It's a wonderful life

This is Princess. We adopted her from Linda and Ludmil Markov of Willow Nest along with Sister.

She is enjoying the sunshine in our living room. My cats life is something I wouldn't mind having a few days a month. Just laying around cleaning yourself and basking in sunshine. Get up now and then to eat, get a few human strokes in and it's all good. Princess is especially docile. She's very slow in her moving and I don't think there is an ounce of preditor in her. What is so funny is watching her trot. She doesn't run, she trots and when she does her belly flab swishes from side to side. I have never seen anything like that in a cat. It almost swishes so hard that it looks like it's going to slap her sides. Quite funny.

Rampart auction part 3 is tomorrow. Hoping I win the bid on the companion cabinet. Only thing is with that cabinet. Steve, the deceased owner, had written a few gentlmen's names and numbers on it in premanent ink. I guess he didn't want to loose those numbers. How to get it off without having to paint it all. I will have to google to see if it's possible.

The Rampart Auction

Yeah!!! I got the one thing at the auction I wanted. The bead board cabinet! Now to get it home by Wednesday. Haven't told Ron yet. I will wait til the last minute. Ha.

The second auction at Rampart in Tacoma was held today. A couple weeks ago I went to the first one in hopes of winning a spiral staircase. I couldn't stay and figured I would be outbid anyway. It went for a song but I am sure had I been bidding too it would of gone more for anyway. That's what I tell myself over and over again.

So today was par deux of the sale. There were so much things, stuff, junk, etc. Steve, the gentleman who passed away and owned, amassed some wonderful collections of NW memorabillia, old bar games (Pak Man, Destroyer, etc) vintage posters, art deco things, and on and on. Next week will be the final phase. The first auction was of the store items. The one today & next week was of all there was in his loft which is above Rampart. Next week I hope to get the other piece that goes with this one. We'll see. Saw Linda aka Lulu and Virginia there too. They are so much fun to with an auction with. They have a good eye and we have not competed on anything that we each wanted. Yet. Come to think of it, I see the same faces at these auctions each time. A gentleman that comes to these for the Tacoma Library NW Room. He was thrilled when he won an old ledger of the first Tacoma Public Utilites clients. It was cool.

Our reward

Gretchen, her dogs Ursa and Cowboy and my Ron. Ron is talking beer with Gretchen. No doubt talking about his favorite type, IPAs. Our reward for dealing with some "amazing" folks during the garage sale.

It's a strange crowd that wakes up at the crack of dawn to arrive 30 minutes before the sale begins. Then you have the few that will talk you down on any price that may be on the item. Even if it's a deal of the century, they still want it for less. I am not like that. I rarely ever ask if they would take something less than what it's priced for. I figure I am getting a deal already.
Then there are some that take the price stickers off in hopes that you would give them an even lesser amount than what was on there. Geez, just pay the measly sticker price.

Then there are the old folks that come in. They warm my heart. They have a story to tell to anyone that wants to listen. I love to listen to them. One woman who had to speak with one of those speach things held up to her throat was so sweet. She bought Gretchen's old rattan crib/swing that her parents had her in. This woman must of been 75 and sweet as can be. She had to go home to get one of her sons to help her get it home. That is when she told me she had 9 sons. Oh, and 6 girls. Wow!! Can you imagine that household? When I was 13 I had wanted a huge family like that too. I am glad I stayed at 4 although I still wish I could have just one more. 5 is a good number.

The Virgin Mary of Guadalupe Garage Sale

Yes, it's the VM on a piece of toast. A multi-person garage sale at my friend Gretchen's house on Saturday and Sunday honoring the VM of Guadalupe. Why? Just because.

There was about 8 of us selling whatever was laying around taking up space in our world. We had some extremely cool music (thanks to DJ Gretch) to move around to to keep warm. Saturday we had all four seasons in one day but that did not keep the hourds of people from coming to buy to their hearts content. We roasted hot dogs on a fabulous rotissere machine. I have never tasted a hot dog so good before. Could be that I hadn't had anything all day except for that hot roasted hot dog. Man was it good. 2 o'clock came around and it was beer time. A beer and another dog was just the ticket.

My Rosenthal

When I was 8 and living in Germany my mother bought me and my older sister a set for 12 of Rosenthal dishes. This is my set and my sister got the set that supposedly JFK had. My set has every extra dish there was to be had. I love my dishes but unfortunately I am afraid to use them. I have only 3 times used them and each time was at family gatherings with my mother (Thanksgiving/Christmas). She didn't help matters any by telling me that someone was going to break something so only the older adults got to use the good stuff, the rest had to use the everyday plain white sturdy restaurant style dishes. Each time someone would walk with a plate I could hear her suck in air. I swear each time she comes over she takes a count of them in the hutch. Ha. My mother is very proud of those dishes. She bought mine and my sister's dishes with her own hard earned cash. She cleaned other people's houses in order to get us these so I understand and so appreciate what she did for us. She is so German and it was very important to her that we have a good set of china. My father, not so much & that is why it was up to her to earn her own money to buy it for us. That was alot of house cleaning and I am forever grateful and lucky.

Beginnings

A work in progress, well actually it's done but this is when it was in progress. I love this picture. The middle woman is my mother-in-law, Grace Madele Mcafee Parry. The closest to a saint I will ever meet. She was the most absolutely patient person. She took her sweet southern time about everything. She was after all, Texan. Mrs. Parry was a school teacher in a one room school in Texas in the early 30's. I called her Mrs. Parry because first all I only call my mother Mom and I couldn't call her Grace, that seemed to disrespectful so it was Mrs. Parry.

Mrs. Parry would watch Dylan for us while we worked. She would sit with Dylan while he was on the potty and read to him or just talk. One day when I arrived to pick him she told me on how she sat with him while he was going potty (Dylan was about 4 yrs old) and they counted to 600 together. 600. My jaw must of dropped. I couldn't imagine me sitting there for how long counting slowly to 600. Then when Dylan began going to kindergarten she picked him up from his school and he feel asleep in his car seat. She didn't want to disturb him so she stayed in the car with him and worked on some crossword puzzles until he woke up from his nap. She always put my children first before anything else. My Dylan looks so much like her. And her faith has also impacted Dylan. He is the only one of us that goes to church every Sunday. He's 18 now.

Mrs. Parry watched our youngest Madeleine until she started kindergarten. She would of continued to but we live in a different school district and she was 84 and we really didn't trust her too much to drive across town to pick her up but made sure Maddie would see her on weekends and every school holiday. That is what kept her going. Maddie was her purpose to go on each day. We lost Mrs. Parry in 2004. I still can't believe she is gone. If everyone could be just a little like her, the world would be good.