How to spend 200 euros in 30 minutes

Step 1: Drive to Maasmechelen, Belgium (about 45 minutes, maybe slightly less) to the outlet mall.

Step 2: Buy a Tefal grill pan at Kitchen & Cook.

Step 3: Buy a hardside suitcase at the Samsonite outlet.

Step 4: Go home.

Seriously, we didn't stay there for even half an hour. I wanted to have lunch at one of the cafes...just spend maybe a couple of hours...but Lance wanted to start sorting through the basement stuff today. So we got what we came for (plus the grill pan, because that wasn't on our agenda, but I've been wanting one and it was a good price) and then headed home.

Had lunch, and now we're sorting. I just gathered together a bunch of stuff for the Park & Sell. We have a fairly large piece of furniture that's going, so that'll be fun to get to the base next Saturday. The rest is small stuff: books, movies, household items, stuffed animals, etc. Hopefully we can make a few euros from it next week. As it is, we have to pay 5 euros to participate.

Anyway, came to tweak my book inventory on Good Reads, since I decided to sell some books that I thought I was keeping. And then, back to work!

Live Journal is conspicuously empty, and yet I ramble on

A sign of impending winter - the Eurasian Jay has started hanging out in our backyard again. I only see him in the fall. He is such a striking bird. I'm not sure what he's finding in our backyard, but whatever it is, I'm glad that he likes it. I was so insane about taking his picture when I first noticed him, but he has an aversion to my camera (and always seems to know when I have it trained on him), so I just decided to let him be.

Lance and I got a lot of work done today. We have 3 rooms in the basement, so he put everything that we're leaving behind in one room, and everything else that we're taking with us is in the main room. I have an ever-growing stack of things to take to the Park & Sell. And I need to find someone who is willing to care for my plants...I'm just giving those away. We should find out this week when the movers are coming, so I need to find a new home for these plants ASAP.

Lance just got through the shred pile yesterday, and now it's building again. We're buying a new shredder when we get to Seattle. This one will likely burn out before we're done with it here.

I think we're mostly done now for the day, so I'm relaxing for the rest of the evening. I made a good dinner tonight...as pretentious as I can be sometimes about food, I'm telling you that the best chicken parmesan is made with Shake 'n Bake. For serious. I use the Italian flavor and add a teaspoon of garlic powder before I add the chicken. Mmmmmmmmmmm! Lance was a very happy man. Especially because I made dinner extra carb-loaded with sides of spaghetti and garlic bread.

Starting a new book this evening. And already I'm sleepy, so I don't know how far I'll get in reading it.