"I'll show you Paris on the morning...

...I'll show you London afternoon. But if your Dublin heart is burning, well you don't have to worry, cause we're going there soon."


I fell asleep thinking about a French opera house and had a dream about an Irish milkman. Who knew.

Well I woke up at about 7:20 and have been helping with the garage sale mostly since. Things are slowing down now (after Kate and I put up signs, go figure) but Mom and Dad are still out there. They mostly need me for taking stuff out, organizing it and putting it back. So I'm on call right now.

It's been pretty entertaining. My favorite part is watching Dad try to barter with the Hispanics in the neighborhood. One of our first customers was a short, paunchy man in a stetson. He pointed at the weedwacker (which needs some obvious repair) and asked "how much?" Dad held up five fingers and added "dollars" to it. The man frowned and held three stubby fingers in the air. Dad's palm moved forward about an inch for emphasis, but remained, as ever, five fingered. The man glowered behind his three extended fingers, but held firm. It was almost impressive how they held this conversation with no words for about five minutes. Each seemed sure that the other was miscounting his fingers, and each seemed unable to move his own. Finally, the man ended up walking away with the weedwacker, his pockets emptied of five dollars.

Mueller: 1. Neighborhood: 0.

When Kate and I were putting up signs, we saw that there was another yard sale down the street. They had signs that were bigger and brighter than ours, darn them... So we put our signs next to theirs, to create some obviously needed tension.

On the way back to the house, I thought Kate spit on me. But the air is so thick and foggy that she assumed it was about to start raining. The score for the neighborhood would've been upped one, but it hasn't started raining yet.

Mueller: 2. Neighborhood: 0.

So I made a pot of coffee when we got back and went outside to keep Mom and Dad company. Kate left a while ago to go be a photographer's assistant at a wedding in Santa Barbara. Then I played the piano for a bit and have been in here for about twenty minutes since.

About an hour ago, Mom realized there was a lull in traffic on our street and decided some of the signs must have blown down. So she went, looked around, and came back to report that the signs we had placed near our neighbors had been taken down! I couldn't help but laugh a little. So our neighbors were evil. Evil, but smart.

Mueller: 2. Neighborhood: 1.

Things are catching up. I'll have to see how the day ends up... should be interesting.


A while later.

Well. Garage sale's almost over, I'd wager, and we've made about $300.

Mueller: 3. Neighborhood: 1.

HAH.