Lisa is no shopper. When she asked if I would go shopping with her today, my response was "What for? Chainsaws?" much to her amusement. But she likes flea markets and stuff, and an estate auction would be more her kind of thing. Plus, she needs some furniture.
The auction, though, proved to be a disappointment. The store I thought was being auctioned off was a different one. Although there were plenty of vintage items, there was almost no Depression Glass. It was a strange sale. The woman who owned the place had purportedly been a hoarder, and apparently had OCD tendencies. There were many of the exact same item. There were six or eight of a particular pattern, bowl, and color - just the exact same piece. There were bags and bags of buttons. There were boxes of glass shoes, and glass top hats. There were numerous "pickaninny" pieces. They're out of vogue for the most part, but like anything that they don't make any more, some of them are worth big bucks. There were a couple of those that went high, but for the most part they were (again) repetitive reproductions. I don't like it anyway, but even if I did it wouldn't be worth Rhonda dis-owning me to buy any of it.
the auction
The house was open too, and I wandered through. Although the tile floor in the bathroom was beautiful, and you could tell it used to be a nice place, there was a lot of really dated ornamental brickwork inside, and nothing had been changed or updated in at least forty years. It wasn't very clean either.
Ava was pretty good and patient through this. I was surprised. We weren't staying a long time though. There was no glass to speak of, and Lisa had wanted to go to look at the furniture, but the furniture on offer was pretty awful. She said as soon as she walked in the house, she knew nothing from that place was going home with her.
Ava, playing 'queen kitty' at the auction
We weren't there but a couple of hours. Lisa bought a small table for Cole's room, and I bid on a mirror. I've been looking for a new one for the bedroom. This one was really nice-looking, and I figured it would go higher than I wanted to pay for one at the moment. I hadn't even looked at it that closely. When it came up, though, Lisa told me to bid on it anyway. I did, and surprisingly got it for $10. When they passed it back to me though, I found out that the elaborate frame was made out of resin, not wood. I've never seen anything like it. I was disappointed, but I figure if it fooled me, it would fool the casual observer. The mirror in the frame is beveled and pretty nice - that alone was worth the price I paid. So I decided when I got home I'd put it up and see how I felt about it, even though it was a little more bedraggled upon close examination than it had seemed. It was an even better deal than I thought, because the bid had been recorded at $5, so with dealer premium I got it for $5.85. That's cheap as chips.
We were both hungry, and there was pretty much nothing on offer but junk, so we cashed out and headed to Columbia to meet Mom for lunch (Mom didn't come to the estate auction, she finds them depressing). The problem was that Ava had found her whiny britches somewhere. For some reason, she is extremely clingy with Lisa, and although Lisa was in the car, Ava was upset that she wouldn't hold Ava's hand. In the back seat. While she was driving. So Ava cried, screamed, and carried on all the way into town. By the time we got there, I was looking for a free-lance exorcist with a drive-through window. And thinking about crib death.
After a quick detour through a local Goodwill, in which we both turned up nothing, and Ava continued to channel the Forces of Darkness, we dropped by Mom's place and picked her up. Then it was off to Consignment 1st. This was where Mom had gotten her sofa. Although they had some really nice things today, they had some really nice prices on them. If I was going to spend that kind of money, I would just have gone ahead and bought new stuff and picked out exactly what I wanted (well, I would have if I were Lisa - we have very different taste - I don't usually buy new furniture). Additionally, for some reason, there was a surplus of white sofas today. (Who in the world buys all this white furniture? Have they no children? No pets? But I digress.) I did find a couple of Windsor juice glasses in Ruby Red. I have a set of the regular 10 oz. tumblers, but had never seen the juice glasses before. They weren't cheap, but they weren't outrageous either, so I couldn't resist. I bought the pair for $10.
Windsor 5oz. juice glass by Anchor Hocking in Ruby Red
We had to beat a fairly hasty retreat, since my precious niece turned a vase over on a glass-topped table (fortunately breaking neither), but since we weren't buying anything anyway that was no huge deal. We headed for Lizard's Thicket (which my mother loves) for lunch. At that point I was ready to eat just about anywhere.
After lunch, I was feeling revived. We headed out to Big Lots to see what was on offer in the way of furniture. Lisa was in the market for something distinctive, moderately modern, and cheap. Unfortunately, those things just don't go hand-in-hand usually. Her big complaint with the furniture at Big Lots was that it was 'all brown'. Well, as with most new things now, it did come in 8,000 eye-shattering colors of beige. Because that's what most people want. People are no more inclined to commit to a color now than they are to commit to a marriage, or RSVP to an invitation. It's all linked somehow, I'm convinced. At any rate, I had to have a talk with Lisa about her expectations. Unfortunately, as with many things, it's 'do you want it cheap or do you want it good' (or fast). Lisa hates to shop, and she didn't want to spend a ton of money for this furniture, which Ava will most likely destroy anyway. Plus we didn't have any way to get it to her house - she was going to have to have it delivered. So she was kind of boxed in. I hated it for her but I had to kind of lower her expectations.
After great hemming and hawing and much discussion, Lisa made her selections and set about arranging delivery. This was where I was impressed. Lisa completely discounts her power over men. I'm sure it can be annoying at times (having to swat all those men away constantly and all), but after today there can be no doubt that it exists. The Big Lots guy first knocked 25% off the delivery fee. He then snagged her the non-floor model of the TV cabinet she wanted (offering the other shopper a discount to take the floor model, which had minor scratches - there were only two left). He then told her they would deliver in about an hour. Although I was watching (as closely as I could while chasing Ava around the store to be sure she didn't wreak actual property damage or injure innocent by-standers), he did not in fact crawl on his belly like a reptile. Lisa of course thought nothing of this, because she lives her life this way, surrounded by willing slaves.
So we dropped Mom off at her place, stopped off for some ice cream, and headed home. I was exhausted. I turned on my laptop and amused Ava with cartoons (she had to unplug and move the TV for the delivery), then helped Lisa clear the room a bit so they could get in.
The furniture arrived right on schedule. After they brought it in, we unwrapped it and put the legs on, arranged the room, etc. I helped her figure out how to mount the television and got it on the stand. Then she got everything hooked up. Cole still wasn't home, so we arranged to meet him (along with the ubiquitous Zack) for dinner. After a pretty extensive wait (they had eaten earlier and were really in no hurry to get to the restaurant, we later found) we got the call and met them at a local Mexican place called El Poblano. It was pretty decent (although the twin fountains at the entrance made me have to pee).
After supper, Cole and Zack headed back to Zack's house, and Lisa and I headed for the house. We made a stop at the store on the way to get ingredients for waffles. I had brought my waffle iron just in case, and I planned on having a good breakfast tomorrow morning.
We put in a movie when we got back, and luxuriated on the new furniture, but we were all pretty wiped out. Ava had picked out The Castle of Cagliostro to watch tonight, but it's pretty long. I gave up the ghost not far in. It had been a very long day. As much as I adore every fiber of Ava's little body, after today I'm thinking there may be a reason why the good Lord didn't bless me with issue. I'm just sayin'.
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