The New Year

The Big Lug is taking a nap after work, I'm relaxing in that twilight time between making dinner and eating it, and all's right with the world.  Christmas was wonderful with a house full of family and laughter and food, the week afterward is crazier with its traffic and grumpy people galore.  And, since I've yet to see the deluge of donations hitting the thrifts, it's been a nice bout of shelf-and-window shopping rather than a drain on my funds.

Happy New Year-to-Come.  May all your days be The Day!

2011 is going to rock!

The Time Between

I didn't realize when I divorced myself from the Tuesday deadlines that I would go so long between blogs - I've written plenty when I was busy before.  But this kind of busy, as you might have figured out from my last post, is not the same kind of busy.

The classes slowed down, finally, because I took a leave of absence from them.  The December and January test courses rarely run on all cylinders, so no one complained.  Well, too much.  Not after I told them it was because I needed to investigate medical issues - my migraines had gotten out of control, average of three a week, and though they weren't the kind that made me puke or sent me to bed in a dark room for hours, I was tired of working through the pain.

My MRI revealed a Chiari 1 malformation:  a birth defect that makes the base of my skull just a tad too small funnels part of my brain (the "tonsils") into my spine, resulting in crappy balance and migraines that hit my face and forehead (front) but come from the back.  This type of Chiari is the most common - about 1 in 2000 people have it - and most are asymptomatic.  Mine isn't, obviously, but I've been walking around with it for more than three decades already.  The bad news is there's no cure for this level, no smart meds to reduce or change the shape of things, only surgery to let things expand without crawling into the vertebrae (but only if it gets really, really bad).

Now, this seems like a bad thing, but it's not.  I actually thought I was having little strokes!  To have a name for it (and, more importantly, a location) is a miracle - the last migraine I had, I slapped an ice pack on the base of my skull and it was gone in 15 minutes!  I still have to see a neurologist (on the 22nd) for instructions how to avoid worsening, but mostly it will be pain management - and since I hate meds so much, I'll likely stick to ice ... and stress reduction.

Which brings me to the benefits.  First and foremost, I've already reported this to my boss, told her I would never be Iron Woman again so don't ask me to work 13-hour days any more.  Secondly, since this is aggravated by physical stress as well as mental (a good sneeze can force it farther into the spine!) the Big Lug has been my Work Horse, as well - good for him to get out of his La-Z-Boy, yeah?  (As if I'm one to talk...)  And third, the time after the MRI (but before the Doc will start fiddling with my routine) has been well spent - my writing partners and I finished our first mystery novel:  several drafts, cover, and all, to go up exclusively as a Kindle book in just a few days.  The only problem was that I not only had the time not spent in class but that I gave up hunting the thrifts to push through so we could meet our deadline.

But that isn't the norm.  Without a buttload of classes, I have time to get caught up on much over the weekends - and since tutorials have actually ramped up instead of down as they usually do this time of year, I have income that will carry me through without dipping into savings.  My holiday shopping is almost finished, the packages for faraway people will be out of my hair by Wednesday, at the latest, and I look forward to relaunching the quest, just in time for all those lovely end-of-year donaters to throw all sorts of wonderful things into my path!

Truly, this is a blessing in disguise - my deepest wish is and has always been one in which I have complete control over my schedule.  My writing is rarely (only last week) stressful, and I'm usually tapped out by 1 pm, which gives me a couple of hours (before my tutorials take over) to hit the thrifts.  The weekend class/tutorial/hunt goat-rope was what was exhausting me, and that will ease - in fact, if I decide to take two days off now (with Saturday clear to hunt!), no one will be able to do more than snivel a bit.  This weird little ailment might just give me my ideal life.

And ain't that a kick in the head!

Thirty Days

In thirty days I can ...

Finish writing a novel with my two partners.
Have seventeen migraines.
See my dentist.
Edit the novel the novel (on Kindle by the 15th!).
Buy three computers - two for me!
Get an MRI.
Make a huge Thanksgiving dinner.
Lose 10 pounds, then find 5 of them again.
See my doctor.  Twice.
Sell some great things on eBay (the internet yard sale goes on ... forever).
Make an appointment with a neurologist for the problem that's been causing my migraines.
Shop on Black Friday for only the second time in my life.
Tutor over a hundred hours.
Walk ten miles.  (Okay, I've been a slug.)
Finish fully funding my IRA for the year.
Get two colds.
Make an appointment for getting two cavities filled.
Freak out a little.

It's been a long month.  Not much hunting, as you can see, but I'm still here!
Happy Holidays!

Fifteen Minutes

In fifteen minutes I can ...

Call and schedule a new student.
File a small stack of receipts.
Take a walk around the block.
Test three pieces of gold - and put the equipment away.
Take pictures of things to list on my internet yard sale.
Write one of those things up.
Research description for narrative editing on the Book.
Edit one chapter of the Book.
Catch up on attendance.
Read email.
Write out billing.
Email billing.
Order the newest Doctor Who on Amazon.
Clear a surface.
Unwrap the Vallerysthal (blue) hen from charity shop last week (for $6!) and put it on cleaner surface.
Take a shower.
Dry my hair (I have a lot of hair these days).
Gather the newspapers that have been tossed on the floor (unread) and put them into the recycle pile.
Put the recycling in the bins and take them to the curb.
Cut vegies for a stir-fry.
Watch a trailer for a movie I won't watch any time soon.
Sort coupons.
Enter four contests.
Take another walk around the block.
Write and publish a blog post.

In other words, I can live my life and get tons done.  In 15-minute blocks.

Weird.

Phase Two

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what "Phase Two" means in the long run, but I do know a few things:

1.  I will write when I have something to say - or at least I will NOT write when I have nothing to say.

2.  I've figured out how to be Lois-on-the-Spot (Blogger has a "publish from email" feature) which I've found out just in time for the outdoor stuff to end.  Of course.

3.  More lessons, more education links - gold hit $1398 an ounce yesterday, and there's plenty, plenty to still find.

4.  One of the main purposes of this blog in the beginning was to see if I could write to deadline.  I proved I could.  Now I can release myself from my self-imposed deadlines ... primarily because I've started writing fiction again, to deadlines so tight I can barely fit my life between them.

So, since I do have something to say, I'll just say it.  I've created a file in my pictures called "really good week."

It could have read "really good Thursday and Friday."  Gold and onyx earrings, gold (maybe 18K - need to test) studs, 14K and sterling hoops, onyx and gold necklace, and 14K gold bracelet - all from consignment shops.  Then this:

which almost looks the same, except for the silvery pearl screwback earrings (marked "750") that I forgot when I took the second set of pictures.

Total spent for all that ... about $30.

It was a good week.

Now back to my "real" job.

Notes From the Front ... 2010

Good evening Mister and Missus America, and all the ships at sea ...

... The Find has been lean lately, but the Earn has been insane.  I just billed more than 60 hours for a two-week period - that might not sound like much to people with real jobs, but when you work in all the driving between homes, paperwork, outside-the-class work, and cleanup it's more like 100, and it's the third pay period that's been like that.  I'm not used to it, especially not this late in the year.  I might just make it to last year's gross yet ... but I'm not sure I'll be perky enough to enjoy it.

... I spent Friday sorting through my jewelry, separating what I love from what'll get my kisser on Hoarders.  I spent Saturday morning driving 150 miles, in expectation of seeing my gold guy to trade or even scrap out the ounce or two I'd been hanging onto (in a scary way).  I spent Saturday afternoon passing sign after sign with "yard sale" all over them, things I'd missed while on what turned out to be a fool's errand - in my guy's state, the police are cracking down so hard on suspected thieves that they've made it nearly impossible for even a licensed dealer to buy gold from an average Jane like me.  (And since the commodity's spot price fell fifty or sixty dollars an ounce in the two days previously, he just probably decided it wouldn't be worth the paperwork.  I can't blame him.)

... My eBay yard sale is sort of picking up speed.  I'd vowed to double the number of listings every week until Thanksgiving but reckoned without the sheer volume of work I'm getting, the sheer mass of crap in my office making it difficult to photograph and pack things, and the sheer frustration of writing up every little item (including maker's marks).  I didn't know I had this much silver and costume jewelry, nor did I realize one of my end dates was Halloween.  I'm not taking this week off, but I'm only listing a few things - maybe my first gold, because falling prices notwithstanding, in a head-to-head match up my yellow stuff will beat Jack o' Lantern's glowing eyes hand's down.

... I've gone another year without pulling out my bicycle.  It's a cruiser, which the Big Lug says is silly on the hills our neighborhood, but I really want to ride something I can brake by backpedalling instead of squeezing until my hands scream.  I even put a basket on it so I could carry groceries back from nearby stores.  Yet in the two ... okay almost three years I've had it, I haven't even scuffed the new-tread spaghetti off the tires.  Another thing I need to either use or sell or donate, I guess.

... Speaking of which, I hired my daughter to do some cleaning on Sunday - she needed the money, I needed the help, and I am shedding all kinds of excess this week.  So when I started to the curb with a dresser I've had by the front door for months, and she asked why I wasn't putting it on Craigslist in a flash-sale, I said she could keep the money if she could sell it.  Three hours later (while I was at a tutorial) she was $50 up, and I have both a bigger-feeling living room and a new perspective of Craigslist.

... And the Great Purge continues.

In Transit

Hello from my phone!  I have a few minutes between appointments (and this is short because my thumbs are fat and my keyboard is small).  I forgot to blog this morning - had to walk off the on-the-run food that's been my staple, had to mail the two eBay sales that ended Sunday, had to finish some emails and internet "paperwork" for the main office.  Lots of hours this week, which is good.  Home feels like hotel, which is not good.  But it will end soon - my Dad just called to cancel his trip out here (threw his back out) so the weekend will be the first quiet one in a long time.  Hopefully the first of many.

But for today (and tomorrow and the next and the next and the ...) I will be content with the action, the passion, and the not-insubstantial paycheck I'm about to bill.  Dreams of a new bathroom or ceiling fans or bedroom decor keep me moving forward - just like the thought of the empty space on my calendar keeps me from falling down.

Life really is as good as we decide it is!

Running

Tick-tock, tick-tock.  I've been running for days, and it ain't gonna end any time soon.  I grabbed the Big Lug and beat feet outta here at 7a for a 72nd Annual rummage sale (that's since the '30's!).  Found some great pieces (including a couple of organization pins I've never seen before), went on to breakfast and thrift shops and used book stores (spent all of $20 for all ... 2.5 dwt maybe) and dinner and home, cleared up some work waiting for me and weighed the ring and earrings I found ... but not tested ... and now I'm blogging and will edit a paper for a friend before diving head-first into bed ...

To wake up and go help out (and incidentally shop early at) another rummage sale then try to write up and photograph some more things to go up on eBay then go to tutorial and class only to make dinner and crash in bed before waking up ...

To run and run and run to two classes, two tutorials, three locations, and in the blank places between to get things up and running on eBay only ...

To let the world go dark and light again and race back and forth from noon to 830 or 9 or 930 all week.

Running.  It's only for the brave.

Or the crazy.

Poke Nose

Holy crap on a cracker, I was ranty last week!  It was exhausting, too, especially since I had a 12.5 hr Sunday and a 9 hr Monday, with students and classes all over the place.  Thank heaven the PSATs are tomorrow, and the ACTs are a week from Saturday - I don't think I could survive another month like the last, and another weekend like the last two.

There wasn't even any good stuff out there last weekend.  Plenty of yard sales (it's been warm), no big caches of stuff.  I think the lack of finds is Mama Angel, poking her big wings into my life again.  In fact, I'm pretty sure because A) I'd made a vow to get my shelves and storage areas clear this fall, mostly with a three-month internet bash on eBay, CraigsList, and Etsy - selling off stuff that I can't wear anymore, don't use anymore, or I'm just plain embarrassed I bought in the first place.  (She's big on me keeping my promises, and usually makes sure I will by pulling gold out of my way.)  And B) there's this:

I spent a dollar.  For work on my bat-wings.  Which is the other thing she's been after me about.  And (okay) I'm fine with that.  Especially since the Big Lug already commented on my "losing weight."

Next week, one of my favorite rummage sales.  I'll depend on Ms. Poke Nose to remind me to take a camera.  And since I'm not putting plenty of stuff online (and wearing myself out in the bargain) I'll also trust her to take the hold off the gold.

The Crow

So I was stopped at a light, filing my front tooth, when I got a good look at my eyebrows in the rear view mirror.  I have Andy Rooney eyebrows - long, bushy, salt-and-pepper brows that seem to have a life (and a zip code) of their own.  And I realized it's not fair that I got his signature feature without his signature sense of the absurd.

At least today I did.  The economy always does this to me.

Really, I need to stop watching CNBC.  Or at least stop drinking soda from a bottle ... so I won't chip my tooth and need to file the burr at a stoplight and see my brows.

Chicken and Egg

I'm in rhetoric overload about the economy.  It's in the toilet, one side says, because we're out of control on government spending (in danger of turning into a socialist nation).  No, it's in a death spiral, the other says, because corporations have screwed the pooch thanks to deregulation, and are totally out of control with their own excesses.  All quote numbers as "percent of GDP" to support themselves and point fingers everywhere else.

So I looked some stuff up.  Here.  The Gross Domestic Product stats page with the Feds, from 1940 (picked at random) to 2009 (last stat date).  What I found was ... interesting.

Since 1940, government spending (fed, state, local) has risen - from 15% of GDP to 20% of GDP (as high as 25% in the 50's) while Goods and Services (which is the stuff that businesses produce) has also stayed fairly level at 68 -71% of GDP.  Looks like they're all wrong, right?

Look again.

During that time period (which started in WWII and continued through Korea and Vietnam), married couples filing jointly paid taxes from 79% (for the million dollar upper tier) in 1940 to 88% (for $200K and above - which pretty much set the upper tier for a long time) 1942-1943, to a high of 94% from 1944 to 1945 (according to the tax bracket page).  Tax rates on the upper tier didn't go below 80% ($200K) again until 1964, and not under 70% until 1982, when it was lowered to 50% (for $85,600 and above).  It then bounced around with max income rising, then percent lowering, until we're now at 35% for $372,950 and above.  (Not as dramatic as what happened in the beginning of Income Tax when the original tax rate of 7% in 1913 went to 77% by 1918, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)  During the same period, the government outlays almost always hit the 20%'s during war time, and fell back into the 'teens afterward.  (And taxes almost always shot up, too, either in percent or upper bracket cutoff.)

Also during that time period, the proportion of Goods and Services changed just as dramatically.  In 1940 (war time, remember) Goods produced was approx. 41% of GDP (57% of their category), while Services were just 30% of GDP.  By 2009 that had changed to Goods 20% of GDP, Services 48% of GDP.

Oh, and the Net Exports of Goods and Services went from +1.5% of GDP to a high of +4.5% in 1946, when it started its spiral to a low of -4.9% in 2008 (when the crash made everyone pull back, so it's -2.5% now).  If you didn't know, that means we send out more than we take in (and in the service sector that means were farming out 36.7% more jobs than we're importing.

What does this mean?

Simple.  Everybody's right.  And everybody's horribly, terribly wrong.

We are living in a financial house of cards.  We consume more than we produce, which is bad enough, but we're dismantling even the potential to produce more not because we're farming it out to China and India but because we're backfilling the sucking hole with a more "educated" (yet another discussion) and entitled worker.  We've gone from a product-based economy (making solid, in-your-hand items) to a service-based one.  We rise through the ranks of corporate America by finding the holes in the system, and then we go to work for ourselves to market our methods.  If we can hire others, we tend to own businesses that do what everyone else doesn't want to do - cook, clean, handle money, make healthy, instruct, protect - but not those that make cars, or sweaters, or even movies, because those facilities are vanishing from the landscape.  If this trend continues - and it has for 70 years - then it won't be long before we're all be working for someone else, because a service-oriented person, by definition, serves someone.

And that someone probably won't be here.

We need to change.  And not, I think, the way everyone seems to want us to do it.

Ideas?

Maxxed Out

  

I didn't get Jimmy Olsen's number, but I sent my pics to my computer, even took another with my phone for last week's and yesterday's finds.  These are my first Saturday flea market.  I found a couple of fun things, but one really good one here.  The entire week's stuff is this:

Mostly yard sales (pearl earrings), consignment (hoops priced "sterling" - marked "585"), and an antique mall (the bee, dangle earrings, and one of the pins).  The pin on the right was this flea.

The entire previous week is this:

More pearls (14K clasp, perfect condition), more clutchbacks and wires (no one ever checks!), white gold and singles (rummage sale several hours after opening - few look at "silver" or stray things), toe ring (a dollar!), and one pin from a dollar bin and another that isn't marked that was ten (a yard sale - haven't tested anything yet).  The best finds were the engagement ring with a quarter-carat diamond (a previous husband's), the onyx-and-14K ring and earring set, the jade with diamond, and those pearls, all from the same sale (not dollar finds, but under $200 for all of it).  The hummingbird was yesterday from my favorite charity shop - half its "melt" instead of my usual tenth, but gold is rising again, isn't it?

 

Yes, thank heavens!

 

So I've learned several things this week.  One - pictures on my phone suck, and I can't get them to the blog at that moment anyway, so I need to learn to take my camera and just hit the 'net at the earliest possible opportunity.  Two - the greatest finds seem to come along when my reserves are lowest (that ring was one of two exes' rings), so I need to have a backup plan.  And three - if my backup plan is to restart my internet yard sale to refill the pot, don't do it during my busiest week of the year.

 

I'm dead tired.  I'm sucked dry.  I haven't walked in two weeks.  And I really need to take a shower.

 

Jimmy Olsen can go hang - I need Superman!

Field Work Study

I had every intention of taking pictures this week, a sort of photolog.  Only problem (at first) was the incredible lack of multitasking ability in this Bunny's gene pool - when push comes to shove, "earning it" outweighs a chronicle of "finding it," at least for now.  Even yesterday (which took me out of town and into an antique mall, a consignment store, and two thrift shops) didn't hit "reset" on my memory.  And today I remembered only near the end of the flea market.

But I DID remember.  I just found out I can't upload the images from my phone, though.  Kinda puts a crimp in the whole Lois Lane thing, huh?

Does anyone have Jimmy Olsen's number?

Phase Two

I had an allergic reaction to something in a student's home last week - mold, I think - and have been recovering from the experience since (and am making them come to my office!).  Somehow I also kept hunting (pics later) and making inroads on my ToDo list, taught a 12-1/2 hour day Sunday (dead, Monday), and set up enough tutorials to guarantee comfortable bill-paying for the rest of the year.

Which started me thinking ...

We paid off the consumer debt a whole season ago, freeing up over $1K a month - which was good because students weren't exactly breaking down my door back then.  Now that they're lined up like dominoes, with the increased income to match, we're still spending that extra cash.  We've travelled some, we've splurged more, and we've been eating way too well (at least that's what my scale tells me).

Not stellar use of our resources, but I'm not sure it's all bad.  Maybe I needed it to balance my grief, maybe the Big Lug needed it to blow off a very stressful time at work, or maybe we've just been in transistion from one point of our lives to the next.  I don't know.  But we needed it.  Then.

Now?  It's time to get back to business.

I made only one New Year's Resolution this Labor Day:  Finish what I've started.  Even I didn't realize what a Big One it was at the time.  Yesterday, when I looked around at the dozens of things I've begun - in the last year alone! - it almost made me bawl like a little girl and run for cover, but I'm made of sterner stuff (a whimper, maybe two ... with my head buried under a pillow ...) and I banished OstrichBunny without too much argument.  I'm ready to get back to road rash and reckonings and reconstructions, to money-as-scorecard and ethics-as-boundaries and retirement-as-goalpost, to puzzling and learning and laughing as much with my successes as with my setbacks.  I'm ready to play on a whole new level.

Let the Game (point-two) begin.

Beat the Clock

I don't know how it happened - again! - but I'm pressed for time.  I might have to switch back to Mondays, even though I (rightfully) call them "Dead Mondays."  One of these days I'll be able to balance my reponsibilities and commitments with what I want to do ...

Which, of course, is to hit as many yard sales, thrift stores, pawn shops, and flea markets as is earthly possible!  Why?

First, Alaska loot.  Gorgeous, yes?  Sterling earrings, lapel pin, and charm, gold rings, earrings, and service pins, as well as a very interesting necklace - onyx and hematite (I think) with gold clasp and beads.  My favorite pieces are the leftmost ring (one of two fused wedding sets) and the amazing freshwater pearl earrings.  The cruise ship pins, too.  And the sterling things.  Of course, the heavy rock necklace is ...

Okay, so there's all sorts of things to love here.  I spent more than I wanted, but I didn't photo everything.  I couldn't, since I did it today.  I had more stuff from Alaska - earrings, a slider, an 18K ring with the stones cut out - but I "spent" them over the weekend.

Sometimes it's not simply about hunting, but about horse trading, wheeler-dealer-ing, swapping.  And in this case ...

... I made some great deals.  No, not all of this - but the service pins in front, yep.  All of them.  Mostly 14K, two diamonds, several rubies and seed pearls ... fantastic additions to my growing collection.  Can you see the "V" pin (worn by WWII moms, this one had three boys in service) and the Rotary pin (most are just metal, 14K is rare) and the Texaco and Pet pins?  Even fun research ahead - the EASM thing and the frat pins (see the one with the skull?!) were born to be with me!

The rest of the pictured items are things I've found since I returned home.  I don't think I paid more than $4 for any one of them except maybe the bracelet (questionable marking but I bought it for the opals).  I still have to do tests - I found two of the three pairs of hoops just yesterday in the dollar bin at a local thrift - but, since I only hit shops on the way to or from my tutorials and classes, I'm not wasting gas.  So they're really bargains.

Don't know what I'll do with it all yet, but I'm enthralled with my DragonBunny hoarde, and I'm wearing my favorite fused set even as I type.  'Tis the season (Fall) for fantastic Finds since, as days get shorter and the end-of-year Tax Deduction clock runs down, more and more fantastic goods make their way into stores all over the country.  You never know what you can find out there, so keep an eagle eye out!

I sure am!

National Treasure



What's so small that it has only one Representative, yet so big that every person in it has nearly one square mile all to him- (or her-) self?

Duh!

I grew up in one of the most beautiful, diverse states in the Union (California).  I've lived in nearly every region of this country (West, East, South, Midwest) and in Europe.  Yet I've never had my breath stolen so many times in one week - not by scenery, at any rate.  I can't say enough about this stunning place ... so I won't even try.  I'll let just a handful of pictures do the work for me.



Both  of these pictures were either in Girdwood, AK (south of Anchorage) or close to it.  We drove down there twice, so I'm not sure.  Doesn't matter.  Even a shot out the window of the car yields this:



Yeah, out the window of the car!  Of course, if you want to stop you might find this on the side of the road.

The side of the freaking road!  This gorgeous, Tolkienesque gem had carved itself into a cliff - a strange portal to a fantasy world offered this amazing calm while just behind me cars and trucks raced their way to more "civilized" destinations.

Oh, by the way, this is just the bottom.  The top of this fairyland is even more wonderful ...



The waterfall is a trickle this time of year, but they weren't all like that.  Thunderbird Falls, for instance ...



And the cliffs along the way ...



Okay, cliffs implied.  No I don't have pictures of them, and yes, I do have a bit of a weakness - not heights but drops, thanks to a little incident in which my sister and I went about four hundred feet, really fast, straight down, luckily hitting trees all along the way.  (And who had time to take pictures when her husband decided to walk along the edge of the freaking thing the whole way back just to punish her for making him hike the occasionally steep trail to get to see Thunderbird Falls?)

The icing on the cake, though, was the glacier ...

I've never seen anything like it ... ever.  We even got up close and personal.



This was about 350 feet away.  See the icebergs?  Glaciers do something called "calving," which is just a fancy way of saying "a piece cracks off and falls into the water," causing those icebergs.  Apparently, the average calves seen in the eight or ten tours they do a day here is one every other day.  We saw it calve twice in our single cruise - and I was so stunned both times I didn't even get a shot!

Yes, I panned for gold, too, and yes, I found gold in shops, but this ... this is more awesome and more important than anything I can buy.  This is the kind of treasure we can all find.  And it's only a plane ride away.

Okay, a very loooonnnnnnggggg plane ride away.

But it's worth it.

Holding Pattern

We got back Thursday, middday.  And since you can't leave Anchorage during the day (unless you're going somewhere else in Alaska), it was an overnight flight followed by a layover in Houston followed by the last leg.  I didn't sleep more than an hour, and that in 15 and 20 minute pieces, during any of that time.  I've learned that the easiest way to acclimate to a new west-to-east time zone is to stay awake until dark, so once home I ate some soup (only thing my stomach would take) and parked in front of the TV for some TiVo catch-up - migraine and all.

I made it to 5 p.m. before I went down like the Titanic.

Next morning at 8 a.m. I woke, feeling that fuzzy, stiff, head-banging barf-fest that only a fifth of Scotch or a trains-and-planes all-nighter can produce.  Took me all day Friday to lose the worst of it - since Saturday was the monthly flea market I really wanted to lose all of it, but I settled (for no real reason, as it turned out, because Labor Day is not a good day for that market).  By Sunday, when I had students crammed in like sardines in a can, I had something approaching a brain (thank the gods and little fishes) but the truth is, I'm still not back to normal.

It's not surprising, then, that when my camera's memory card wanted me to reformat it before I could download the pictures to my computer, no matter which computer or what trick I tried, I pretty much hit the wall.  I'm even afraid to photograph my finds (and there are plenty) with a different card for fear that it will have the same nervous breakdown.

So until the Big Lug figures it all out, I'm in Limbo, waiting patiently (now that my psychic knuckles are bruised) for the snafus to level out.  I will catch up on my backlog of responsibilities, keep hunting (found a bracelet and a pair of pearl earrings already), and eventually - eventually - post pictures, of both my finds and our biggest National Treasure, but until then ...

... cue Elevator's Favorite Hits.

Travelling

I don't actually know if I'll have time to post today.  We're supposed to be going to see a mountain.  Or a forest.  Or a glacier.  Yes, I said "glacier" - I'm not in Kansas any more Toto, I'm in Alaska!

Will send pictures, but trust me they won't convey a fraction of how breathtaking it is here.

And the hunting's not bad, either.

A Time for Everything

I didn't have much time (or energy) for the hunt over the weekend because classes began on Saturday for the fall tests.  The time for finding (at least at yard sales) is on the wane, and the time for earning is coming into its own.  Long hours (Sunday was 9 - 930), and lots of drama, but one of the reasons I love my job is that this kind of chaos only lasts for a few weeks, then drops off, then goes away completely before ramping up again for the Spring insanity begins the cycle all over again.  And that's as it should be.

This is also the time I start thinking of my New Year's resolutions.  No, not for January - who wants to make resolutions in the midst of post-holiday excess and let-down? - but for the beginning of the school year.  It's a better time to not just make resolutions but to really put my best foot forward in order to actually keep them.  Besides, I don't know about you but after decades as student and parent in the U.S. public school system, Labor Day feels like a time of new beginnings.  Let's face it, we've spent most of our lives planning around that year, not the calendar year.

And so life continues to turn.  Shorter days and less time (and opportunity) to hunt.  Longer evenings in which to (perhaps) actually relax.  Cooler weather that just invites meandering walks (to get rid of the 10 stress-pounds).  And getting my days back (I work after school hours) so that I can get some things done around here.

Sounds perfect to me.

Zen and the Art of Treasure Hunting

Last week sucked.  I drove hundreds of miles to go to a mini-Longest Yard Sale and found ... okay, a really nice Coach bag for $3, a very old piece of ceramic for $2 (that I need to research), and a 14K gold clutchback in a bag of "singles" for 25 cents ... but, basically, for a full tank of gas and a well-before-dawn rise-and-drive, it was truly depressing.  On top of that, on the long drive home, in a petulant and hopeful mood, I stopped at the thrift shop in which I found much of my bounty a week or so ago and bought a pair of earrings marked "14K" and "585" which turned out to be gold posts and metal bodies.  To top it off, I'd done the same thing Friday - okay, I didn't actually find more than an Algebra book, but I did it all greedy and ended up wasting gas, money, and time.  Like a shark in a tank full of blood, I went a little crazy - again! - and harshed my Zen mellow, big time.

It's okay, though, I don't have to focus on the suckiness.  I have all kinds of things I can, and want to meditate on.  How about these?

Bugs galore.  The two at the bottom left are the gold bugs, upper left is the frat pin (duh).  The others are silver - the two butterflies are plique-a-jour (enamelled so that it shows through the wispy silver filligree like a stained glass window).  The ring, too, is really fabulous - shadowbox style, Taxco, marked with an artist I don't know yet.  There's also a watch, marked in thanks of 25 years of service (white gold and diamonds, for a sugar company!) that I forgot to put up (or even mention last week).  Overall, a very, very good day.

And the aftermath I'd mentioned, too, the week at flea market and thrift shop and yard sale.

That Orioles pendant is 14K, and will pay for the necklace (charm and chain) all by itself when I meet up with my new favorite guy.  The star necklace and small service pin were from an estate sale.  The rings were a combo of flea and thrift, and are all gold (10K, 12K, and 14K), some marked, most not.  The circle is marked and is all gold, as is the charm bracelet.  The cluster of earrings I bought for the clutchbacks, which are marked, but all the (unmarked) earrings also tested as 14K.  The tie tack is 18K, with a gorgeous opal (marked K18, oddly, which is why I'm going to retest everything once I get my mojo back).  The silver bracelet at the bottom is silver marked "Denmark" and "H.S.", which, I believe, stands for Hermann Siersbol.

Yeah, that was a very good week.  It helps to relive the successes, to ruminate on what went right.  But it helps more to meditate on the reasons it all went right, according to my own personal truths:

What we project and inject into the world we get back multiplied, so hunt with love and joy because bad thoughts, like greed, not only stop up the flow - they ruin my fun!

When I let my stuff reach critical mass I feel antsy and overloaded (and there's no room for more of anything).  We are channels, not reservoirs.  And the universe is perfectly happy with a judicious blend of donating, selling, and trading to keep the cycle going.

When I neglect my responsibilities (especially for the Hunt) I not only get little or nothing, I almost always end up in the hole.  What I do behind the scenes matters.

Hey, Mama Angel meddles in every area of my life.  I'd better remember that the next time I invite her to the party, huh?

Taking a Chance

My mother was a gambler, and a good one.  She broke even lots of times, won small often, even won big more than a few times, but as far as I know she lost money (overall) only once.  That's because she had rules.

Rule #1:  focus on games of probability and skill, like Blackjack or Craps - poker requires too much body language reading (skill), and both roulette and slots require only probability (both boring and, usually, break-even).

Rule #2:  never bet more than you're willing to lose.  She'd set up early in the evening and bet very conservatively.  Once she had a pile of winnings, she'd remove her initial stake and go crazy.  In general, she earned a pretty good hourly wage.

Rule #3:  losing is more probable than winning, so love what you do and have a boatload of fun - or why bother to play at all?

I don't go to casinos and I don't day trade, so I never realized how much I'd learned from her until recently.  A few weeks back, at a quarterly antique show, I visited one of my favorite vendors who had not only a stunning sorority pin (for a great price) but two beautiful pieces to feed my newest passion - figural bug jewelry.  I don't know if it was the little ladybug tie tack that nice lady gave me last year or the Alice Caviness wasp I found last fall for a song or the fantastic gold-and-turquoise butterfly from a few months back, but I've been finding the little beauties everywhere lately, so I succumbed and bought them both.

In fact, on the first day of the event, I happened to go by another vendor, a friend of the first, and, when a fabulous bee (gold, set with jade) caught my eye, I had to buy it.  "$150," he said (a fair price, based on its heft).  I sucked in a breath, however - who wants "fair" when there are so many deals out there, right?  And I didn't quite have that much in my allowance.  But it was beautiful ... and I happened to be wearing a pair of heavy 14K earrings I'd bought at an estate sale for about a third of that ... so I asked if he buys as well as sells.  "Of course," he said, and told me it's one-to-one with trade.  (My best guy is 85% trade, 75% cash.)  I removed my earrings, we struck a deal, and I walked away with a big smile and a (slightly) smaller allowance balance.

The next day, I couldn't stop thinking.  I made time between tutorials ... went back for a quick hour with a jewelry bag filled with (cheap) bits from yard sales.  He had a mostly empty display case (did I mention his prices were very fair?) but one new-since-yesterday piece held me mesmerized and ... we dickered (but not hard - see "poker face" in dictionary and not find me) and ... okay, I am the proud new owner of a perfect gold-and-enamel butterfly ... and somehow I came out ahead.

Huh.  I gave him things I don't like any more, things I can't, won't, or just don't wear ... I got a perfect pin, and change.  Change!

What a racket!

Acid Trip, who's been hunting with me every weekend, pointed out over a hot pretzel that I still paid his price (because I could've cashed in the gold) but I asked him (with arched brow):  hey, who's the math geek here? First, I actually got a 25% discount (see "my best guy" above), second I didn't like that stuff, and third ... hell, it's just not the same.  If I pay 50 cents for something I could sell for 12 dollars, but I trade it for what I wanted to buy anyway and got 16 dollars off the price of the something I wanted ... then, as I see it, I still only spent 50 cents of my money!

It's not gambling, exactly, but Mama was right.  I stuck with probability (finding) and skill (recognizing).  I also kept my initial stake (the change cleared the first pin's overage and covered what I'd originally paid for the trade goods). And I not only had fun, I got things I love, things that were, essentially, free.

Add to that my shining vision of a display ... a box-like terrarium filled with silk branches covered with bright, colorful (solid gold and sterling!) bugs ... it's a DragonBunny's dream.

By the way, the strangest thing happened next:  after weeks of a nice find here, a decent one there, suddenly I was swamped with bargains everywhere I went.  The last ten days have been ripe for picking - unmarked pieces priced as costume, marked pieces that were priced at those TV gold-guy scrap values, dirty and broken pieces at the bottom of boxes!  None in the five-pennyweights-for-a-dollar category (the first butterfly pin) but still very good deals ... for several hundred dollars in trade goods.  And I'll need it since my new favorite vendor said he'd found some flowers recently ... in gold and enamel ... some with gemstones ...

Sigh, I can't wait for Fall.

Yard Sales

You heard about the yard sale find ($45) that might be worth $2mil (Ansel Adams negatives thought lost, maybe).  I hear stories, too.  A guy in Salvation Army told me about a sale he went to (on his way to the casino) and found a box full of Newcomb pottery for $25 - the "old couple didn't know what they had."  Another recognized an original (some artist) that was appraised for more than 100 times what he paid for it.  And as you know by now, I've found several pieces that would sell for many times over what I paid (mostly from pawn shops, thrift stores, and antique stores), and though my conscience might've gotten the better of me in those heard-about cases, I don't have much trouble making a killing from storefront operations ... or most flea markets ... or mean people.

However, for everyone who ever wanted (or, especially, needed) to make some money off a garage sale, here's a piece of advice:  check, double-check, and recheck!  Easiest way I know to do this is to text 466453 - just type "price" and a couple of good descriptors of your item, and then wait for the return text that'll tell you what it's going for on at least three web sites!  It's great for buying, too!  And (at least on my network) it's free!

Seriously, I would love to take your stuff for almost nothing.  I would love it better if it saved you from foreclosure (as this might just do for one family).  Really, check it now ... before you put up your sign.

Quickie

Still hot.  Still trying to fix the aftermath of a big storm.  Still busy - classes and tutorials galore, training teachers in five different states via internet (which is screwing up royally for some reason).  Still trying to finish something, anything, but willing to settle because I just don't have the time or energy to do otherwise.

Here's the before.

And here's the after.

I still have issues with the driveway.  I still have to wait for my little seedlings to grow up ... assuming they survive.  I still have to edge and feed and fix the mulch.  But no matter what happens next, by next summer you won't recognize it as the same yard.  I don't recognize it now.

Of course, the inside looks like crap.

Next time - stories from the finding arm of my evil plan.

Treasure Tuesday

I intended to have pictures of the landscape.  I really did.  Trouble arrived in the form of record heat and torrential rain, however.  Migraines.  Stress.  Training new teachers via the internet (which hates my Windows Vista). Add to that my insane work schedule last week, and all I can say is I'm lucky to be this close to the end.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe this weekend, I don't know.  No peeking, though, until I have it actually finished.

Instead, I have pictures of a different sort.

Okay, they're all in Britain, but the two biggies were found by normal people like me ... well, people who actually got their metal detectors out and used them in the big, wide world.  And I'm not taking pictures of my landscape until I get my metal detectore obstacle course worked in.

Read 'em and drool!

"Busy Year For UK Treasure Hunters" is from 2007.  And it appears things got even better because ...

"GOLD HOARD PICTURES: Largest Anglo-Saxon Treasure Found" just two years later.  And then there was ...

"Amateur 'Stunned' After £1m Find", which happened mere weeks later.  And, of course, the latest ...

"Photos: Amateur Finds Ancient Treasure."

I want to go to Great Britain.

Half Baked

Things have been weird around here since I went back to my basic five tenets.  Finding has been good, but not screamin' red as it was a couple months ago (a gold watch in a thrift made me squeal, of course, but that's been my best find for weeks).  Winning has been too much of a time-consumer (the one commodity I don't have enough of).  Inheriting is only happening forward right now (thank God).  And though my subtle Stealing continues almost on its own (some 5% cash back from Discover here, a rise in the S&P 500 there) there hasn't been anything to write home about.

The focus this week has been all about Earning it.

Normally, I would say this is my least favorite way to treasure hunt - if only because it is so ... everyday, monotonous, mundane ... that there's just no reason to write about it (ho hum).  Add in the fact that my hours aren't nearly as hefty as they usually are (overall about half of last year, which was less than the year before) and you have a recipe for either boredom or a great, huge bout of tears.

But without any consumer debt to worry about, without the wall-to-wall craziness of schedule, I'm finding that "earning" has taken on an amazing couple of dimensions.  Barring the two days I spent in IPD (see last post), I've been busier than ever!

Firstly, I'm reading everything I can get my hands on, trying to learn more about (1) silver (jewelry, flatware, even plate), (2) major designers and brands (Faberge right now, Tiffany last week), (3) Arts and Crafts items (did I mention the Van Briggle pot I found in a thrift a month ago?), and (4) handbags (I've taken Vera Bradley as my own personal style ... for now).  In other words, I'm in full Dragon mode, and loving every minute of it - lusting over pieces, memorizing hallmarks, and trying to get a handle on what makes a great piece great.  Why these specifically?  (1)  Gold is still fun but silver is more affordable, and so more donated - and few people see beyond the sterling to the designer (hence a bracelet I found in a consignment store might be worth 10 times its purchase price).  (2) Those two jewelry designers are just so lush and so glamorous - duh! - they are the things dreams are made of.  (3)  I love things from the early part of the 20th century, and I dream of owning a Craftsman bungalow someday (and furnishing it with authentic pieces), but since I have a '60's rambler now I want to brings at least a piece of it into my life.  And (4) I forgot my phone one day and so wasn't able to look up the name that was on a particular purse I liked ($16) but wasn't willing to spend my allowance on - and the name was Bottega Veneta.  Now I want to avoid a mistake like that.

Secondly, I've been braving the heat and the storms (and the resulting mud), and investing some of the money I'm not spending on credit cards, to turn my house into ... well, not a showplace, but at least a homeplace.  I should've been done with the front yard by now, but I'm too old and creaky to work quickly.  Pictures next week, though - a little mulch, a few stepping stones, and then I'll just let it grow.

I never thought Earning could be so much fun!

Short and (Hopefully) Sweet

Every once in awhile I have days when my Big Lug just blinks and retreats to his basement bat-cave, muttering "don't meet her basilisk gaze," and something about throwing raw meat into the cage.

Yeah, it's kinda like that.  I need to stay away from the newspaper, CNBC, all talk of politics or religion ... heck, even HGTV got a rise from me today.  So I headed to Home Depot (I'm so sorry, Ms. Clerk!) and now am in the process of digging in 100-degree heat, pulling up the edge-grass for my planting beds and laying sandstone pavers that I'm hoping look better than my hormones think they do.  And I'm staying away from every controversial subject on the planet.  (Which, by the way, is any subject.)

So, in recognition of today's bout with Incendiary Personality Disorder, I will simply be a conduit for someone else's good ideas.

Clark Howard.  Not riveting television (and on very early on weekend mornings) but some crackerjack advice, especially when you're trying to repair your finances or find free- (or nearly-free-) -bies.  Give it a try.

And now ... run away!

Snippets

I have so much to share, I don't know where to start.  I've been reading Money and ShopSmart ;), watching CNBC and HGTV, clearing my house and cataloguing the astonishing amount of things I'm rediscovering ... all because I decided (and want so badly) to win, earn, steal, inherit, and find that I stuffed myself to the max with information and experiences!

Cue background music ... or maybe the sound of typewriters furiously clacking ...

Money magazine this month reported on a slew of "most hated fees."  While there were worse ones (free checking accounts will be extinct soon), I liked "paying to use" your own accumulated frequent flier miles.  Now, since my miles were actually accumulated almost exclusively through a decade-long promotion at my local grocery store (spend a dollar get a mile) I wasn't surprised that I had trouble using them - but the level of frustration was astronomical, even for me.  I tried several years ago to use them on a ticket to see an old high school friend only to find I could only fly at 12 am with a layover overnight halfway, or on a Sunday evening on alternate months, when Aquarius was aligned with Pluto - back when it was a planet, or in and out in less than 24 hours.  A year passed, and I finally got everything perfect, only to find they'd upped the number I'd need for a ticket.  And then when I'd saved up that number finally (two months ago) they blacked me out because (the agent on the phone told me) I didn't have enough miles again, even though the web site said I did (they had two different numbers - he apologized, promised to check into it, and never called back).  Finally, I decided to donate them to someone with far more patience, or let them expire (which would show them!).  But, just in the nick of time, I found out from a different airline (on which I had some 2,000 miles) I could buy three magazine subscriptions (the eternal irony - where do you think I got Money?) and so revisted the other site.  Bingo!  I'd already paid for tickets and hotel (on Orbitz) for our Anchorage trip, but as I clicked on the "partners" tab in the redeem miles section - lo, and behold! - I found a car rental!  After a little experimentation, I ended up with 8 days of a full-sized auto ... and saved $385.47 (more than the ticket I wanted costs)!  What a way to steal, huh?

ShopSmart ;) magazine (yes, it has that icon in its title) is and has been one of my favorites for about a year - six issues ($18) with no advertising alone is worth its weight in gold, but add to that some tested and fantastic advice and tips, and it's just one of the best all-around for treasure hunters.  The June issue started me on what I think will be a permanent habit - once or twice a year, I will eschew grocery shopping (except for milk) and live from my cupboards for a week.  Now, before you think I'm crazy, remember I tend to stock up when something's on sale, so I'm doing it not just because I read it in this month's issue but because I have cleared my pantry of long-expired dry goods far too many times over the years.  Plus, I ... um ... was going through the chest freezer we bought a year ago March and found meat from ... uh ... a year ago March.  Luckily, it's a great chest freezer, though, (and I take great care in how I wrap).  So tonight I'm using half the 5-pound chuck roast I bought on sale (a year ago March) to make a brand-new recipe, with beef and tomatoes and olives of all things -  a Catalan stew I've wanted to try forever but hadn't had the guts.  I do, however, have the ingredients, many of which are teetering on the edge of ptomaine (a little heat kills anything, right?).  You don't have a recipe folder stuffed full of cheap eats?  Pull out the old standard - my grandmother's Mulligan stew - meat, browned, a couple cans of tomatoes, a splash of wine, and whatever vegetables are verging on compost.  It's fabulous!  (Or, of course, go to the Epicurious web site or to Allrecipes.com, punch in a few key ingredients and find a recipe that will fit what you have on hand.)

I'm also gearing up to get back to my online garage sale.  I am determined to clear my closets and earn more money for both treasure hunting and the renovations that my house is so desperate for.  I'll sell what I can, donate (not relist) what I can't, then make my office into a lab/Dragon-Bunny Den and my house into a warm, welcoming place - by reusing, repurposing, and recycling on the building end, too!  Because I realized this week, after talking to a friend of mine who downsized to a condo and is horrified at the thought of filling it up again that I don't think the scary-hoarder-organization shows are right.  It's not that we have too much stuff but that we have too much crappy stuff.

Well, no more, not this Bunny!  We can live well, and well within whatever budget we have!  It doesn't matter if it it's a stock I want, an Arts and Crafts end table, or a lanyard of Chanel "pearls" ... patience, educating myself, knowing where to prowl, even when to take a chance  - that's what treasure hunting is all about!

It's so good to be back!

Here We Go Again!

It was a TV that set me off this time.  A couple of weeks ago, I bought a 42" LCD TV because I'm sick and tired of not having a logical layout in my living room - TV over the fireplace (focal point) instead of off to one side so it's now visible from all the furniture instead of just that on the left.  The only way I could figure out how to do that was to mount it over the mantel, which meant flatscreen, which meant a lot of research and a piggyback effect - there was a sale, and I got 10% off if I used my department store card plus another 5% because they accepted my Discover in its place.  Again, as I did a few short months ago (and many other times) I got my jolt, my gasp, my thrill from the transaction, one that was almost as strong as when I realized that 50-cent pair of earrings three weeks ago was 18-karat gold.

And I need to do something about it.

Since I began my original quest, I've paid off (off!) about seventy-five thousand dollars in consumer debt, opened and put about fifteen thousand into my IRA, and changed the entire way we not only did our household business but how we think about money.  Since I changed the site, focused on finding, I've lost track of my path.  Because I've narrowed its boundaries.

Welcome to the modern age!  Things aren't the only valuables in this world, not any more.  Here I am limiting myself to meat and cheese and not even seeing the buffet out there!  (And most poor souls are starving - thank you Auntie Mame!)

Oh, yes, I want it all - bargains and rebates, Tiffany and Faberge, dubloons and Civil War buttons, Fendi and Posen, sweat equity and stock trades.  I want to net something every minute, learn something every day, pass on something every week.  I want to dive nose-first into life, all of it, the whole cacaphony of sharps and flats, flavors and textures, failures and gold stars.  I want to find and win and earn and inherit and steal my way through time, not just for a better future but for a fantastic present.

It's time to move forward by going back, redefine my mission statement via my original thought map - the one that wasn't just a wicked fun ride but one that had danger, mistakes, and ignorance on a global scale, one that felt more like achievement than like luck, like reaching benchmarks instead of just taking stock.  I want it so badly I can almost taste it now - salty, like sweat ... with a generous dose of asphalt.

Ah, road rash, I missed you!

Ground Control to Major Tom

Working my buttocks off today making my yard pretty-pretty before the summer heat kills everything in the nursery (though not - please heaven - my garden).  I wrote this last November, when I was feeling pretty much as I feel right now; and though it's a bit more soul-baring than I'm used to (hence not posted then), it's relevant to both the emotional upheavals lately and the changes that have come out of them ... but more on that next week.

Yesterday, I had a bit of a meltdown - tears, great wracking sobs, the whole thing. Not pretty, but understandable; the Big Lug's been sick (H1N1 turned to pneumonia) and I haven't had any ... touching ... in two weeks. Note to self: next time he goes out of town for more than ten days, at least schedule some time at the spa.

The cause was easy to figure out. The trigger, even easier. It was a pin.

I spent the morning making the thrift store rounds. Locally, in a five mile radius, we have four of those - two are purely donations, two consignment-based - and one private second-hand shop, plus a small antique mall. After a buying a pretty, glass-doored bookcase, Mama Angel sent me toward the antiques. It was odd, because I've not even thought of the place for years (their prices are not great) but I went. Search, search, search - fun, informative, but yielding nothing that wasn't overpriced, or, of course, fair - I wanted a bargain, dammit, and that was that.

Then I went into the last shop, outside on the edge. The owner was in, unpacking boxes. He told me it was a new shipment - a store that had closed decades ago but never cleared - then about some things he'd just sold and made a killing on, at some length. I asked about service and organizational pins (my newest passion). He led me toward a case buried beneath older stuff, explaining he kept this one covered because people stole from him all the time. I expressed my sympathy (and my upbringing that made me honest), and he showed me pins that had gold in them (mostly gold filled). Two were notable - one a 10K with two small diamonds and a sapphire, but no story to it, no numbers, explanation, or personality; the other was a fraternity pin. Engraved. From the 40's. Heavy. Unmarked as content, but probably solid gold. He offered me a price less than half the tag, saying he didn't know if it was gold or not. I was pretty sure it was, but what karat? Even at half-price it would use up my allowance. If it were 14K, it was a bargain, but 9K or 10K would mean I had to love it ...

I started to hand it back, slowly, thinking. Impatient, he suddenly remembered he had a tester kit, grabbed it and did a scratch & drip before I could blink. 14K. Of course it was. Scrap value was was now three times his offered price. Now I couldn't afford it.

I got as far as the car before the ass-kicking began. By the time I got home, I was in full-on, Matrix-like-efficiency, self-flagellation. And then the sob-storm began.

After the emotional release (and what felt like a fractured rib) I realized he probably sold on eBay. I'd been thinking of trade just the other day - I'd found a comp for the Tiffany earrings I found last week, and was comfortable that they'd sell for more than his new asking price (and more than I could right now - if he had a good rep). I put the Cadillac pendant into my swap box, too, just in case - it was about a third of the weight of the pin, and I'd paid just $1 for it. Was I crazy? Not a bit. New, the pin was expensive. In swap (what I'd paid for the two things) it was dirt cheap. I went back.

I had the strangest feeling as I drove up the second time (Mama Angel warning me or just, plain post-hormonal craziness) - I realized I had no proof of ownership for either of my trade items. The guy'd complained about thefts, and there was a look in his eye when he'd talked about the killer sale ... yes, I'm paranoid, and yes, I watch too much CSI, because I licked the back of one of the earrings - he didn't seem like the kind of guy to wash his stock before display (seriously), and now there was DNA evidence that I'd been all over it.

That's when it got even weirder. As it turns out, he was rather offended by my offer of trade for the earrings - he wanted a sale, not more stock. Later, of course, I realized how badly everyone is hurting in the business (you can't eat antiques, and many dealers bought when prices were high, expecting the feeding frenzy to continue) but he was so grouchy and rude about it I was taken aback. I decided to look at the pin again anyway (he offered it to me at the scrap price) and maybe use the pin as a lesson in jumping on a good deal instead of wussing out. His assistant (who groks Tiffany) looked at the earrings while I looked at the pin, even got a bit excited (hidden, but I know that look), but by then the dealer had glanced in, got a look from his assistant, and was obviously willing to dicker. But I'd not only seen a chip on the pin's enamel just then, I also realized in fourteen years of dealing with difficult students and parents, I'd never been that rude to one of my customers - I'd never even thought (much) about it. Did I even want to do business with him?

Oddly, I also realized that I didn't mind waiting for the perfect piece at the perfect price. After all, I'd been finding those for a month.

So I left, with a smile, no longer lusting after the pin, no longer kicking myself, no longer focused on hoarding my treasures until I'm too dead to wear them. And, even better, I knew that while I'd've loved to get it for the low price, I was incredibly better off with the lesson.

And the grounding.

Pop Quiz, Hotshot

I've been playing with my camera again - mostly because I'm beginning to get the hang of my internet yard sale on eBay and want to do it better, especially with the jewelry.  The Big Lug was onto me about macro photography.  My little Olympus is not the greatest in the world (and I am definitely not the photographer to compensate) but it gets the job done.

Personally, the past couple of weeks have sucked.  Bo went to kitty Heaven, my schedule suddenly had no holes (and I do mean suddenly), and I caught some kind of bug that seems to hit me when I least expect it.

The week before it all hit the fan, however, I found a signed pair of silver earrings in one thrift shop, a heavy pair of 14K in another, and both an 18K gold Omega deVille and a very old piece of milk glass in yet another.  Last Saturday, I found gold and silver, earrings and neckchains, along with Irish pottery at one church sale, some fabulous costume stuff at another, and went completely mad with finds at the "first Saturday" flea market in my area - followed up by a trip to my second-favorite thrift on Monday where I found more silver and costume and gold (oh, my).

Yeah, my allowance took a hit.  But I scrapped out some gold on Thursday (mostly my "oops" stuff) so I was pretty flush.  However, almost everything I bought was such a stunningly ridiculous bargain I didn't actually blow more than I had even without the scrap!  Plus (and this is actually a huge plus) Acid Trip and Electric Kid went with me on Saturday - I went where I thought they'd find the most stuff then I ended up with more treasures than I can handle and had fun, fun, FUN besides (and I wonder if that wasn't Mama Angel's diabolical plan all along ...)

Anyway, so why the title today?  Well, I thought some mysteries might be better (for a change) than the usual reveal.  Truly, the week was amazing not because of all the gold and silver and rare milk glass (well, not only that) but amazing because of the great company, the lack of "gotta hunt, gotta find" urgency, and the part I actually like the best - the research on what I found.

Let's see how good you are!

Okay, a bit of a loot-shot, here, but with good intent.  I was practicing with the camera, silly!  This is a 14K butterfly with a nice chunk of (I believe) natural turquoise (you wouldn't believe how much is actually man-made), sitting beside a sorority/fraternity pin from 1927 and another from 1928, both 10K.  I've no idea what the logos are, here.  I can't see that they're Greek letters (the usual thing) so maybe they're organizational - though I don't usually see date pins with anything but college stuff.  (Oh, and all of this was $14.  See?  I haven't completely abandoned my usual Bunny grin!)

Now it gets fun, though.  I'm still researching some of it, and I haven't tested all the gold yet, but I swear to glory it was international week!  I ran into more unusual marks and weird patterns in the past two weeks than I've done in the past 50 years!  At least, I think so.  Let's face it, it's only been lately that I've opened my eyes (then, as Terry Pratchett would say, "opened my eyes again") so who knows how long I've walked pats this stuff ...

But that's for another day.  Today is about the identification, if you can ... because these are just so cool!!!

Milk glass first.  Both are not common.  I really hope you can get a closer look at the pattern on the candlestick.  I've seen the bon-bon once or twice, but I've never seen the other before (though I have two sugar bowls in the same pattern in white).  Anyone want to hazard a guess?  On either one?

Then there's jewelry.  On the left, there's some interesting karat and maker marks on the tag, though as of yet I have no idea where the necklace is from.  On the right is an obvious origin, but I hope you can read the other wire because I can't figure out the hallmark.

Silver, now.  Both are signed, but though I've identified the one on the left (and can you say "OMG"?), I can't even read some of the stuff on the right - the signature on the drop is easy but the one on the inside of the screwback is different, and, I think, more important to ID.

This one's my favorite.  I've only seen these marks online or in books, and I'm so excited that I found these earrings!  They really are what they say they are (I tested) but I'm over the moon because I now have something with these hallmarks.  (Me?  A dweeb?  Why would you say that?)

So, my experiment in macro is over for now.  It was pretty hard, but I'm getting the hang of it.  Enjoy the pics, embrace your inner geek and do some research, or just make wild guesses but give it a shot.  I'll be sure to publish the answers next week - when I get them all!