Non-stick pots, spatulas, transit church plans, and weirdos at garage sales

Noticed that Chuck C. has unfriended me - no harm, no foul. My non-stick pot has outlived its usefulness, finally. Guess I'll have to go to Superstore sometime and buy a new one! I've scouted them out at London Drugs, the Bay, and Sears; seems that those are only sold as part of a set at those places. I know there's a place that sells cookware at good prices, but I have no idea of the business name! Wait, scratch that... I just called my mom to see if I could finagle a Superstore trip since we'd be in a car anyway, and she said she has a three-litre non-stick pot. (she DID ask whether I planned to buy anything heavy...) SWEET! She also is going to give me a non-stick frying pan, a non-stick spatula, and some more jalapeno cheese slices! Of course I thanked her, haha. (I could hear my sister singing in the background; she professed to be jealous)

Mom wants me to go to the church by 2 tomorrow (instead of the townhouse by 11:30) and take the two old ladies home after their senior Fellowship. Fine by me, but if Grandma starts saying stuff about how she knows the bus routes better than I, I *will* yell at her, no matter if Great-Aunt is there! My only hope is that the Broadway routes have STABILIZED, unlike the last time I attempted to take the bus to church the day of the BBQ! (or I could take Eric's advice of that night: take the Canada Line to Waterfront, and then go to Rupert Station!) Cousin Eric is going back to the airport at 4 AM Thursday (for a flight which leaves at 6), so we'll have an early Shanghai food dinner before the family takes me home. That also sounds good, haha. (also discussed Aaron, Lillian, Uncle Michael, Great-Aunt's husband passing away, extra room which used to be a servant's, Grandma being concerned about dying in Hong Kong, and more)


HAHAHAHA! This is what Corey just told me while talking about garage sales, and how my mom was disappointed in only making $7.50 when she expected $100:

[20:58:58] mrptptpt: at our last one, someone was interested in a toaster, which was my grandma's and was about as plain as it gets, just a normal metal toaster with two slots.... we only wanted a couple dollars for it, I think. this guy kept asking us if it fit a certain brand of bread that he liked... uh, it's a toaster, I think you can put sliced bread in, yeah... that's kind of what it's made for.
[21:00:27] mrptptpt: so we told him we had no idea, but yes, most bread should probably fit just fine... so he proceeded to continue to ask about that for like five minutes. eventually, he asked if we had a tape measure so he could measure the slots... uh, okay, weirdo, here you go... so he measures the slots and says he'll be back.
[21:00:34] AlenaBrolxFlami: ... hahaha, what?! oh dear
[21:00:51] mrptptpt: a while later, he comes back with a loaf of that kind of bread that he just bought so he could test-fit a slice
[21:01:06] mrptptpt: I don't remember what it was, but it was completely normal-looking bread, not some weird shape or anything
[21:01:06] AlenaBrolxFlami: HAHAHAHAHA! Why am I not surprised?! So did it fit?
[21:01:11] mrptptpt: of course
[21:01:23] AlenaBrolxFlami: why are people so crazy?
[21:01:44] mrptptpt: but he went to all that trouble measuring and driving all over town, and spending money on bread just to see if a two-dollar toaster would be okay.
[21:02:06] mrptptpt: it probably cost him almost that much in gas running around buying bread :P
[21:02:17] mrptptpt: he was nice enough, but he was sure concerned about his bread :P
[21:04:41] mrptptpt: I could understand "do bagels fit?" or something, but normal bread? come on :P
[21:05:58] mrptptpt: then there were people that only wanted to get things for a quarter. "how much is this one?" "it says $5 on it..." "how about a quarter?" "uh, no, I don't think that's enough, sorry" "oh well, how about this one?" "yeah, that has a tag on it that says $30" "well, how about a quarter?" "................."
[21:06:56] mrptptpt: we also had a whole zombie swarm of bargain hunters at our garage door at like 6 AM, before the garage sale even started...... we opened the door, and all these weirdos are pressed up against the door, ready to run in and see what sort of junk we're selling
[21:07:30] mrptptpt: it wasn't even ready :P we had the garage loaded up, and a lot of that was coming out to the driveway..
[21:08:19] mrptptpt: sounds like your mom needs to sell better stuff if she only made $7.50 :P
[21:12:04] AlenaBrolxFlami: hahaha, maybe... she definitely needs to lower her expectations, for sure :P maybe price things better, too...
[21:17:18] mrptptpt: or advertise better
[21:19:45] AlenaBrolxFlami: perhaps
[21:20:48] mrptptpt: we used to have garage sales almost every year. we have a neighborhood garage sale every year, so there's plenty of signs and a huge newspaper ad for that every year, so there's plenty of customers
[21:21:33] mrptptpt: that hasn't been as active lately, but there used to be at least 2-3 per street.. quite a few of them
[21:21:48] AlenaBrolxFlami: hey, that sounds good... I think this one could have been just their townhouse complex... not sure what sort of advertising there was for that, but probably not a newspaper ad
[21:31:06] mrptptpt: well, you definitely need a newspaper ad..... or maybe a Craigslist ad these days
[21:32:11] mrptptpt: we used to go check out garage sales on weekends sometimes, so to do that, we got out the classifieds and circled anything that looked like it was interesting, or near others that we planned to go to. I don't think I've ever been to a garage sale I just saw
[21:34:27] AlenaBrolxFlami: since the townhouse complex is kinda hard to get into if you just saw it, and it's partially hidden by trees.... yeah, that could be the way to go
[21:41:13] mrptptpt: you need that and signs showing people where to go from the street that goes into the neighborhood, and maybe one farther away than that too :P
[21:42:06] AlenaBrolxFlami: probably, then
[21:42:45] mrptptpt: my dad made some really good signs that we've used, and any neighbors nearby having a garage sale always want to borrow them
[21:44:01] mrptptpt: he found blank signs or something, like the type you put in your yard if you're selling your house... he used his vinyl cutter to cut out big letters that spell out "GARAGE SALE" and a big arrow in the right direction below that
[21:46:44] AlenaBrolxFlami: vinyl cutters? WOW!
[21:57:16] mrptptpt: he has one for his business, he sells vinyl lettering to other train people. he mostly got it so he didn't have to pay someone else to do that... so since it's sort of expensive to have your own, he paid for it by getting other people to pay him to use it to make them lettering, too :P you can use that to make all kinds of signs and stuff, though... lots of stickers on car windows and stuff are made with those, too
[21:57:57] AlenaBrolxFlami: HAHAHAHAHAHA. NICE!
[22:20:42] mrptptpt: he designs circuit boards that run trains and stuff too, mostly so he can justify buying lots of electronics to play with. his business supports his hobby and keeps him busy :P
[22:21:56] AlenaBrolxFlami: lovely :P