What if you held an auction....

...and nobody came?

Well last night was a bust! Nobody came.

Poor Greg. I felt bad for him, but he accepted that he'd screwed up the advertising. Too little, too late. There was a little radio advertising. He missed the deadline for one paper, forgot to put the time in the other ad. The flyers that were (supposedly) delivered to businesses in the mail - well he checked with his neighbours and only one of them had gotten it.

So there was no shortage of helpers, but only 2-3 customers. Guess we'll try again tonight although I don't see how it will be any different. He was talking about renting a truck and taking everything to an auction house, but I don't know for sure what the new plan is.

The only thing I know for sure is - it's NOT ALL COMING BACK TO OUR HOUSE!!

no dog

and I am sad. But it's about the worst possible week to try to introduce a new pet 'cause it's going to be chaos around here. And Sally is a lovely dog but she does need some training - not a perfect right out of the package dog like Ruby was. However I'm sure she'll get adopted very soon so I'm not worried about her...and me, well I'll keep on looking. But maybe not this week!

Talk about altered books...

I found this site at dooce.com... Wow! I would love to see one of those up close. Many of the comments refer to the poor books. Please! I don't think any altered book artist uses anything but ratty old books that would end up at the dump otherwise.

I'm supposed to be organizing boxes

but instead I'm taking a trip down memory land with every box that I do look in. Just opened a box of stuff that was in my Mom's curio cabinet. She collected swans, so it's heavy on the ceramic & glass swans. Some of them are beautiful - I'm keeping a couple of my favourites - and some, well, let's just say somebody might want to buy them... Also in there was my grandfather's silver christening cup from Norway which I'm keeping. A couple of days ago we found the copper tea set that my mom liked so much. Teapot, cream & sugar. Made in Sweden and presented to somebody on their 50th birthday in 1916. Not the initials of anybody in our family so who knows where that came from. Like I say, my mom loved that thing & didn't mind polishing it now & again, but it's not my style at all. So I guess it'll go... But boy do I have a hard time letting go of 'stuff'.


Earlier this afternoon I went down to the SPCA to meet a dog I'd seen online on Thursday. Her name is Sally, she's a border collie/dalmatian cross and cute as anything although she needs to lose some weight. So I put a $20 deposit on her so nobody else can adopt her before they close tomorrow. It's really not good timing but what the heck. We'll see what the Mr. says tomorrow when we go see her again.

Help Wanted

So Greg is shutting down his computer business at the end of this month. This is the news I got when I got home from my trip! He has to be out by the end of the month. He's been trying to sell it with no luck so he's just packing it in. (His rent was being dramatically increased.)

What he plans to do is auction off his remaining stock and also get rid of all of our junk at home at the same time. He's not hiring an auction company but is looking for an auctioneer wannabe and some people to help out at this gala event which is going to take place over 2 or 3 days next week (I know, short notice isn't it?). Wednesday through Friday I think.

He also plans to auction off some stuff as a fundraiser for the food bank (which is right across the street from his shop) and was wondering whether any of my scrapping buddies might want to help out by putting in a few hours or donating any works of art, the proceeds of which would go to the food bank, or to another charity of your choice.

So I know I'll be spending the next several days in the basement sorting through all the boxes of stuff down there and wishing I were still in a foreign country ;) But if anybody is willing to give us a hand, just let me know. Thanks!

shoes

Well here I am back home again and feeling not that great. Jet lag I guess. But not too jet lagged to spend the day mostly on the computer! So for those who are interested, I've found pictures of the 3 (count 'em) pairs of shoes I bought in New York. I find pictures online as my size 11's don't photograph so well!

Last Day in New York

Well it's been a blast but I guess I'm ready to go home. Today I'm really tired. We went on a 4.5 hour comedy cruise last night. The comedians were mostly very funny but the 2 hours beforehand trapped on a boat with poundingly loud & unfamiliar music with only about 6 people older than us - well that was a bit much.

But otherwise it's all been great. I saw lots of things I didn't get to last year: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Macy's,Time Square, Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall (which is absolutely enormous!), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters, and the United Nations. Tonight we plan to go up the Empire State Building. I've had a ton of dinners out, several cosmo's and done lots of shopping. Gee no wonder I'm tired!

This time tomorrow I'll be en route to Montreal, then Vancouver, then home to Kelowna by evening. And a day of rest before going back to work on Friday. Oh and I've taken about 300 pictures since I left home!!

another year older and deeper in debt

So you know how the Scandinavian countries have a reputation for being expensive? Well I'd never really bought into that before - probably because I never go out to eat while I'm here, and I don't usually buy much of anything.

Well this time I did eat out. Heidi and I went for a fabulous sushi dinner last night. It was soooo good! A sushi sashimi combination, not a huge amount, but enough. We also had dessert, Heidi had a 'banana split', I had a chocolate pineapple cake - both beautifully presented - and a beer and coffee each. The bill was nearly $200 for the 2 of us!! At home it would probably have been about $45 each. So that was a shock...but an excellent meal!

I've also bought a few things - a couple of books, a pair of earrings, some other little stuff. After I get through the dutyfree shop I hope I have enough to get some shoes in New York! which reminds me I'd better do some online banking...

Heidi and I had spent the afternoon at the Folkmuseet (folk museum) which is an open air museum containing about 250 old buildings which come from all over Norway and have been rebuilt on this site. It's in the same part of town as the Viking Ship Museum, Kon-Tiki, Fram etc. The last time I was at the Folk Museum it was raining so today instead was a beautiful day.

Blogging from Norway

OK I wasn't going to udate my blog while I'm away but what the heck. I'm drinking so much coffee that it's difficult to sleep so I might as well be productive after everyone else has gone to bed.

An uneventful flight over to New York and just spent not quite 24 hours there. After hanging out at Starbucks across from Mark's apartment for awhile I decided to take a bus tour for the afternoon. We didn't have the most interesting guide but it was relaxing just to sit there on the top of the double decker and gawk around. Unfortunately I've already forgotten what most of the pictures are of.

On the train to Newark airport I met an American family who were on their way to their first trip to Norway, meeting distant relatives. They were fun to talk to and since we had plenty of time to kill before the flight it was great to have someone to talk to.

When I arrived here we immediately drove up to my cousin's 'hytte' (cabin) in Gausdal which is north of Lillehammer. They have a very nice place up there, out in the country but with all the modern conveniences. The pictures are from there: view from the kitchen window, Gudbrand cutting the grass on the roof, my brother Hans & I, and a typical rural scene a little ways down the road. We did a bunch of shopping and getting the hall ready for Saturday. The reunion itself was fun, I have cousins who came from Sweden, France, New York plus me and all the rest who live in Norway. A very multilingual lot too.

So now we're back in Oslo for a few days. I fly back to New York Thursday morning. Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Heidi for the afternoon. Bye for now!