And, I had big plans to decorate my whole new diningroom for Christmas, not just the mantel, but we don't have a diningroom for me to decorate because...
A whole list of reasons.
- I can't get rid of the electric stove until I can get my gas oven door seal replaced,
- Can't (or more like, don't really want to) move the big fridge until we get the new kitchen flooring done,
- Haven't worked on the new kitchen floor, because...
- We may or may not need to have someone come and jack up and level the front of the house.
- I still haven't sorted through all the boxes of books stacked in the (future) diningroom floor,
- I don't want to get rid of, but don't know what to do with my parents' old console stereo that is currently living in the (future) diningroom. There's no room for it in the livingroom, and it's too heavy to move upstairs.
I had a big plan to clean out half of the storage room off the carport and make it into a Hunting/Sports closet/area/room for all J's hunting and fishing gear. Saw some neat ideas on Pinterest.
It's another, "I can't do this until I do that" fail.
In the meantime, the hunting gear lives in the storm shelter...the closet under the stairs. So at the moment, J has everything dragged out and spread all around in the livingroom.
My birthday is tomorrow.
(And my 25th wedding anniversary, although I don't really *celebrate* that anymore.)
So my Aunt calls me up to ask me what I have planned for my birthday.
Nothing, because J and R has to work, and even if they didn't, probably still nothing.
I invited her up and told her I'd cook some homemade chicken & dumplins, or lasagna.
Instead, she wants me to come to her house, and says she'll cook chili for me.
Here's the thing.
I like staying at home.
I don't like eating.
I'm not a foodie, I don't really like food too much, and mostly eat to survive.
Of the foods I do like, chicken & dumplins would be near or at the top of the list.
Lasagna is okay, but mostly it's a sentimental thing. Mom used to only ever cook lasagna for our birthdays. It was The Birthday Meal. Never any other time of the year.
So, it's MY birthday, but I have to leave my house, to go eat chili, which I eat about twice a week anyway because it's quick and easy to fix, and I tend to fix a lot of anything that's quick and easy.
Grump, grump, grump, grump.
Okay, well, here's a thing.
I belong to a local Auction house group on Facebook. The lady posts things for auction about twice a week.
Mostly I don't play because - hello, don't need more stuff - and also it seems like there are people on there who just have to win. They bid on so many things, surely they don't really want it all. But they come along near the end of the auction and outbid everyone by 50¢.
Anyway. So the other night the auctions were coming to an end, and there were several items that didn't have any bids. I thought, "that's kindly odd, surely that's worth at least a dollar" about some of the items.
There was a brown metal folding chair with a folding desk thing - the chair alone was worth more than a dollar - and a pretty large group of Stuff: Christmas ornaments, a toy stove, some books, baskets...I can't remember what all. A lamp, and a grill, I can't remember what else. There were a few things.
I thought, maybe the things just needed moved back to the top so they could be seen. So I bid on some things...things I thought were worth at least a dollar, in case I was wrong and ended up stuck with the things. There was still some other stuff that I didn't want to risk ended up having to buy.
Sure enough, most everything I bid on, I quickly got outbid on.
Except this grill.
It was listed as a Vortex Charcoal grill.
Nothing else, size or anything. It looked like J's small tabletop charcoal grill.
When the auction ended and no one outbid me, I was like, "ohhhh noooo, what did I dooo?". What did the others know, that I didn't know? Obviously there's something wrong, that no one thought a grill was worth any more than a dollar.
I went back and looked at the picture and thought I knew what was the problem, it didn't look to have a lid.
Ah well, I said to myself, J's always tossing out grills because the bottoms burn/rust out and get holes eventually, but the lids are always in good shape. We'll just keep this one and when the tabletop grill we already own goes bad, he can use the lid with this one.
Since he was in the area anyway, and had a couple of hours between leaving the firehouse and needing to be at the ambulance station, I texted and asked him to go by and pay for/pick up the grill.
He called me later and was all, It was only a dollar? It's a nice grill! Brand new!
I was like, did it have a lid?
He said, Yeah it has a lid!
The lid was upside down inside the grill, with the feet and handles - and, um, other stuff, as I was to discover - inside, the racks on top, and taped all together with packaging tape.
I took it apart to check it out, and found out it's really a gas grill, not a charcoal grill!
And bonus! Auction winners that showed up first thing the next morning, with cash, to pick up their item got a goody bag.
It had some chocolate balls, and some awesome Christmas knick-knacks: a ceramic Santa boot, metal/glass angel, and a (porcelain/china/glass?) bell marked "JAPAN", saying "With love at Christmas".
Okay. I'm getting up from here and going to do something, even if it's just one thing.
Something is better than nothing.
Sitting here whining and complaining sure isn't getting anything done.
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