Last Saturday was rainy and cold and there really weren’t many sales listed. I had seen ads for some kind of rummage sale at the Swedish Cultural Center so I figured that might be good. Later I noticed an ad for someone who had a table there and got the feeling it might be more like a one-day antique mall setup – but with not much else around I figured it might still be worth a shot.

As we walked in the woman at the door told us there was a suggested $3 donation and also tried to strong-arm us into coming back for “ABBA Night.”

True to what I had feared, the sale was mostly individual tables with higher-priced items for sale.

Meghan spotted these bottles that one woman had, including one marked “Lady Killer” — kind of awesome, but not $35 awesome.

I laughed at this license plate. Out of all the possible things to put there, someone chose “NETSRFR”? How did that ever seem like a good idea …

Even their baked goods were overpriced, so it was pretty much a bust. So we headed off to our next stop, an estate sale advertised as “weird and wonderful.” This can always just be hype, but one of the things they listed was a Lynda Barry “Poodle with a Mohawk” poster — I didn’t need to buy this, having purchased one of my own a few years ago at an estate sale that was definitely weird and wonderful (and HUGE), but I figured it was a good sign. When we got there, the poster had already been sold (the seller said it was also pretty beat-up). We looked around for a bit and each picked up a few books.

There really wasn’t much else going on unless we wanted to drive around town, and neither of us really did. We decided to hit an estate sale in our neighborhood that had started Friday, but seemed like it might be decent. On the way we spotted a sign for an unlisted sale! We detoured over and found a small open garage — mostly tools, plus a stack of 7″s, all mainstream hits of the early ’80s, like one brief window where someone got into buying records. I went inside and found this adorable Booze Hound.

I didn’t need to own him, but Meghan did! I was glad he found a good home. I did however purchase a baton for $1, based purely on the fact that Meghan and I had been reminiscing in the car just an hour before about both of us having taken baton twirling lessons when we were young. (Turns out I still have the moves! Well, a few of them.)

We saw signs for another sale … got there and saw a couple of signs in front, directing us to the basement.

I followed Meghan around the house to a cute little back yard and … no sign of a sale. Not at all. There was a door that possibly went to a basement, but it was closed and the place just seemed deserted. We didn’t quite have the nerve to knock. Later I checked the listing and realized it was a sale I’d deliberately passed over anyway — “retired electrician, lots of tools” — so maybe it was for the best.

And that last estate sale — there is not much to report. It might have been okay on Friday, but I doubt they had anything amazing. It was not even 10:30 when we decided to call it a day.

Tune in next time to see if we finally have a decent weekend …