Prettying Up the Joint

Fans, we have been busier than one-armed paper hangers--not hanging up wallpaper, but painting, cleaning, packing, and purging.  We also had a one-day-only! yard sale Friday which was epic, if we do say so ourselves.  And we are getting there.  The photographer comes at 11am on Tuesday, so our plan is to be show-ready Monday, when we will then leave and stay in a hotel before leaving for California Wednesday.  Right now, the upstairs and the porch are show-ready and thus, the bambini are no longer allowed in them as they leave a wake of happy destruction wherever they go.  The basement is also show-ready but only because everything had to be removed from it, so the the walls and floor could be painted since Minnesotans love, love, LOVE a basement for living in rather than storing things.  So one tries to pretty up the basement if one is selling one's house.  Whatever.  If Realtor Cindy says to do it, we're doing it.

So today, Julie and the bambini--but especially Joe--spent some quality time in the car.  They went to Joe's swimming class and Clara's Little Gym class, but the fun pretty much stopped there, though Julie tried her best.  They went to the bank (lollipops!), Target (Look!  It's Ms. Amanda!), Menard's ("We save big money!  We save big money!  When we shop Menard's!"), and--the piece de resistance: not one, but two transfer stations (town dumps).  Julie and Joe had to go to two dumps because the one 20 minutes away in a town called Brooklyn Center no longer accepts scrap wood.  Of course, because the scrap wood was conveniently piled on top of the scrap metal Julie and Joe were then dropping off first. But they saw someone tossing a TV so big it had to be lifted out of his F-150 with a fork lift.  Good times at the dump!  They also saw a mattress being lifted out of another pick-up with a fork lift, and then another one was in the offing!  Joe wanted to stay and watch, but there was a line of other folks waiting to get to the scrap metal bins so they couldn't stay for the show.  At the next dump--another 20 minutes away--Joe remarked to Julie that if they lived in the house across from the dump, they could just walk there.  Even though clearly (clearly) he was done riding in the car, he did agree with Julie that he didn't want to live across from a dump.

After that, the Js were off to the lamp repair store that's open, like, alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays, until 4:31pm.  Turns out, they "don't take in lamps anymore."  So they are paying the rent selling light bulbs which must be more lucrative than anyone ever even stopped to imagine.  The lamp-repair-turned-light-bulb-purveyor sent them to another lamp repair store, "Michael's".  It had a bowl with Jolly Ranchers on the counter and Michael is fixing our lamp.

There is light at the end of this tunnel.