Blog Reborn

The blog has languished this spring and early summer, for reasons including, but not limited to:

1. Being staffed in Dublin, OH
2. Personal laziness
3. A short interlude in which the email address associated with said blog was forgotten, the help section was consulted, blogger customer (non-)support was sought, a doom loop of circular links was entered, vengeance was sworn, blog abandoned, email address remembered in a fit of cleverness, and, wait for it--blogging was resumed

I have finally unpacked the suitcase, cleaned the mountain of car rental agreementsand baggage claim tickets off my dining room table, and caught up on Tivo. I now have time both to spend money on useless junk and write about it!

R.I.P. Old lady cart 2004 - 2008

Allow me to take a moment and pay tribute to a grand old lady, who served me well both in city and suburb, sidewalk and gravel path. Here she is in my trash room, waiting to go to her final resting place in the trash heaps of Cook County.

She finally gave out in December aught-eight, when I ill-advisedly loaded her down with a couple cases of alcohol & other beverages and a few hundreds dollars worth of groceries for a Christmas party.

The old lady cart is a crucial member of Team Flea. And a source of much admiration, both at the flea markets and in the city, where she accompanies me for grocery trips. Overheard at Ohio and Fairbanks: "Now THAT'S the way to get groceries."

Yes. Yes it is.

Never fear, the cart has been handily replaced in time for flea market season 2009 and will appear in the blog. Jen C has obtained her own plus-size old lady cart, actually better than mine, but I for one will miss her size 0 old lady cart even though, as a dealer at Elkhorn commented, "that duzn't hold shit." But it did hold shit. Held it for at least 5 feet before spilling Jen's Herman Miller chairs to the ground. I'm not sure how the chairs made it back to the car, parked miles away, but I feel sure it had something to do with the fine piece of American engineering pictured here.

And we're off!

Saturday proved to be a bang-up start to the flea market season. We met in the morning for brunch at Blueberry Hill in La Grange, where I had pumpkin pancakes mmmmmm, Jen C had eggs (twice as many eggs as she ordered it turns out), and Steve had...french toast I think (but let's be honest, this isn't about Steve or his breakfast choices).

After much deliberation over whose vehicle to take, we opted for the smaller, both of us claiming we had no intention of buying furniture. uh-huh.

A line of card met us at Farquar Road (it's not called Farquar but I forget what it is every time) waiting to get into the fairgrounds. A couple of hipster guys in JT hats and an alterna-couple, no doubt jonesing for mid-century modern, parked across the street and jaywalked across the 6 lane highway instead of waiting in line. Fools. First rule of Flea Club: the closer your car is to the main gate the easier it is to haul your loot triumphuntly back to the vehicle. And you can shop to the last minutes if you need to bring the car to the vendor (as we did).

Sadly it turns out I have not uploaded my pictures as thought so the next post will contain a tale of our adventures.

In the meatime, please enjoy this picture of blueberry hill. from their site.

Welcome to the Blog

Hoping to break my current record of one (albeit spectacular) blog post, I am taking advantage of the downtime here at work where I am waiting to roll on a project and starting a new blog.

I live in Chicago and love nothing better than buying junk. I am often joined by my friend, Jen C, who lives just outside Chicago and loves nothing better than buying junk. Neither of us has financial discipline or restraint. Only one of us has an old lady cart of generous proportions, which is about all that limits us when spending the day at an area flea market.

This Saturday starts the Kane County Flea Market (well for us). We missed last month's this year for reasons I cannot recall. No matter. The Swine shed does not discriminate.

We Jen(n)s eschew minimalism. As you, dear Reader, may discover for yourself in the course of this summer. We both live in abodes that some, unenlightened individuals, might consider over-furnished. We both have a slight addiction to the purchase of seating. One of us, who has more than twice the number of rooms and a basement over the other, has the advantage of space in this regard. The other of us tries not to be jealous. And dreams of a row of old theater seats.

Next up: A Sandwich Day. Or Junk Defined. I haven't decided.