Friday Five - Garage Sale!

Welcome to your irregularly scheduled RevGalBlogPals Fifth Friday Five, hosted by will smama and Songbird! Since will smama is preparing for a joint garage sale with her parents, and Songbird's church had a Yard and Plant Sale last Saturday, we have five enormously important questions we hope you will answer:

1) Are you a garage saler?
Not usually. It requires getting up and out the door too early on Saturday for me. Our one day to sleep in, apart from soccer games and such, and we like our lazy mornings when we can get them. I'll answer the other questions with the few garage sales I've been to in mind, though.

2) If so, are you an immediate buyer or a risk taker who comes back later when prices are lower?
Immediate. Stuff gets gone.

3) Seriously, if you're not a garage saler, you are probably not going to want to play this one.
(That wasn't really #3.)
Uhh...yep.

3) This is the real #3: What's the best treasure you've found at a yard or garage sale?
Three plastic mixing bowls 10 years ago. I use them all the time and they've held up well until just this year.

4)If you've done one yourself, at church or at home, was it worth the effort?
Haven't done a whole one myself. Mr. Incredible says he doesn't want church members in our neighborhood going through our old stuff. We did participate in a neighborhood yard sale, recently. No advertising. Just pulled some outgrown kid stuff out into our driveway, and sold it to the hordes driving by. Easy. I had a dream the night before, though, that people were coming in our garage and trying to buy things. Then they came in our house and were wanting to buy SuperGirl's shoes. Clearly, we have privacy issues.....

5) Can you bring yourself to haggle?
Not well.

BONUS: For the true aficionado: Please discuss the impact of Ebay, Craig's List, Freecycle, etc... on the church or home yard/garage sale.
Not an aficionado, but I will report that our recent hire of a non-ordained staff member at church came through a craigslist ad when our usual methods produced no resumes.....!

HTML Woes

I've been tinkering with my blog layout and finally got the header looking like I wanted it. (After 2 days of trying to figure it out. This is akin to reading ABOUT writing instead of writing. Reading ABOUT blogging instead of actual blogging.) Of course, I lost all my widgets, despite following detailed instructions on how not to lose them. I'm hoping the header looks good in other browsers than Firefox....I'm also hoping the beautiful picture inspires me to write a little more often, simply for the habit, if nothing else. I solemnly swear not to alter my blog layout again anytime soon.

Grand Tour Friday Five

In honor of several wonderful trips some of the RevGals are taking in the next few days, Songbird posts this Grand Tour Friday Five:

Name five places that fall into the following categories:

1) Favorite Destination -- someplace you've visited once or often and would gladly go again
Only one? Okay...I'll pick Australia. I went in 1991 for the World Council of Churches meeting. Got to stay a month on a study tour, but had almost no time to travel around, so I would like to see more of the country and go hang out in New Zealand at the same time. (But my favorite is probably just a regular old beach or mountain trip near to home.)

2) Unfavorite Destination -- someplace you wish you had never been (and why)
Besides the Oncology department, and the NICU (love how I sneak in more than one answer?), I would say....an unhappy trip to Rome with a sister and her husband when their marriage was breaking up. The tension on the trip took all the fun away, seriously. Ugh.

3) Fantasy Destination -- someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter
I don't know, but it would involve mountains and lots of water. An island somewhere, with someone to wait on me. And my family could come too if they let me sit and read a lot.

4) Fictional Destination -- someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination
Is it too cliche to say Hogwarts? Either that or one of the manor houses from Jane Austen's books. I'm rereading Persuasion now. And I did live in Bath for awhile, so that's not fictional, but the great houses where the characters lived otherwise are. And I would pick one of the big houses, not one of the small clergyperson cottages. I already live that life!

5) Funny Destination -- the funniest place name you've ever visited or want to visit
In preparation for a visit to England in January, I have been looking at maps, and I have to tell you British gals, there are some funny names there. But I do also like the little town in South Carolina called Pumpkintown.

And I am off on a little trip myself this weekend, which will involve a group of moms who write together, lots of good food, a great view, and skipping church. Lots to be done before I can leave though....

The Trinity Window

Trinity Window - Upload a doc

Mr. Incredible loaned me this idea. (He got it from Richard Lischer's book Open Secrets.) I am trying to explain the Trinity to my 3rd-5th grade Sunday School class. We've talked about apples: whole, cut up, applesauce, etc. but I like this visual representation too. Maybe we'll discuss it while we eat apples.....

Read this doc on Scribd: Trinity Window