelly. Paddy, Marc's mom, came along too.

I browsed the preview online the day before. I eyed a few things and Marc was curious about a vintage pinball machine. He said it could be his birthday gift if it was the right price. I set myself a little budget and off I went.

We signed in and obtained our numbers. I was 386. The auction had already begun as we started to make our way around the warehouse. There was so much more there than was on the website and I was immediately overwhelmed. I spotted a small bathroom stand with a drawer and made my first mark on my list. Paddy and I wandered off to look at all the stuff. When I turned around, they were holding up this small bathroom stand. I threw my hand up in the air. Did I hear 10? Then he started saying 20. I think. I started shaking. I had been outbid but was too afraid to bid again since I was not sure how much we were exactly at. I kept my hand down and the stand sold for $7.50!?!?

I made my way back to my pack. I felt safer there and was sure that I could get the hang of it with Kelly and Rayna next to me. We made our way to our seats. The green velvet chaise lounger was coming up soon. I set a price in my head. The bidding started and my hand just went up. We started low at 10. It went up. With no hesitation, my hand flew up. After a few more flings of my hand, I now owned the chaise lounger for $30. Oh, success. It was an amazing feeling. I was so excited. I had just won my first bidding war. This rules. So much better than ebay with it's shipping charges and week long bidding.

Rayna and I checked out the jewelry and I found the ring that I had seen the day before. I liked it in person as much as I did online. It was to be mine. Oh, and I passed some cute star-shaped plates on the way back to our seats. I thought they would be perfect for Lola. I saw the pinball machine and found a beautiful retro art deco armoire right next to it. We went and sat back down and waited for these items to come up for bidding. Rayna won a necklace and earring set, a very intricate, beautiful beaded purse and a mink hat. My ring came up and after a little war, it was mine. By now I am hot. The star plates came up and since no one bid, they became mine with a wave of 386!

Before the pinball machine, I bid on a piece of art that I won. Then the armoire came up. The bidding started so low, I couldn't keep my hand down. This piece was meant to be mine. I won it at an amazing price of $45. It was commented by many as to how great of a deal that I got. I was almost too excited to bid on the pinball machine which was next. I did bid on it and warred with someone behind me. I went as high as $175. I knew it was worth much more after Marc had done some research, but at that price, I wasn't sure. He got a great deal at $200. I also picked up a mirror, a curio cabinet and a great 6 gallon crock and then had to pay and leave. It was too much fun and I was out of control. We even had great fun with the auctioneers.

Here are some pictures of my successful bidding:

Lola on the new chaise

My new piece of art - I really like it more now than I did then!

My new crock (Marc think I shouldn't even bother to post a picture, but you wanted to see it, huh?)

My new ring. Just needs to be resized.

Lola's new plates.



And the new armoire. It was VERY heavy. Marc was not very happy with all of my purchases. Even more so when he saw how heavy this was and that we had nowhere to put it....yet.  I think more of my lack of control. I am not allowed to buy anything bigger than a microwave without discussing it.

Future auctions are not out of the picture. It will just have to be more controlled. As Rayna said, I have to be less of an enabler. I can't wait!!! Just writing this blog is making me excited. I wonder what my next bidding number will be?

These are a few of my favorite things....

I took Marc out to sushi for his birthday on Friday. We had not been happy with our latest choices. Sushi Pier 2 where the service was beyond horrible and when brought to their attention, it only got worse with attitude. Sushi 7 has a fantastically designed restaurant with poor service, but at least they knew without it having to be brought to their attention. Anyway, after reading a review in the RGJ, we decided to head to Rickshaw Sushi (try saying it three times fast). It was formerly Rickshaw Paddy which I had only been to once many years ago. We were immediately greeted the moment we walked in. You can do all-you-can-eat from a table or the bar. We sat sat at the bar. Everything happened so quickly from there. Our drinks were ordered and brought right away and the sushi chef asked if we like cream cheese and ordered us an appetizer (these are included in the all-you-can-eat menu.) It was a deep fried egg roll with cream cheese and seafood. He cut it and drizzled it with a sweet sauce. It was a very elegant looking egg roll and so yummy. The sushi menu was filled with rolls that had ingredients I didn't know you could put into sushi. The Tundra Roll had mango, macadamia and balsamic in it. (I meant to take a to-go menu to really know what was involved, but totally spaced it as we left.) It had salmon on top which he charred with a hand held torch. The Kwon had charred cheese on it topped with a wasabi tobiko. These were so beautiful and delicate - not to be dipped in soy sauce. These are not rolls that belonged in an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. We ordered mussels. These were huge and not shriveled up and too chewy which you find in other restaurants. YUMMY! Another thing that caught my eye was the tempura banana with ice cream for dessert.  Since I have given up dairy temporarily, it will have to wait until next time. Marc and I were thrilled from the moment we entered. The all-you-can-eat dinner is $20.95. You can get cheaper in town but surely not better!

Here is a picture of the Kwon roll with Kwon. He's worked in many sushi restaurants in Reno and made the menu for Rickshaw Sushi.





I have more to blog on but am running out of time. Stay tuned for my first auction experience. It was CRAZY!

New! New! New!

So, I finally got around to loading some new photos to the Lola and Sidney albums around here. While I was at it, decided I should upgrade Wordpress too. Did that, and that led to upgrading a couple of the plugins for it, which led to upgrading Gallery because the new plugin needed a new version of Gallery to work, so now I'm uploading 24MB of Gallery software while I write this. Computers. Can't live with 'em, can't toss 'em in a landfill or the heavy metals will pollute the groundwater.

Did find something fun to consume all that spare time I'm always complaining about having - Google Image Labeler. Exactly like the ESP game that's been around for quite some time. I actually read an interesting article about the guy who invented that; really interesting idea, getting "the masses" to perform menial tasks by making it fun. Go forth, have fun, and make Google Images more useful.

Still here

Man!  Two kids will keep you really busy!  We are all still here!  We are all still in one piece. Here are some photos to prove it:





We have a two year old that uses the potty!!  Yippee!!  Less diapers.  Sid is starting to smile a lot and coo. He loves Lola.  We have sold the Vue and are enjoying the Eurovan!  Paige had a birthday. Nana comes next week. Marc and Lola both have birthdays coming up.  Halloween costumes are ready to be worn.  Wait until you see!

Links

Embarrassed by how long it's been since my last post (over 2 weeks!) and knowing that I absolutely MUST add some new photos, as well as update Wordpress, I humbly offer a couple of worthy links for your consumption:

Another "presidential candidate match" thing and, a kind of funny, kind of useless, translation thingamajig.

Photos and upgrade to come soon, really!