We tried to get the whole “Bad Movie Night” crowd to get a table at the auction, but we didn’t do so well. Curt, Pastor Tooman, Jared and I were the only ones who made it. Lauren, Curt and I each bid on a few items without much in the way of luck. Pastor Tooman made out better, but he couldn’t sit with us.

Curt bid on 6 Nights in Frisco County Colorado for 10 people. I really thought he was going to get it, but after a lot of arm raising the other guy ended up getting it for $1,600.00. Sorry Curt.

Lauren bid on a few items in the silent auction, but nothing came of it. We were there early this year, and she put down a few opening bids.

We usually help out with checking people in. I was Johnny on the spot with Governor Heineman’s tickets, and even bid on Dinner For Eight with the Governor and his wife at their place. I bid $600 and it sold for $2000, the most for any item at the auction this year. We also bid on tickets to see Wicked, but they shot out of our range pretty quickly.

I did, however, win a lock-in at Lincoln Lutheran for up to 12 students grades 5-8. Brad says that they do that at their auction and it brings in good money. I asked our middle school teachers if they wanted to try that and they were up for it. It was in the “almost live” auction, which is where the priciest silent auctions go. There was only one bid and that was for $120.00. I figured it was worth at least $150.00 not to have to do it. I got it for $130.00. So? What do I do with it now?

At the end of the auction items they have a special project, where people can simply “bid” $1000, $500, $250 or $100 to go to the special project. This year we raised around $21,000 to go toward various computery things. So it looks like I’ll get to buy some new toys.

Not that I’m upset that he bought a sousaphone, of course. It’s that he bought a sousaphone without me there. If he’s going to take these crazy kinds of risks unattended, there’s no telling what kind of unsanctioned junk he might buy. Today a sousaphone, tomorrow a bulk bundling machine. Oh wait.

And yes, it is a sousaphone, not a tuba like I thought it was. I remember in high school I asked our band director if I could switch from the flute to the tuba. He wisely said ‘no’. Probably because I called it the wrong thing, huh?

Anyway, we left it at Lincoln Lutheran, and we’ll see if they come up with a good use for it. It’s pretty beat up, but one of the guys at ukulele night thought it would make a fantastic hood ornament. (We didn’t actually take it there, we just told The Legend of the Six Dollar Tuba Sousaphone.)

*sigh*  Lloyd has a problem.  Can someone please tell him that even if something is dirt cheap, if you don’t need it it is not a bargain.  We went to another surplus auction and I walked around with him at the beginning to look at the stuff.  We stopped at these two giant machines with rollers.

Lloyd: Hey! We had these at Metromail! (a college job where they packed junk mail) They’re for bundling things.  You put something in here and it automatically wraps it in strapping tape.
Lauren: I’m hungry.
Lloyd: I wonder if they work?
Lauren: I’m bored.
Lloyd: These are cool!
Lauren: I’m leaving.

I came back from shopping a couple of hours later to see this.

Naturally I assumed that Lloyd was helping this guy learn how to use the guy’s new bundling machine. That Lloyd – so helpful. Then he turned around, saw me, and grinned a ‘you’re gonna kill me’ grin.

Lloyd: They were just two-fifty!
Lauren: I’m leaving.

Does anyone need Lloyd bundled and shipped to their house? I can do it automatically.

Lloyd had his computer sale at school today. He and some hard-working students set all the old-old stuff out on tables in the commons and then take people for all they’re worth. (It’s not the new-old stuff that he has bought at an auction this year, it’s the stuff that stuff replaced.)

They had pretty great attendance this year, and Lloyd says it’s because in past years he advertised in the ‘computer’ section of the classifieds. This year the ad was in the ‘garage sale’ section. Gold mine! People came in droves at the start and snapped up over half the stuff. They sold almost all the rest by the end of the day.

I wasn’t much help, except for making the signs. That’s right, they say “Computer Sale Today 9-3″ both ways. And yes, those are repurposed Ron Paul signs.

I ran my errands, and came back for lunch and was so tired. My sleep schedule is getting out of whack, so I really craved a nap. As I ate my cheeseburger in the school office, my eyes wandered to the nurse’s office. Hmmmmm….

Second gold mine!

We must have had a lot of free time, because I remember messing around in the art room alot. I was never very good, and most of the things I made were either (a) “modern” or (b) “phallic”. The best project I was involved with was a castle that Sam, Kent Kunkel and maybe Walt Demoss all worked on. We decided right away that a ruin of a castle would be more up our alley, and it was quite a ruin.

But Sam had some actual clay skills. The thing I remember most from those clays was his fabulous coil constructions. He would make pots that you could bury several cats in. They were big and cool. I think he sold some to the Rich Old Ladies that he used to garden for.

Well, it turns out he still has clay skilz. My dad called me today to make me feel bad for not coming down to the Calvary Lutheran High School dinner/auction (mission accomplished). This is the new Lutheran high school in Jefferson City Missouri where John Engelbrect is serving as Executive Director. Dad said that it went well, that mom bought more stuff that she didn’t really need, and that the cross that Sam sent to the auction sold for around $1,300.00 dollars.

That’s $1,300.00 real dollars. At first I thought it was like our fantasy baseball auction where you don’t spend real money and the players don’t really come home with you. But that turned out not to be the case. Evidently, some nice old lady outbid a cohort of Sommerers for the cross. They gave Sam a standing ovation in absentia. After the auction my dad went up to the winning bidder and told her, “Make sure you take good care of that cross – my godson made it.” This is actually high praise coming from my dad. High praise indeed.

P.S.  Happy Birthday, Tara!

As I was putting away my hot-glue gun tonight, it occurred to me that we’ve never shown you our drawers. A couple of years ago at one of the surplus auctions we bought an old library card catalog to hold our junk. I insisted that it would fit perfectly in the little nook in one of our closets. I said I was sure of it! (I actually had no idea.) We brought it home, and with the tiniest bit of modification (taking off the baseboards and cramming it in so we’ll have to sell it with the house), it fit like a glove. A really, really tight glove.

We keep all kinds of stuff in it – each in its little labeled drawer, but the drawers aren’t arranged in any logical order. That makes Brad crazy, because when he’s here he’s always looking for scissors, and I move the scissors drawer around.

Lloyd here now. I might need to find someone else to go to auctions with me. Lauren doesn’t appreciate them quite enough. She didn’t even mention that I bought 26 laser printers for $1.50 each. By the way, does anyone need a laser printer? …They might work…

She also didn’t mention the pallet of choir music that I got for $3.00. After pulling about a dozen “worthwhile” titles from the pallet we put a sign on it that said: FREE TO GOOD HOME. Some people even took some of it after Lauren pointed out that it makes good wrapping paper.

The pallet-o-music came with such classic titles as:

• You Don’t Bring Me Flowers by Neil Diamond
• Can You Read My Mind by Lois Lane
• Truly by Lionel Richie
• Mandy sung by Barry Manilow
• Babe by the river that runs through hell
• Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey by Sir Paul McCartney
• Eight Is Enough by the mid seventies