I don't have good junk

We had a garage sale yesterday and it was a bust. I know that holiday weekends aren't the best for garage sales, but that's when we had time to do it. The good thing is, even though we didn't have that many customers, it wasn't a total waste of time because we both worked in the yard while we were waiting. And afterwards, we took all the unsold stuff to Goodwill so at least they were out of the house.

My "girl" stuff (nicknacks, kitchen stuff) didn't sell that well except for the Tupperware. A put out a tool box and work light; both drew a lot of attention. He sold them for less than hoped for. Hardly any of my scrapbook stuff sold except for miscellanous stickers. Who knew, lol! I'll be taking the scrap stuff to a crop to give away and then whatever they don't want, will be donated somewhere. I can't, can't, can't let it back into my stash!

I don't know how people can sell hundreds of dollars of stuff at a garage sale. Do they just have better stuff than I do? I can't believe that my stuff is that crappy, lol.

So what's five pounds to you?

I joined a new website, SparkPeople.com, in the hopes of improving my eating habits and losing five pounds. Not that I have bad eating habits, mind you. I like the food tracker so I can check the nutritional mix of what I'm eating. In some ways, I'm doing much better than I thought. No problem with the cholesterol or sodium, except when I hit the fast foods. It is hard to avoid that when going out to lunch with my coworkers. But as hard as I try, I just can't seem to up my fiber intake. I've even taken to snacking on high fiber cereal. Unfortunately, some of the high fiber foods I like are also high sodium. I defintely don't have any blood pressure problems, but I think health-wise, I'd like to avoid as much sodium as possible. Miso soup provides half the amount of daily fiber needed, but 5X the sodium. Unfortunately, I don't think it is a good tradeoff.

I'm a bit discouraged with people say, oh, you're so thin, you don't need to lose weight. Well, my five pounds are like the last five pounds that are so hard to take off. It has been a real struggle and yes, I do need to lose those five pounds. My clothes don't fit right and it is five pounds more than what I weighed last year. Five pounds is almost another clothing size on me. So please, try to encourage my efforts instead of discounting them.

Am I invisible?

Sometimes I just don't feel the love on the message boards I frequent. I know I'm not part of the "in" crowd, but I thought there were people who might miss me or respond to my posts or something (not that I've been posting that often). Maybe I just need to be less of a lurker and more of a leader? I am soooooo not the leader type (despite what my job title at work says, lol).

A lack of topics

Since I've put a couple of major aspects of my life off limits for my blog, sometimes I feel like I can't blog about anything. I don't blog about work because I'm afraid of being "dooced." (Look up dooce on wikipedia.com if you don't know what I'm talking about.) And I won't talk about family online either because of privacy concerns. I don't feel like adding to the immigration controversy or discussing the state of the economy. And I deleted my one big vent a couple of days ago (did anyone catch it before I deleted it?).

Stay tuned. I'll think of something to talk about soon, lol.

Wow, I have a reader!

Those of you who blog know how motivating it is to receive comments. Thanks S! Of course, if I blogged more often, it might motivate you to leave more comments, lol.

Happy Mother's Day!

And since it is Mother's Day, I'm full of advice...even if I'm not a mother. ;)

First, Trader Joe's is a great place to buy Mother's Day flowers. We were there yesterday and their buyers and merchandisers obviously planned ahead. In addition to the usual display of cut flowers and potted flowers, there was a large multitiered table of orchids and another table of potted arrangements. They also had some nice potted baskets, but I only know that because shoppers were carrying them. There weren't any left to buy.

Second, grocery shopping on Mother's Day morning is a breeze. I got a late start and usually when that happens, the store is mobbed--there aren't any close parking spaces and all the sales items are picked over or worse, sold out. But today I didn't have any problems. All the sale items I wanted were available and I got out of the store spending less than I thought I would, even with splurging on an issue of Real Simple.

Third, don't forget to call your mother!

How does your garden grow?

I've been spending my weekends working in my garden and unfortunately, I don't have much to show for it. My carpooler asked to see my yard so I brought him out back. Boy, it looks pretty sad. Fallen tomato cages everywhere, garden tools here and there, big patches of dirt. Hopefully, everything will look more impressive in another couple months. By then, the tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash will have flowers (or even fruit!) and the beets will be ready to harvest.

At last the front yard looks nice. My roses are bigger than ever! The largest I've ever seen them and the white frequent flyer has already bloomed twice since I planted it last year.

Do you have a garden?