Cookbookaholic

The Car Has Had It

I think I’ve mentioned that my car has been acting up since our trip to Hilton Head on July 4^th. It’s having a time staying cranked. I’ve had to learn how to quickly shift into Drive and hope that it catches. If not, the car cuts off and I have to hope and pray that it I can get it to work the next time I crank it up.

There’s a fear that comes with this. My drive to work is about an hour up I-85. Right now, there’s a ton of construction and expansion work going on…meaning that three lanes are down to two. Those lanes are lines with concrete barriers and there’s no shoulder. If my car decides to suddenly stop working, I’m up the creek without a paddle…with traffic behind me doing 65 mph. It’s not a great feeling…more like perpetual dread.

Saturday’s aren’t as bad. At least I’m not in traffic, but when the car starts acting up I know that I have to head home. I’ve missed out on some sales that way, but I’ve chosen going home over getting stranded. And I’ve been fortunate for the most part, aside from an embarrassing and frustrating stall at a Zaxby’s drive-thru. But today, my luck was getting ready to run out on me.

My first sale was a bust, but the one that had specifically mentioned cookbooks was way far down. I took a chance and drove it. When I got there, they were open early and I couldn’t find the cookbooks. When I asked, they went inside and brought out what I thought was a disappointing small stack. Not wanting to walk away empty-handed, I bought the only two cookbooks that looked interesting.

China Moon Cook Book (Barbara Tropp) and The All-American Cowboy Grill (Cheryl Rogers-Barnett, Ken Black & Jim Clark).

I make my way back down the driveway to my car and give it a crank. Then, I try to shift it into gear. Silence. Ugh…..

I try it again and it cuts off again when I try to shift it into Drive. I sit there for about five minutes and try it again. It still cuts off. I may have finally reached the end. My car has had it…whatever is wrong, it’s done. I call the hubby and he says he’ll be on his way. After about twenty minutes, I give it another, last-ditch try. It cranks and when I try to quickly shift it into gear….it catches and I’m able to move forward. Freedom!

I head home and leave a message for a nearby mechanic. It’s time to cough up the dough and get whatever this is fixed. The car has had it….and so have I.

Bell’s Estate Sale

I finally got the email from Bell. They’ve sold all the items from the backyard shed and now it’s time for the estate sale in the main house. Only, here’s the deal. My mom fell and broke several of her toes. She’s had my brother looking after her for the past week and now it’s my turn to help her out.

I’ll have to travel down and spend the weekend with her so Bell’s estate sale isn’t going to happen for me. Oh well. 

A Bit of a Dry Spell

I’ve had a bit of a dry spell for the past few weeks. One Saturday it was drizzling and as I got onto the Interstate, the bottom fell out. That little voice inside my head said “just go home.” It really wasn’t worth driving around in a monsoon. The next week, I found zero cookbooks. No one had them…and none had even thought about including them in their sales. Ugh!

This next Saturday was a tight timeline for me. I had to fly up to Philadelphia for the Frugal Chef Class. My flight was at 9:20am and I didn’t have a lot of time to hit the sales before I had to get to the airport.

As I did my usual Friday evening research, I come across an ad listing “a large collection of cookbooks.” Wow! Maybe I could just go to this one sale and be done? How cool would that be? One trip, pick up some great finds and the off to the airport. Too good to be true.

Looking more closely at the location, I see that this fantastic, answer-to-my-prayers garage sale is up in Salisbury. That’s a 45-minute drive back up the Interstate in the town where I work, no less. Just my luck. Here’s the best part…there’s no time listed. What? When are they expecting people to show up? Is it a 7am sale? 8am? That’s a total of an hour and a half going to and coming back from the sale. I had to think this through and make sure I had enough time to get to the airport, through security and to my gate in time. Plus, there’s a huge flea market located nearby. What if it’s all picked over by the local dealers by the time I make it up the road? What a huge gamble and a big chunk of time and mileage for just one sale. 

So, my dilemma is a choice between hitting this one sale 45 minutes up the road at an unknown time or trying to hit several sales in Charlotte before my flight. I really fretted over this decision.

In the end, I chose the sales in Charlotte. I had a list of six sales and a lot of hope. And believe me, that hope faded fast after the fourth sale. I found one Christmas with Southern Living: 2001.

Oh well, I’ve got to head towards the airport and get going. Maybe I’ll have better luck next week.

 

No Holy Grail….This Time

A couple of weeks ago, we had a staff meeting here at the station and I won an “Above & Beyond” award. As my reward, I won $100 bucks! Woo-hoo!

Of course, as soon as I could, I logged on to eBay to see if the Holy Grail or any Betty Feezor items were in auctions. I found an auction for the Holy Grail was about to end within the hour…so I waited until the last few minutes to bid. My sniper skills weren’t at their sharpest, because I left a few precious seconds for someone else to get in there and outbid me. And they did….

Outbid with zero time left on the clock and by a good seven and a half bucks over my budget. Argh! But here’s the good part, that’s the lowest price I’ve ever seen the Holy Grail sell for on eBay.

Maybe next time…just maybe?

Day Late Estate Sale

On my usual Friday garage sale research, I came across a listing for an Estate Sale in a neighborhood near my house. This one specifically mentioned cookbooks—so that must mean there’s a bunch, right?  My cookbookaholic senses are going off! I’d had success in this community before so I was pretty excited to return. Then, I noticed the sale had started on Friday. Ahhh!  Plus, it was being run by an estate sale professional and I didn’t remember getting an email about this sale. I guess I fell off her email list? I just wish I had known about this sale earlier! 

The bottom line is that by the time I arrive Saturday morning, they will have been thoroughly picked over. I’m debating on going at all. But then again I didn’t see much else happening so I thought I give it a try.

When I arrived, there were only a handful of people waiting for the door to open. I went around to the garage and asked to sign up again for the email list. The lady running the sale told me where to look for the cookbooks—now all I had to do was wait for the door to open. There were only seven of us waiting and then we heard some great news: everything left in the house was now half off!

Once the front door opened, the lady running the sale walked me over to the two places where the cookbooks were displayed. Yep…picked over. Oh well, here are the few I was able to find: 

South Carolina First Lady Cookbook (1981), North Carolina PTA Blueprints for Cooking (1955), The On & Off the Road Cookbook (Carl Franz and Lorena Havens), Faye’s Favorite Foods II (Ruth Rudisill Circle, Christ UMC) and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (1965). 

There were a few still left, but I decided to just buy these. Even at half off, I’m still reeling from the idea that only one day earlier—there were so many more! There is one bright spot though…the SC First Lady cookbook turns out to be autographed back in 1982 by then SC First Lady Ann Riley!

Same Bat Time...Same Bat Channel

I’ve been very excited about coordinating a Pancake Breakfast here at the station with De Wafelbakkers Frozen Pancakes. Bob, De Wafelbakkers’ VP of Retail Sales, will be bringing in enough pancakes for our Radio division and I’m really thrilled we’re able to do this!

We’ve set the date for this Friday from 8am to 9:30am. The fliers have been posted on doors and walls all over the place. We’re good to go! 

And then…I get an email from a company that does estate sales. They announce an estate sale this Friday and Saturday at 8am. Reading through the email, nothing jumps out at me. So, it’s an easy “pass” for me. A few minutes later, they send out another email. While working in the house that afternoon, they came across some other items. Want to take a guess what they found?

120 cookbooks. My heart sank into my stomach. Of course, it’s the same day and happening at the same time as my Pancake Breakfast. Yep, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel. Oh man…I feel a sad depression sinking in.

 

I'm Sleeping In...?

Okay, the garage with hubby's car finally called and said his car would be ready "hopefully" on Saturday. That means we're down to one car...plus, the budget is low, so I decided to pass on yard sales this morning. Whoa...I've not had a Saturday morning off for months!

So, you'd think I would've slept in this morning, right? Wrong, I woke up at 6am--and then rolled back over to go back to sleep.

I'm not freaking out actually. I didn't even look at the ads for today--so I'm blissfully unaware of the sales I'm missing. Next weekend however is Duncan's birthday. He wants to invite some friends for a sleepover...so I'm guessing next Saturday will be a miss as well? Okay, now I'm starting to freak!!!! 

This Does Not Bode Well...

Hubby's car needs inspection so we dropped it off at nearby garage. It's Friday afternoon and we haven't heard back yet about the car. Plus, I think Duncan has a meeting tomorrow morning for one of his school clubs. If we're down to one car and Dunc's meeting is at 8am--this won't bode well for my yard sales.

Uh-oh...

People, I’m Not Psychic

I know it’s hard to believe, but I do not have the ability to know the future. Otherwise, I’d be at all the yard sales that had a ton of cookbooks—early. But this is probably the best example. I was going through some ads for garage sales and I come across this one:

 

FRIDAY YARD SALE 

Friday only 7am until 3pm   

Furniture, loveseat, couch, pictures, lamps, ficus trees, greenery, toss pillows, two twin comforter sets with sheets, curtains, GE Profile gas stove surface unit,  3 cast iron propane lanterns 8 feet tall, over 100 cookbooks, over 150 dvd movies, over 50 cds, fish tank, rocker glider chair, two dog beds, dishes, glassware, stereo system, cake takers, home decor, lots of baby items bassinet, bouncy, bumbo seat, 4 sets of crib bedding,high chair, bath tub,  over 100 outfits infant to 24 boy clothes, maternity clothing, ladies plus clothing, guys m,l,xl clothing abercrombie, hollister, gap, old navy, lots of wilton cake pans and cake decorating items, pots pans, dish sets, bread machine, bread slicer, bread storage container,

TOO MUCH TO LIST BUT IS WELL WORTH YOUR DRIVE 

 Location: Gastonia

 

Nice, huh? Right up my alley! Notice the “over 100 cookbooks” carefully tucked in there.

Take a wild guess when I came across this ad. Give up?

4pm. Yep. It had been done and over with by an entire hour. Not to mention, if I took off from my office, it would still take me half and hour to get there. 

Ugh…this one ruined my Friday night.