Estate Sale Fevor

Mark and I had a marathon estate sale binge yesterday and it was super fun. We were going to go to the Omaha Zoo, but instead hit a ritzy garage sale down in the "ridiculously big houses" neighborhood. I scored a stuffed panda, but otherwise it was pretty lame. From there we hit an estate sale in waldo that we totally bagged some awesome stuff at. It was 1/2 price, so we got a 10 dollar turntable, jazz records, some classy table linens, some cool asian tins, a framed chinese watercolor of kittens, a couple of decorative trays, a scarf, and a 70s stuffed owl. from there we happily drove all over chasing sale signs for about 3 hours. suprisingly the nicer neighborhoods had the least interesting stuff. in our opinion anyway.

it was funny how rabid people were at these sales though. I walked into a room and spotted an awesome quilt on a bed and commented on it to mark, some lady practically screeched "I BOUGHT THAT!! IT"S MINE!" lol. then later when we were leaving, i complemented her quilt and jokingly said "i'm so jealous! you totally scored!" so she clutched the quilt tighter and gave me a sour look. wow, okay weirdo.

anyway, we're hooked! we're going to scout out sales for next time in the paper and get up earlier. :)

Ilena aka: Squeely McSnufflesnort

Happiness

I am wrapping up my second week as a full time nanny and it's totally....awesome!!! I love hanging out with my little elfin baby "Smooshymuffinpants". Even when she's shrieking in my ear, it's cute because she snuffles and snorts.

I'm patting myself on the back. I think I found my niche. I'm fascinated every day, and never bored. I've been reading while she sleeps and i'm up to "Month Five" in "What to Expect The First Year". I'm all exited now that I actually have a reason to read baby books. I used to go to the "Parenting and Baby" section of Borders and feel like a weirdo childless lurker. lol.

I'm such a sap. :D

Out by the Speedway...YeeHAW!

Last nite we went out by the Kansas speedway to Cabellas (my own personal hell on earth, the insane collection of stuffed animal carcasses and "Gun Library" about sent me over the edge) so that Cyndie could return some hiking boots.

They've built a whole huge shopping area out there called "legends" so we ate and walked around and got some ice cream and watched the storms come in. It was pretty cool. I'm a big fan of big animal statues, hence the pictures.

Also, Mark has lost about 20 pounds since he wore those pants last, and lost them about 2 feet up the driveway, on the way to the front door as we came home, but decided he would just shuffle the rest of the way in like that. lol.

Sad Animals and Dumb People

The Kansas City Zoo is promoting the heck out of some Koalas that they are borrowing, so we were kind of jazzed to see some hardcore marsupial cuteness.

Alas, we were not only dissapointed, we were totally freaked out...in a bad way. They have this new "discovery barn" which is like a giant cement block echo chamber with a few different types of animals behind glass in very small, depressing cement block rooms. Their idea of setting up the koalas in comfort was throwing a couple of tree branches in and that's it. We couldn't really even see the poor koalas who were hunched behind a few meager leaves at the top of the "tree". And as well as screaming children sliding down a tube slide, this giant echo chamber was home to two giant mcaws who's screeching I thought was going to cause my eardrums to explode.

Anyway, our zoo sucks. i felt incredibly sad for the animals there.

p.s. the meerkats were pawing at their glass enclosure maniacally, as if they wanted us to help them escape. poor poor meerkats. :(

p.p.s. i think we were there on "dumb people day"...who seriously thinks its a good idea to shout at and mock the animals? and way to educate your children by telling them that a warthog is "Pumba" and that those rare endangered monkeys are "weird".

p.p.p.s. okay, i seriously do sound like a crabby old woman, so i have to add now that i did join the croud (if only in my head) in a colletive "ewwww" as a chimp ate it's own poop.