grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Will Sell Pokemon for Food

By

My second deal in two days went down yesterday. Yes, I have a new, short-term line of business. A quick way to turn a buck. $70 so far! No, I’m not selling drugs although it may have appeared that way to my neighbors.

A stranger parked in front of the house, knocked on the door, handed me money for goods. Fast.

I’m talking about Pokemon.

The lifetime of electronic gaming equipment abandoned by our son and hidden away in his closet for years… I refuse to haul it to Fayetteville, so I’m selling it on Craigslist (with his permission of course).

Pokemon is huge people.

I made enough money on the yellow Pikachu Gameboy cartridge to buy Thai for two with leftover food and money. Yellow Pokemon for Yellow Curry Chicken. Winner, Winner!

Yellow Pokemon Pikachu Edition

Now if only Beanie Babies would become a hot commodity.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Donna Summer – She Works Hard for the Money

Things I Don’t Need More Of (even if I live to be 104)

By

Lately my writing has taken a back seat to cleaning. Let’s face it, a potential buyer doesn’t want to open a closet and be hit in the head with a box of wrapping paper. Although I consider myself to be a tidy, organized person, over time closets become cluttered. Drawers will barely close. The whole purging process is cathartic to me. I’ve found items I thought were lost forever. Mainly I’ve discovered there are things I don’t need more of EVER. Things I didn’t realize was hoarding. Such as…

Napkins.

Paper or cloth. All occasion. I can fully outfit a baby shower with boy or girl napkins. Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year’s Eve. Book club. Football party. And Christmas? Oh my! I love to buy Christmas napkins at after Christmas sales. Three or four or five packages, at only $1.50 who can resist? I stick them in a drawer, and the next Christmas when our small family gathers, we use maybe six napkins. Maybe. You see the problem.

Here’s a sampling.

Things I don't need more of even if I live to be 104.

Apparently, I also hoard cheap sunglasses. I found a drawer full.

And gloves. Leather. Cashmere. Polka dot. Ski. Fingerless. Mittens. Razorback. Hand-knitted. Every color in the crayon box. (Gardening gloves don’t count. You can’t have too many.)

Now, back to cleaning. Our house officially goes on MLS tomorrow!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.”
― Wendell Berry

Musical Pairing:

ZZ Top – Cheap Sunglasses

 

 

ticks, bellies and rednecks, oh my!

By

On our last morning at the lake, I found a tick on my stomach. The bugger had buried his face in my skin and was working extra hard to get to the blood beyond my new layer of lake fat. He looked like a watermelon seed. I did eat a lot of watermelon at the lake, but our watermelons were seedless.

watermelon seeds

In all my fifty-two years of going to the lake, I’ve had plenty of chiggers but no ticks.

I yanked him out with tweezers, head and all thank goodness, and swabbed the bite with bourbon because I had no rubbing alcohol. You might be a redneck if…

I flushed the blood sucker down the toilet. The whole thing freaked me out enough that I didn’t take any pictures. Hard to believe, I know.

The following picture came from Wikipedia. I’ll just warn you, it’s disgusting—the tick before and after feeding. No wonder we say full as a tick!!!

Tick before and after feeding - GROSS

Two days after my tick incident, I have a dime-sized red spot on my belly, much like a spider bite. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about because a) I consulted Dr. Google; and b) my tick, and I don’t mean my in an endearing way, didn’t have time to fill up and transmit disease.

But still!!! Is that not disgusting?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Brad Paisley – Ticks

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!