I Have To Blame, The Wedding.

So whats my excuse this weekend? Wedding. ANOTHER wedding. Thankfully the last of the season but because MB was IN this one it took up the whole weekend. It's funny when I look back on my crazed nights of painting until late at night, the feeling that it HAD to be done. Now, well I'm just lazy. The house is livable, why do I need to kill myself? The honest truth is I don't. Our house projects are now aloud to take on the slower more realistic pace they should be at. The sense of urgency is gone.

Friday and Saturday were a wash so that left Sunday. Well Sunday was a bit of a wash too as we HAD (per my orders) to go out to my hometown and attend the fair with my two partners in crime and fellow hometowners, Jackie J and Mary K. After stuffing our faces at the fair, watching some gorgeous Belgian Draft Horses haul so cement blocks and stopping at my parents for a quick hello, we finally made it back to the house. MB was itching to work on the stone wall and I needed to clean our filthy house.

About 2 seconds before I started dishes I got the urge to call MB's mom and find out more about patio furniture sales. See she had been pressing us to take a trip to Lowes for about 2 weeks now. She had spotted chairs that match our patio set for a really cheap price. She had called earlier that day and said she was getting us chairs because they were $10 a piece and that could not be turned down (highly agree). MB told her to get two because the backs were a different shape from the ones we have. She THEN called back and said we now had 3 chairs because there was one sad and lonely chair left and the guy said he would give them all to her for $15. Five bucks a chair is not bad at all. This got my thinking, we really SHOULD go check out the end of season sales (I also had not slept very much the night before and the thought of cleaning the house, for once, did not appeal in the least). Most places don't want to carry this years models into next year and therefore they are willing to get rid of things at ridiculous prices (i.e. $5 chairs). When I called her she said there had been wicker sofas (which is what I REALLY wanted) the week before but they were gone at that particular store this week. She told me I should check out the one in Worcester.

OK now I had to go. I talked poor MB who had made some very nice but very small amount of progress on his wall (it is VERY hard finding the right sized stones to go in the right spot. It's like a giant puzzle really). He agreed and we tried Home Depot first. We drove all the way out there and I asked the kid where the patio stuff was. "It's all gone." Well that sucks.

We decided it was worth the drive to Worcester and headed to Lowes. It was now already around 5pm (and i was getting crankier by the moment) and when we got there the pickings were slim. Problem was, nothing was marked correctly or at all and it was hard to tell WHAT was on sale and what wasn't. MB quickly got distracted looking at chainsaws (for our new wood stove of course. Essential accessory) and I went and hunted down a sales person. As we were waiting we spotted some really nice stuff down an aisle as apposed to tossed in the middle of the floor as the other stuff was. Lo and behold, we found some very nice cushions. We really needed more seating but also another table. I was originally thinking of arranging a wicker couch on the edge of the patio and then a 'coffee table' in front of it. This would work perfectly, I reasoned, because we could then take said couch and put it in the backroom during the winter. But alas, we did not find such a thing. But the cushions were good.

The salesperson arrived and we got almost no clarification. He was with a girl who worked there who when asked what was on sale, confidently proclaimed "any patio stuff!". "Noo," clarified Wayne, the original rep for this particular area "only some stuff." I held up a small table and he said it was marked down to the appropriate price. "But I'll give it to you for $40". Ehh I was all set. We found out the cushions were in fact on sale. Thank god at least the trip wasn't a total waste. Then, as were were rummaging around in the aisle we find a 30in square table that matches our set. SWEET! He tells us the same thing, well its "marked down" to $50 but Ill give it to you for 40. OK whatever, we'll take it. This works out good. We get to the register and the kid looks at the scribbled and initialed "$40" on top and said "sooo, do you want is for $40 or for the $25 it rung up as?" Well sweet! So all told we walked out of there with a new table and 7 very nice patio seat cushions for quite a cheap price. This now marks two weekends in a row where we have totally made out on end of season stuff. Bargain shopping to the extreme.

You know I can't say I understand it. Personally, I believe the outdoor season is just beginning! The weather is gorgeous, it's cool, there are no bugs. The summer sucks but the fall in New England rules. But hey, if they want to give us a bunch of outdoor stuff to get rid of it because in their minds the outdoor season is over, well they can just go right ahead! :)