The buyers backed out, just a few weeks before closing. (sigh) Our realtor assures us this happens, especially with older homes. (Ours was built in 1969.)
So back to waiting, keeping things tidy...and having agents stop by with clients while we hang out in the trailer. Life goes on... God willing, we'll have another contract very soon.
Waiting is difficult. We stayed in the trailer, but continued to run over to the house to water and tidy up. It stayed hot all week.. Some rain helped a little, bringing the temperature down. Meanwhile, we wait. Results from this, results from that...oops, can't move yet. Have to wait for more things to fall into place. Can we trust God in all this? Do I believe that He has our good in mind, that He cares about us? Yes. Absolutely. God is good -- all the time. All the time - God is good.
It's hard to be patient. Preaching to the choir, right? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Meanwhile:
Sylvester Stallone doesn't 'own' Rocky...even though he came up with the idea, wrote the screenplay, starred in it, directed it, etc. Did you know that? Jimmy Kimmel gets grandstanded -- on his own show! Oh, and he didn't get an invite to Once Upon A Time in Hollywood's premiere, either...
Hot, hot, hot. After a cooler week in the beginning of the month, the heat has turned itself ON. We're grateful for the electrical connection to the house; without it, we could only run the air conditioner an hour or two in the trailer every day. The Brick fixed our little fan, which has kept us sane during the nights. Thankfully, we might get a little rain in the afternoons, and temperatures do cool down some toward the evening. We often have breezes, as well. All the same, I will not be sorry to see July show its backside. This has been a strange month, filled with work on the house, showing the house and selling the house. Much of that was done in sticky heat. I've watered the flowerbeds most every day, trying to keep them nice for showings, but even they are starting to look a tad threadbare. August, do your stuff! It's your last chance at summer heat before blessed Fall sets in.
'It won't come too soon for me, Mom!' (Charley is NOT a fan of the heat. Who can blame him, with that thick coat on...)
P.S. I'm posting this a few days early -- remaining items will go into the August report. Then again, you figured that, didn't you...
FRUGAL HITS *Stopped beating myself up over things lost (like the food in the freezer) -- because they're gone now. I don't have to see them or be concerned with them anymore. Part of that includes a promise to be extra vigilant about storing food in the pantry, fridge and freezer. (All much smaller areas -- which is turning out to be good.) *Planned a house-leaving par-tay. Secret weapons: rotisserie chickens from Sam's Club; lemonade, root beer, beer and a big jar of salsa purchased on sale; ice cream ditto (see below); and a five-pound bag of shredded Cheddar cheese plus a huge stack of corn tortillas for cheese guys., melted on the grill. Oh yes, and a pork loin from clearing out the freezer. Lots of music; many of our friends sing or play instruments. Total damage: $75-90. Much of that was for the chickens and beer. (Postdate: we had a ton of leftovers -- particularly chicken. I bought five -- could have easily gotten away with three. And that was with nearly 40 people attending. Guess the pork loin covered more than I'd thought. Some of the salads were meat-based, too.) *Free items! A pack of tape, a free can of whipping cream...they do add up.
Our wonderful contractor, Troy at Pay It Forward Services, enjoys wearing red, white & blue shirts adorned with eagles and flags. The girlies call him Captain America.
*Paid off the credit cards in full, using our HELOC. That interest rate was much lower than what we were paying for the credit cards' interest. Thanks to the house sale, we'll be able to go back to paying off all the cards in full again. (Nasty secret: if you DON'T pay your credit cards in full each month, they'll charge interest on your current batch of purchases, as well. At least that's what we've seen.) *Got a refund from the IRS -- prompted by them! I was breathing fast, opening the envelope, thinking 'oh oh, audit.' The word 'credit' was a welcome relief. *Kept the plants watered almost every day. That protected my May investment for flowersenough to keep the house looking nice. Now, if the heat would let up a little, so the house's new buyers actually get to enjoy them. Hang in there, babies...
*Found a nickel in the house during the final tidy-up: my 'message' money. The Brick found a penny in a trailer cupboard! (Hey, every bit counts.)
*Found a GREAT Amazon purchase for Christmas gifts. I can't say much here yet, since the girlies are known to read my blogposts. But it was truly a buy.
The Mama, on the other hand, does not read my blog. So I can tell you what I found for her birthday: a $14 set of dainty floral cotton bedsheets. *A grill accessory for our microwave -- which also grills and has a convection feature! The Brick found this at the company website -- and the price beat anything Amazon was trying to charge for it.
*Half-priced Sonic cherry limeades...thank you, Happy Hour. (We got some for the kids in June, as well.) A free burger at Red Robin (buy 10, get one free) was nice, particularly when we brought home the extra ranch dressing pots. (Half the burger was next day's lunch.) Chicken tenders from Walmart ($5.98/lb) fought back the need to go out to eat when time was short. You get a LOT of tenders, by the way, in a pound, as opposed to fast food places. *More 2-dollar videos from the library's used bookroom, including one of my favorites: the ridiculous Mystery Science Theater Manos: Hands of Fate. More highbrow videos were found, including the original Manchurian Candidate, Caine Mutiny and The Man Who Would Be King. All three are amazing movies, if you've never seen them. I also found several seasons from Battlestar Galactica, Everybody Loves Raymond -- and a few others. All for $2 a season!
Said to be the stupidest movie ever made -- the director (who also starred in it) was proud!
*Utility bills were way down. (In spite of the trailer being plugged into the house outlet.) This figure will fall even more, once we transfer largely to solar power. (The trailer has 8 solar panels on its roof.) *Free channels on the fifth-wheel's TV. The Brick found these. (He's clever that way.)
The fifth-wheel came with a TV, DVD player, stereo and electric fireplace. (The latter isn't working yet, but I have every confidence that the Brick can fix it. ) What are we going to do with the electronics we already own? That's a good question...he's talking about adapting the space, so we can use our old TV to watch football games. Go Blue!
*Improvised over and over as we cleared things out, using soap, shampoo, cleaning solution, detergent, etc. for different uses. Washed clothes late at night or early in the morning, and only used the clothesline when we were sure a showing wasn't scheduled. *Gave some furniture and a painting to a dear friend's daughter, who could use them. More of the furniture, quilts and other items went to Daughters #1 and #2, plus Son #1.
*Donated more stuff -- hopefully the last of it. *Didn't buy a 50-cent bouquet of roses. You have no idea how difficult this was for me. A Hollander, walking away? Sure, they were wilted and on their way out...but still! *Used the library. A lot. Meeting and study rooms let me meet with clients; their 'fireplace' magazine area was a quiet spot to work and use their free Wi-fi. They even threw in a colorful bookbag, because I was enrolled in their reading program. Thank you, wonderful Philip S. Miller Library. *Returned the Shogun DVD set (only 3 DVDs, out of 5, were in the case) and another defective DVD to the library used book room -- and got two replacements for free. (Checked out Shogun from the library, so we could finish watching it. Really a great series - you should look for it.)
*Food buys -- except for hotdogs ($1.99 on the Oscar Mayer brand for the Fourth), there weren't that many bargains this month. British-style teabags at half-price. (Yay, Safeway.) Cherries for 97 cents a pound. (Wow, Sprouts!) Pound bags of broccoli 'pearls', plus cartons of ice cream: 99 cents each. Frozen turkey sausage: $1.49/lb. Two-liter bottles of A&W, Canada Dry: buy 3, get 3 free. (Thank you, King Soopers.) *No matter -- we continued to eat clearouts from the freezer and fridge. French toast with blueberries for the Fourth of July, made with baguettes from the thrift shop and frozen berries, did NOT taste like 'leftovers.' After a sumptuous rib feast at friends' house, we were given plenty of leftovers to take home -- which lasted us much of the next week.
\*Had a free steak dinner plus a lunch, at one of Denver's most exclusive steakhouses. (Courtesy of local investment companies -- thanks, guys. We learned some things, too.)\
Gratuitous steak-on-the-hoof shot
*We did eat out -- but it wasn't often, now that we have a usable stove and microwave. We did take advantage of specials: Red Lobster's all-you-can-eat shrimp, Red Robin's $5 bonus bucks (from buying gift cards a few months ago), free (or half-price) burgers.
*Our local thrift shop is renovating...and needed to move items fast. Of course, we volunteered to help! During their 75% off day, I bought a couple of t-shirts and a sweater for me, and shorts for the Brick. Plus some beautiful bracelets, and an enameled pieplate. (I needed one, and collect them, anyways.) They were also offering free bread, so I got two loaves of French bread (see below) and a package of bagels.
Whoo hoo -- the day after the Fourth, everything went down to 90% off! I bought more jewelry, much of which will be dismantled for embellishments; a few videos; a silk Hawaiian shirt plus shorts for the Brick; and a bagful of quality kids' clothes for our niece and nephew's family. More free bread, too. It 's a burden -- but someone has to do it.
(Mavis from One Hundred Dollars A Month made me laugh when she mentioned her husband's philosophy on thrift store merchandise -- it's there because somebody died on it. Or in it. Or eating from it. When I read this to the Brick, he said, "I agree." But that didn't stop him from wearing the shorts!) *Returned items we didn't need and/or use for cleaning out, cleaning up and staging the house.
FRUGAL MISSES *Got the trailer registered. (Big bucks - oh goody) Fortunately, we live (or lived) just outside Castle Rock; the sales tax paid is a good bit less than if we lived within city limits. (I guess that part is a hit.) This also involved an incredible amount of rigmarole, including asking the previous owner to certify that was really her name, and getting a policeman out to verify the VIN number. (I am not making this up.) *Renewed the truck license. It needed an emissions test, too. Double goody. It cost less than 2018; at least that was something. *Threw away some of the flowering plants. The heat was just too much for them. *Had to toss some freezer items. Others had freezer burn. Either we or the dogs ate those, anyways. I tried to keep waste to a minimum, and largely succeeded.
*My credit card number was stolen - someone tried to use it at a Nebraska gas station. (The Brick thinks it was 'reserved' somehow when we traveled through there a few months ago; truckstops will sometimes do that, to ensure that they get paid from the larger rigs.) Fortunately, the card was declined when the credit card company realized something was wrong. New card sent - crisis averted.
*Credit card interest paid. Some, at least. More than we wanted to. *Kidney stones are worth their weight in gold. At least that's what it seems like, after the emergency room and further doctor bills. We'll start paying these off, a little at a time. Thankfully, the bill for my crowns at the dentist is almost caught up. *Dealt with a bunch of doggie 'incidents.' The Brick wasn't the only one with an iffy stomach.
*We finished paying off a lot of bills from the house renovation. Finally.
'It's about time!'
Even the smaller decisions this month saved us a little cash. As Brandy over at Prudent Homemaker points out, "Simple weeks with consistent ways of saving add up!" Keeping a 'spending diary,' especially as you're learning to save, isn't a bad idea, either. I've noticed that I'm much more aware of spending decisions, after writing Frugal Hits & Misses reports for so long. It's been three years, Gentle Readers! You can access these by starting withlast months' report -- or comparing this month to last year's. Enjoy.
Cash settlements may be as much as $125 -- or less, depending on how many people apply for it. (How do you know if you were affected? You don't -- unless you know that your identity was stolen already. Just apply.)
Why not put in your claim? It takes just a minute -- and who knows. Payout probably won't be until January 2020, though.
I just submitted a proposal for the next book with them:
A sequel to this one.
We'll see what happens. I'll even call myself a "geeky enthusiast!" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Here's text of the article by Kathleen Rooney, in case you can't access the NYT link:
During my summer and winter breaks from college, I worked at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill. This was in the early 2000s, when the store was run by the fifth generation of the Anderson family. The business had existed for over a century before my arrival, though it wasn’t always a bookstore: Founded as W.W. Wickel Pharmacy in 1875, it originally included books and toys among its wares. The family then opened Paperback Paradise, dedicated solely to books, above the drugstore in 1964, and since then, what’s known today as Anderson’s has moved and expanded multiple times.
I started looking into all of this not because of friendly conversation with the owners or chatter among my colleagues: I first read about Anderson’s humble beginnings in a book called “Downtown Naperville” from Arcadia Publishing, a South Carolina-based company that, since 1993, has been cranking out hyperlocal books of historical photography about communities across the United States. Back then, during slow evening hours when customers were scarce, I’d sit behind the cash register with my back to the windows facing the downtown streets and read — in a kind of textual mise en abyme — the description of those streets in Arcadia’s first book about the town, titled simply “Naperville.”
Arcadia Publishing — through series like Images of America and Postcard History — aims to reconnect “people to their community, their neighbors and their past by offering a curbside view of hometown history.” Their slogan, “Find Your Place in History,” plays out across the 15,000 titles in print, written by geeky enthusiasts whose qualifications tend to arise largely from their residence in the places in question. There’s at least one title on every single one of America’s 50 states, and each title follows a similar formula: an introduction consisting of a casserole of minutiae rather than any overarching argument, followed by an unexpectedly moving series of photo-packed chapters that feature quotidian people engaging in all the banal activities that compose a life.
During my summer and winter breaks from college, I worked at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill. This was in the early 2000s, when the store was run by the fifth generation of the Anderson family. The business had existed for over a century before my arrival, though it wasn’t always a bookstore: Founded as W.W. Wickel Pharmacy in 1875, it originally included books and toys among its wares. The family then opened Paperback Paradise, dedicated solely to books, above the drugstore in 1964, and since then, what’s known today as Anderson’s has moved and expanded multiple times.
I started looking into all of this not because of friendly conversation with the owners or chatter among my colleagues: I first read about Anderson’s humble beginnings in a book called “Downtown Naperville” from Arcadia Publishing, a South Carolina-based company that, since 1993, has been cranking out hyperlocal books of historical photography about communities across the United States. Back then, during slow evening hours when customers were scarce, I’d sit behind the cash register with my back to the windows facing the downtown streets and read — in a kind of textual mise en abyme — the description of those streets in Arcadia’s first book about the town, titled simply “Naperville.”
Arcadia Publishing — through series like Images of America and Postcard History — aims to reconnect “people to their community, their neighbors and their past by offering a curbside view of hometown history.” Their slogan, “Find Your Place in History,” plays out across the 15,000 titles in print, written by geeky enthusiasts whose qualifications tend to arise largely from their residence in the places in question. There’s at least one title on every single one of America’s 50 states, and each title follows a similar formula: an introduction consisting of a casserole of minutiae rather than any overarching argument, followed by an unexpectedly moving series of photo-packed chapters that feature quotidian people engaging in all the banal activities that compose a life.
The books risk being pretty boring, committed as they are to weaving together all the dull and shiny little threads that constitute history in these communities. But that’s what I like about them: While many places bid for historical significance by linking their stories to larger national narratives (George Washington slept here!) or engaging in the boosterish lionization of native-born luminaries, Arcadia usually takes a more granular and idiosyncratic approach. I recently became reacquainted with the series while doing research for a new novel; I sought the kind of lived-in texture and worm’s-eye-view detail that imparts a sense of what inhabiting a place might really have been like. The Arcadia vibe is more grandmother’s attic than Smithsonian Institution, more library lecture than college class. Reading its books feels agreeably like being buttonholed by a neighborhood expert bent on convincing you that the town is vastly more interesting than you’d ever imagined.
There’s the photograph in “Eden Prairie,” for example, of two young women in button-up Western shirts and neckerchiefs with their trick horse, Amigo, in 1954, whose caption notes that their performances as the “Rodeo Riders” raised thousands of dollars for such causes as the Rolling Acres Facility for the Handicapped. In “Birmingham,” about a suburb of Detroit, a caption beneath a photograph of a mountain of animal carcasses being trod upon by stylish men and women in early Edwardian garb explains: “During a night run on October 18, 1901, two freight trains collided in a farmer’s field,” killing three crewman and leaving the remains of hundreds of pigs and cattle, which were being transported to market, causing the crash site to be “visited by many fashionable gawkers.”
The series show that history, rather than being committed by distant heroes and warehoused in textbooks, is lived by normal people — always happening on every street, on every block, in every yard, all the time. They give the same credibility to a place like Naperville as they would to New York or Boston, making all of history — not just the famous parts — accessible and scintillating. Read “Litchfield” and learn that the Connecticut town used to have a Whipping Post Elm for public floggings, which “attained a circumference of 150 inches before it died at age 200”; read “Boonsboro” and learn that the first macadam road surface in the United States was installed between it and Hagerstown, Md., in 1823; read “Pigeon Forge” and learn that the resort community in Tennessee is so named because it’s on the Little Pigeon River, which used to power an iron forge there. The esotericism is what makes it work — it feels as if you’re being pulled in to a conversation around a family dinner table.
I went to high school in a little Illinois town called Downers Grove, which, as cynical teenagers, we joked, really was quite a downer. But in “Downers Grove Revisited,” I learned that the Tivoli Theater (attached to the Tivoli lanes, where we learned to bowl in gym class) was built in 1928 and was the second theater in the United States to be designed for talking pictures. It made the town shine with a little vanished glamour. Flipping through the book, I gazed into the eyes of the members of the Downers Grove basketball team of 1920, and the gentle ghostliness of the entire series — so riddled with the lost — hit home; I stared into the faces of the dead, sitting in a place which, even still, is so alive for me.
Exhibit 1: a 16-century painting of a gentleman. Sir John Maitland -- distinguished, elegant.
Lord Chancellor of Scotland.
His 1587 portrait hangs in the Ham House in England's National Trust.
Only he's not the only one on the canvas.
X-ray technology revealed the original occupant: a ghostly portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mary, looking very queenly (Wikipedia)
She'd been painted over -- two years after her execution in 1587. Replaced by a portrait of Maitland. (She wasn't too popular, insisting that everyone turn Catholic, and trying to take the English throne away from her sister Elizabeth. Things like that. She lost her head for it.)
A Scottish queen, supplanted by a Scottish Chancellor. Fascinating.
After a few days of coolness, including a big rainstorm, we're back to Hot, Sticky and Still. Yuck.
The house passed the termite/bug inspection, not surprising because 1) most of the house is brick, and 2) Colorado is so dry that these kinds of bugs do not do well here. Now, ticks, flies, moths and mosquitoes, that's a different story... Ironically, we two Bricks have always lived in houses made of brick, including our earlier house and student housing at both CU and the University of Michigan. Go figure.
We have another standard inspection, which is much more complicated. That's happening today. We can look out the trailer window and see the inspector wandering around the yard, on the roof, etc., which drives Ruby the dog absolutely nuts. He's checking for radon and sewage problems, too. We're aware of a few small items; after all, this is an older house (1969). But God willing, this inspection will end smoothly, too. I went out yesterday to get the clothes off the line -- and ran into the new owners, wandering around the backyard. They seem quite nice...but I would have appreciated meeting them in regular clothes, instead of my robe. I've been caught twice now en negligee, but managed to hide around the corner, peeking occasionally, until the people went into the house -- then made a break for the trailer. It didn't work this time. Ah well- at least they know I have nothing to hide!
Time to settle down in the air-conditioned trailer with a cup of coffee, and some of the wonderful fruit that's out there right now. I've been thinking about shortcake to go with it. Normally, I make a kind of biscuit for this, heavily buttered and the fruit poured over. But when we had supper with our friends, they served it on squares of 'hot milk spongecake.' This plain cake is tasty on its own, but absorbs fruit juice nicely. There are dozens of recipes out there, but this version is simple, frugal...and good.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat milk until almost boiling; while it's heating, beat everything but flour together. Gradually pour in milk, then flour, a little at a time, until thoroughly mixed. (Make the flour measurements heaping, if you live at high altitude, like we do.) Pour mixture into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, bake for 45 min. until light brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Serve lathered with sliced strawberries, cherries or peaches mixed with a little sugar, and a generous topping of whipped cream. Ummm…
Just to get away mentally, I've been reading a biography* of Ted Hughes, a brilliant poet who was anything but kind when it came to his many women. (Why do talented writers have to be such pigs sometimes??) Simultaneously, I've been dipping into a volume of letters** by Sylvia Plath, his first wife. She could also be demanding, and more than a little bossy. But boy, could she write -- and cook. Lo and behold, Sylvia made spongecake, too. In a letter to her sister-in-law Olwyn**, she wrote:
"Here is a heavenly sponge cake recipe which you should make in a high cake pan with a funnel in the center so the cake has a hole in the middle:
"Directions for sponge cake: Beat yolks until lemon colored. Add sugar gradually. Add water nd flavoring. Beat. Add flour gradually, beating. Beat egg whites to froth; add baking powder and salt to frothy egg whites. Beat until very stiff. Fold gently, but thoroly [sic] into egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle granulated sugar lightly over top of cake before putting it in the oven. Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Do not remove cake from pan till cake is cold. Happy eating..."
An amended version of this post ran on the Holiday Goodies blog, as well.
*Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life by Jonathan Bate (Harper/Harper Collins, 2015). Extremely well-documented and fascinating...until the scum builds up. Hughes was not exactly a Nice Man. Then again, Plath wasn't always a Nice Woman, though she hid it better.
**The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Vol. 2: 1956-1963 (edited Peter Steinberg and Karen Y. Kukil, Harper/Harper/Collins, 2018). Sylvia's recipe is on pp. 323-324.
...at least they do in England. Really. Take a look at this video. (Wish I could paste it in...but I can't. Be sure to read the comments, too...they're just as funny.)
Hey, if they can do this, why not...
More here. (Sadly, I probably run this way, too...)
