you know, i don't even remember what i just wrote about.

There's nothing like having a neighbor who shows up with a bag of fresh from the garden organic produce. :) Just now it was tomatoes, and he's going to bring me some green tomatoes in the next day or two, he said. I requested them because of course we are in the south here, and I have been thinking about fried green tomatoes lately. I've only had them once this year and I've never cooked them myself, but I might as well give it a whirl. Our fried green tomatoes do not come out looking like tomatoes, by the way. They come out looking like an unspecific browned mashed-up and crispy food product, with perhaps some green underneath. Sounds delicious, I know. I never liked them until a few years ago. I still can't eat too much of it because it makes me a little queasy, with the grease, but it's yummy. I have this strong feeling that it will not be as yummy as when my mommy makes it, though. Ooh, and I think I still have some new potatoes left.

(do not get me started on new potatoes or how you CANNOT BUY THEM in this stupid town. i think i may have ranted about this every year that i've lived here, all five of them. i bought them out of state this year, and picked up some at a farmer's market out of town, and then my mom brought me a batch from my grandfather's garden. actually, they do have them at the farmer's market here, too, now, but just let me rant in peace, okay? not a big fan of our farmer's market, sadly.)

I need to be cleaning off my desk because it's driving me crazy, but I don't want to.

This past weekend was the big 127 yard sale thing, that goes through our town. It's the world's longest sale, running a few hundred miles or so. My parents always come down and spend the night with us and we all go out on Saturday. We've discovered that the key to these sales is to stay off 127 and avoid the places where people are set up in bunches, and stick to the subdivisions and houses just off of 127. They're less picked over, less expensive, less antiquey and less dealer-y. Also, my parents brought down a load of stuff that they have found at sales recently, including a play table in really nice condition. It's from the Disney store, and has a really cute removable mat on the top with roads and bridges and flowers and bushes. I had mentioned just recently that I'd like for her to have one, and then they found one that very weekend. I'm contemplating a train set of something, maybe at Christmas or her birthday...maybe. I don't know. I had also told Mom that I wanted to find a cash register for Evelyn because she is really interested in the process of shopping. I can't imagine why. She likes to scan things in stores and she wants to play with the credit card machine, etc, and I knew she'd love it. They found a really neat one at one of the first sales they went to (they came back and picked us up later this time, because M was sick and the baby was sleeping in.) and paid $3 for it. It's on a stand, with a check-out counter and a barcode scanner and everything. It's really cute, and Evie adores it. I laughed and said, "well, now she just needs play money!" And then we loaded ourselves into the car, drove a mile down the road, stopped at the first sale and... found a bag of play money. So, they had good yard sale request karma going on this time.

It was also fun because my niece came down with them, and I haven't gotten to see her much lately and now school is starting back for her this week. We had such grand plans this summer. Her and my mom were coming down to stay with me, and we were going to go here and there and everywhere. Alas, no. She is not really into yard sales, but I think she had a nice enough time. I finally gave her her eighth grade graduation gift, which was a basket of Stuff and some cash. I filled it full of school supplies and fancy shampoo and conditioner and gum and female things and lip gloss and nail polish and tylenol and disposable gloves (because she is a germaphobe..haha) and a "Cousins" picture frame that was supposed to have a picture of her and Evie but instead had two hastily drawn heads on a piece of copy paper to serve as placeholders until I get the picture printed (I didn't know she was coming), and all sorts of random things from my stockpile. She seemed pleased, and M heard her say that she felt so grown up and isn't that what a fourteen-year-old wants most anyway? :) It is amusing to me that I had more money in the gum than anything else in the basket.. they were $.45 after coupon and there were three of them in there. Just wait and see what kind of gift basket I come up with for the next wedding shower I go to.. :)

Also, I had been gone all day on Friday shopping, before I met up with the family. My new friend, Kelly, and I had gone to Lexington with the babies to shop at Kohl's and Target and Kohl's and Kohl's and Kohl's. It's a long story and I will explain later. But anyway, we had a really nice time. It's somewhat difficult to be out and about all day with two children but we had fun. I am going to get all used to having her around and then she'll move. I think they're expecting to move again in November.

In completely unrelated news.... among all the other crazy things that I will bother doing when it comes to saving money... I just sat on hold for five minutes to retrieve a PIN for a Mastercard debit gift card that only has $.35 left on it. I am sick of carrying this card around but I hated to throw it away knowing it had money on it still. Actually, I thought it was just a quarter. hehe.

And, that is just about all the fun and exciting information that I have today. Nap time is almost up and I didn't get much done, but I did post here and that is somewhat unique, of late. :)