Tuesday, September 30, 2008

So close to a YouTube moment

My nephew Jason celebrated his 7th birthday yesterday. And as traditi0n have become in the Webb families there have to be a piñata.  And this is when the YouTube moment almost happened.

I started with a Darth Wader Piñata ...

Notice the strings = a pull the strings Piñata ...

And all the kids are sitting ready and willing to hit Darth Wader in the head.....

And the lucky first get the band over her eyes....

One Small hit... and the head goes plop...

Then the candy is up for grabs...

Poor Jimmy boy.. he seems a little red..

Jason... I am your father....

Well, Jimmy boy, this is your lucky day... you could have been YouTubed. Heather almost got it.  But this hat on your head...  LOL. 

 

Just remember we all love you.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Fond childhood memories

Welcome to my fondest childhood memories.

I grew up jumping on these rocks.

It's amazing what a few boats in a row can do to a mans brain. 

These boats were laying as they have always done.

There were so many memories that flowed back into my mind when I saw these boat laying like they, or the boats like it have done for at least 35 years.

Not much have changed. 

You can see the Jelly fish, just an arm length out in the water.  There were always a ton of jelly fish right at the boatlanding.

I used to try to get the shell that looks like a little Chinese hat off the rocks, hopefully without braking them.  I never knew what they were called.

There were always a ton of  Blåskjell, or clamshells as they are called in English.

What would this place be without the the fish skeletons.  My dad would always filet the fish right there on the shore after we got in.

It was like time had stood still...

except they added a molo.

They made the boat landing wider.... it used to be room for only one, maybe two boats if you really had to.

And I had my wife with me.  I so wish that she could even have a tiny little glimpse into my mind when we were there. 

It were the closest I have been to be 5 again.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

1st Larsen Family Garagesale EVER!

WOW, we're having a garage sale!

It have been a project 8.5 years in the making. Garage sale is not something that is common in Norway. We have something that were more common a few years back, even before I was of school age... it was flee market. But we never participated.

Even used stores are uncommon where my mom lives, and I grew up. In fact, it's just a couple of years since it the first one opened. But living in America, I have become very accustomed to them, but never been part of one.

So far at our garage sale we have had;
1 early bird, that were looking for antics
three cars that turned around so fast that they almost do not count.... (before we had all our stuff out,)
then we had a woman and her daughter,
a man on a bike,
at the same time as we had one that just turned around, and one couple that viewed our garage sale from the comfort of their car,
- Three potential coustomers at the same time, WOW, Sam should have seen it... he would have been in HEAVEN. He have been complaining that we have no-one coming to our garage sale, but that every one is going to our neighbors down the street...
We also had a young lady, and also a single lady of a few more years...
And that is the status of our garage sale at the time of 10:45 AM, and we started at 7:30 AM to get ready...

And here came Grandpa to contribute as well- some well read paper back books... what is a garage sale without book... you just have to have it. No garage sale without them.

This is the story behind our garage sale....

When our niece Anita were here a couple of years ago, she became a big advocate for us to have a garage sale. To finance a trip back to NORWAY, but we have now found a better way... just ask mom.....
So in the process of time we have talked about having a GS. But it was this summer, when our dear friend and neighbor Delores, suggested that we should have a GS, and I told her that I did not think we had good enough stuff to have people spend the time to come to our GS, and suggesting that a better deal would be to have a GS covering the whole street. With that in mind, we started thinking of a date for the 'big' street wide GS. With lots of stuff planned, we could not have it in June, as it would be to soon. July and August were out due to travels. Not only our Norway visit, but also theirs.

So now, so many months of planning, and preparating, and collecting all our stuff, we had A SALE! We had two ladies, with a little 5 month old beautiful red head, that were our first real customers - a whole $ worth. They bought a pair of pants that matched the baby girl's red hair, at 11:02.

And then there were two cars, that would have been, if they could have been drive-by's. But since we live on a dead end, they just turned around.

I don't know if Lea Anne just could not bear parting with the wreath, or just realized that adding a few fall colored leafs into it, it could last for another year. So I sold it back to her.

Then there came an older grandpa guy, that found one of our child swings that he wanted to have for a grandchild, and our third sale were a fact!

The last hour of our garage sale have been alittle slow. But that's OK, as the sun is really shining on us now. It beats the rain that I was afraid we were going to get. This will make it easier to stay 'open for business' a little longer.

You may wonder what our garage sale looks like. Well, I have pictures of it all, except the customers. I figured it would be a little aquard to ask them to pose for a picture.

But here are the pictures I took of our garage sale.


Overview of the Garage sale stuff


Lilly at the Child Play thing department


The children cloats department


Lilly looking for a good deal in the 'Computer and electronics department'


The only good was herself...


A fancy IKEA hack.... drying rack is good to hold cloats. Picture was taken before fancy London Fog Coat were added to the inventory.


Lilly found what she wanted ...


The electronics department features a lamp that sells for $30+ on ebay, but no takers at our sale.


The furniture department with an expensive glass table top among the couches.
No takers of the FREE couches! What have the world come to?


The after picture... well, not, but it could have been...
$4.50 in profit of a whole days work.
You try to compare and find what is missing.

We are ending our garage sale on a high note. We had a run of 6-7 customers, even two at the same time, and the last one to leave was the big spender, as he bought TWO items, namely a chicken to have scrambled eggs in, and a book, totaling $2.50 bringing our total to $4.50 for the day.

It have been a great experience, that may be repeated in the spring.... we'll see....