Monday, August 08, 2011
So proud
This weekend was super-busy. One sister-in-law and her husband came down from NYC by bus Friday afternoon. We picked them up in the city and went to an early dinner at Zaytinya. It's one of José Andrés's restaurants. The first time we ate there it was just Laura and I for a late lunch and she was about seven months pregnant. The second time was Friday and we brought along our 10-month-old. (the visiting couple are vegan, by the way, so that's why this restaurant was a good choice).
Saturday morning we got up at 5am (well, I did. I got the visiting couple up at 5:20 and Laura and the baby up at 5:40) to get over to the Civitan Flea Market by 6am so we could set up. I had driven a car loaded with stuff over the previous evening to claim our spot (the same one we had used in the June flea market; it's an excellent location, as it's in the first covered area you enter after entering from the uncovered level and you have to walk past this level to get to the upper level or the lower levels, depending on where you entered the garage, thus you have foot traffic in both directions all morning long!).
We ended up making less money than we did in June, but we had less stuff to sell this time, and we didn't eventually lower prices 50% like we did last time. Still, we got more stuff out of our house, we sold the big items we had brought (a chair, a table, and a DVD/VCR combo), and I sold five large figures of Stormtroopers (to five different people) at $10 each. One little boy got his dad to buy him my "Capitan America!" (it was so cute and he was so happy!).
We took turns entertaining Henry (though in general I was the seller and Laura was the baby wrangler. I think my job was easier!). We had the carrier, so twice I strapped the kid on and did a circuit of the entire market. Let me tell you, when you're a seller, you look at the other vendors items with a much different eye than when you're just browsing on a humid Saturday as a shopper. Our stuff was freaking PRIMO compared to some of the crap people were trying to unload. Some stuff I would have been embarrassed to donate to Goodwill (seriously).
On one of our circuits, I saw a toy I know Laura had been looking at on Amazon (where it was about $50). I asked the woman what she wanted for it, and she said she was asking $10. I pulled out my wallet and dug into my pockets and said, "I have $5.85," (which I did. I wasn't lying to try to get a deal). It was at least 85 degrees and I was hot and dirty and wearing a baby. She said okay without hesitation. I carried it back to our table and Laura said, "Oh my god, where did you get that? What did you pay?" I told her and she said that back in June she had asked the woman about it and the woman wouldn't budge on $20. I said I guess a combination of her hauling it back and forth to three different sales and me looking so pathetic resulted in her coming down 75%! Here's a pic of Henry with the toy when we got back home:
So it turns out that Henry has basically been dying to walk but we never gave him a toy that allowed him to do it. He walked back and forth from the kitchen across the living room at least 20 times, moving with more confidence each time, to the cheers of his aunts and uncles (and his parents). It will be good practice for when I make him start mowing the lawn! :-)
Now here's the story that explains the title of today's post. Toward the last two hours of the sale, I had Henry strapped to me and he was looking at the table of random toys we were selling. One in particular seemed to catch his eye, so I picked it up and ask, "This one?" He grabbed it and put it into his mouth, so I said, "Okay, he bought this one!"
And that's how Henry made friends with Jackie Chan!
He drags him around by the arm in one of his little hands while he's crawling.
Laura took this last pic and sent it to me and swears she didn't pose Jackie that way. Henry did.
Another generation of Jackie Chan fans is born!
Saturday morning we got up at 5am (well, I did. I got the visiting couple up at 5:20 and Laura and the baby up at 5:40) to get over to the Civitan Flea Market by 6am so we could set up. I had driven a car loaded with stuff over the previous evening to claim our spot (the same one we had used in the June flea market; it's an excellent location, as it's in the first covered area you enter after entering from the uncovered level and you have to walk past this level to get to the upper level or the lower levels, depending on where you entered the garage, thus you have foot traffic in both directions all morning long!).
We ended up making less money than we did in June, but we had less stuff to sell this time, and we didn't eventually lower prices 50% like we did last time. Still, we got more stuff out of our house, we sold the big items we had brought (a chair, a table, and a DVD/VCR combo), and I sold five large figures of Stormtroopers (to five different people) at $10 each. One little boy got his dad to buy him my "Capitan America!" (it was so cute and he was so happy!).
We took turns entertaining Henry (though in general I was the seller and Laura was the baby wrangler. I think my job was easier!). We had the carrier, so twice I strapped the kid on and did a circuit of the entire market. Let me tell you, when you're a seller, you look at the other vendors items with a much different eye than when you're just browsing on a humid Saturday as a shopper. Our stuff was freaking PRIMO compared to some of the crap people were trying to unload. Some stuff I would have been embarrassed to donate to Goodwill (seriously).
On one of our circuits, I saw a toy I know Laura had been looking at on Amazon (where it was about $50). I asked the woman what she wanted for it, and she said she was asking $10. I pulled out my wallet and dug into my pockets and said, "I have $5.85," (which I did. I wasn't lying to try to get a deal). It was at least 85 degrees and I was hot and dirty and wearing a baby. She said okay without hesitation. I carried it back to our table and Laura said, "Oh my god, where did you get that? What did you pay?" I told her and she said that back in June she had asked the woman about it and the woman wouldn't budge on $20. I said I guess a combination of her hauling it back and forth to three different sales and me looking so pathetic resulted in her coming down 75%! Here's a pic of Henry with the toy when we got back home:
So it turns out that Henry has basically been dying to walk but we never gave him a toy that allowed him to do it. He walked back and forth from the kitchen across the living room at least 20 times, moving with more confidence each time, to the cheers of his aunts and uncles (and his parents). It will be good practice for when I make him start mowing the lawn! :-)
Now here's the story that explains the title of today's post. Toward the last two hours of the sale, I had Henry strapped to me and he was looking at the table of random toys we were selling. One in particular seemed to catch his eye, so I picked it up and ask, "This one?" He grabbed it and put it into his mouth, so I said, "Okay, he bought this one!"
And that's how Henry made friends with Jackie Chan!
He drags him around by the arm in one of his little hands while he's crawling.
Laura took this last pic and sent it to me and swears she didn't pose Jackie that way. Henry did.
Another generation of Jackie Chan fans is born!
# posted by smacky @ 7:28 AM 
