Monica's Birthday And Easter 2019

The third Sunday in April was Easter Sunday this year and that means a lot fewer saling opportunities for us. In fact, this year it meant no saling opportunities. There was nothing of interest for us but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a busy week. Before we even got to Easter, we had Monica's birthday midweek!

 This wasn't Monica's first birthday. She has had others before but every one of them deserves a big celebration! 

We went for dinner the night before Monica's birthday. She had her eye on this German restaurant not far from our house. 

The inside of the restaurant was decorated like a small German village.

Monica was all smiles as she held up her pretzel roll! 

Sauerbraten with spaetzle, vegetables and red cabbage

That German forest was enchanted! 

Beautiful roses for the beautiful birthday girl! 

The kitchen was decorated for Monica's birthday.

Monica chose birthday ice cream instead of birthday cake.

The birthday girl felt just like a princess! 

Although there were no sales over the weekend, we were still pretty busy. We had to get through the full workweek and then use Saturday to prepare for Easter.

We dyed our Easter eggs on Saturday. We usually write messages on them but our egg decorating crayon is packed away.

We also wanted to bake our lamb cake on Saturday and decorate it on Easter Sunday. We have been making the lamb cake for years now. The ingredients were mixed in a vintage Pyrex bowl. 

 The mixture was poured into half of the vintage lamb cake mold. Once the second half was secured, into the oven it went! 

After 45 minutes, the lamb cake was ready to cool overnight.

Our 2019 lamb cake! We try to change it up every year. The further we get from our original effort, the better! 

Our latest lamb cake is much improved from our original years ago (pictured above). It looked like a cross between a lamb and a Dr. Seuss character (the infamous "Lamb, I Am" incident)

Monica in her Easter dress and bonnet

Easter dinner at Monica's sister's house. Marissa took the picture. Peter was busy and did not pose in this picture.

Since Monica's birthday was just a few days before Easter, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Monica using the lamb cake. With candles in its head, it looked a little like a devil cake! 

The birthday girl with her birthday lamb cake

It was a great Easter that everyone enjoyed (even Sweety). No saling this week but we're ready for next week. We'll see you then! 

Adventures In Life

The second week in April went much like the first. There was no discernible change in weather as spring continued to make baby steps towards warm weather. The week also began with an autograph session but this time it was not a New York Met nor was it a book signing. On Monday night, we would visit two members of the Stanley Cup winning New York Islanders of the 1980-1983 dynasty.

Newsday, the largest Long Island newspaper, began a series of events in 2019 called Newsday Live. It is an ongoing series where the public gets to meet for Q&A sessions with various guests. The first in this series was back in early February with Ed Kranepool and Art Shamsky of the 1969 World Champion New York Mets and we were there for that. This time, the guests were Clark Gillies and Butch Goring.

Although the picture is poor, we are in the above picture with Clark and Butch. We got the meet them and we got autographed photos.

Clark Gillies

Butch Goring

This weekend, unlike the previous weekend, it looked like our saling would be limited to Saturday as there was nothing appealing on Sunday. That would be okay as we had lots to do and Sunday would be a good time to do it. Saturday's list was comprised of three sales, the best of which began at 9am and was almost an hour away from our house. We both agreed that getting up early and getting there early would be in our best interests. The alarm sounded at 5:30am.

We arrived at the first sale at 7:30am, a full hour and a half before its doors would open. Still, 28 people got there first! 

Since our spot on line was secure, we went out for breakfast and here is where we landed. Bagel Oasis is located on the service road of the Long Island Expressway and has been around since 1961. Open 24 hours a day, it has been feeding late night travelers on the way back from New York City for 58 years.

Back to the sale which made us set our alarms very early. It was run by one of our favorite estate sales companies and was listed as a packed home. The pictures showed lots of old magazines, some truly vintage baseball caps and much, much more. We weren't expecting to get everything we truly wanted in the pictures but were hoping to get something. We would see in just a little while longer.

Thirty minutes into our wait, Dennis let Monica in and, of course, Rob, too.

The basement had lots of stuff including lots of Life Magazines which was one of the things that Rob was targeting. More on those further Life magazines down.

The basement had this cool, old bench

The basement had a great old bar and an old floor.

The basement also had a back room with this great old refrigerator and a very colorful tiled floor.

Another of the things that Rob saw in the ad's pictures were these vintage baseball caps. They were not reproductions. These were legitimate Tim McAuliffe 1950's baseball hats. The two main suppliers of baseball caps to the major leagues back in the mid-1950's to mid-1960's were Tim McAuliffe and Wilson. At $50 apiece, it was a good price but Rob passed on them. The Washington Senators cap, the one he most wanted, did fit but it was a little snug. At least Rob got to try these caps on. Rob did not expect to even see them by the time we were inside the house.

The living room was large and there was plenty to see and search. Monica found a Christmas album! 

That living room had lots of stuff hung on those walls as our host, Ron, pointed out.

The bathroom had some pieces left from its humble beginnings. We're sure that the pink floor and the pink sink had been here since the house was built.

It was a good first sale and we were amazed that we could have had the things that we thought would go first. Rob passed on the baseball hats but the magazines he wanted the most came home with us including a Life Magazine that he has wanted forever! We also came home with greeting cards, some vintage household products, a vintage ceramic cow creamer, some records and much more! 

Before going on to sale #2, we had to stop at Bobb Howard's General Store. This was the weekend before Monica's birthday and she received a card in the mail for a free birthday gift this month. Time to redeem it! 

Bobb Howard's began as a service station in 1946. A little over 30 years ago, they converted the office into its own little store specializing in old time candy, novelty toys and lots of nostalgic memories. These businesses are still run by the same family that started it all! 

There are so many fun things behind the counter! 

There are so many fun things all over the store!

Jars and jars of fun candy!

Lots of throwback cheap toys

Robots, outer space and rayguns! 

This popcorn machine is a genuine 1940's popcorn machine just like those in movie theaters in the 1940's. All paying customers get a free bag of popcorn from this machine! 

Monica got free Cracker Jack for her birthday and we bought some candy including this red licorice modeled after chewing tobacco. We will save this for the next time we watch The Sandlot and remembering to open it during the amusement park scene.

Our second sale was run by a tag sale company that was completely unfamiliar to us. There were clearly old things in the pictures and it listed "1960's baseball cards" among the things there though Rob noticed that the pictures were actually of 1970's baseball cards. From the outside, the house was not our style. It was time to see the inside. 

The living room was clearly old

The kitchen looked like it was pulled from the page of a very early 1970's catalog. 

The upstairs was no different. Late 1960's/early 1970's rug and a fake fireplace

Like so many dens or living rooms in the late 1960's, a sailfish was mounted on the wall. Mounted sailfish or marlins were not all that uncommon back then.

This was a fun home to walk through and we even found a few things to bring home. A few vintage sports board games, some Christmas matches and a few other things came home with us.

Our last sale was listed as "65 Years of Treasures" but there were no pictures to support the claim. We had to try, right? It was a garage sale and there was nothing we saw that dated back 65 years. Rob did buy a cashmere overcoat as a backup to the one he already has. After this, we went to visit Monica's dad and then home to relax. After all, we had gotten up at 5:30am!

 On Sunday, we slept a little later and then let the day become of combination of relaxation and productivity as we were in need of both. Our garden got its first spring cleaning though there will be more to come as the weather warms. Our hyacinths were in full bloom and their scent filled the air leading us to think of the warmer days to come.

We were also thinking about what we found the day before and we had a chance to look through everything and this is what we saw:

Some records. By the way, the album on the left is one by Ricky Segall, the kid who appeared in a few episodes of The Partridge Family.

Some vintage greeting cards

Betty Crocker's Dinner Parties (1970) and Famous Rum Drinks of the Virgin Islands (1968) 

A shelving and lamp catalog from 1964

Two sports books

Three The Man From U.N.C.L.E, comic books from 1965

Three Life Magazines

Rob's "Holy Grail" of Life Magazines. He has been looking for this issue forever. No, he is not a big Richard Burton or Liz Taylor fan. He is a big baseball fan. In 1962, Post Cereal decided to issue baseball cards on all of its cereals that could be cut out from its boxes. In the April 13, 1962 edition of Life Magazine, they promoted these cards by inserting a free Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris card in this issue. They were slightly different than the ones on the boxes and were not cut-outs but actual cards that could be removed by simply tearing along the perforation. We have seen this magazine before but never with the cards still inside. That was, until Saturday.

Mickey Mantle

Roger Maris

Vintage sports board games

Vintage Tupperware Jel-ettes for individual serving jello or pudding

Vintage household products

A Lilco rain bonnet (Monica loves these old, free rain bonnets), a ceramic Trader Vic coconut mug, a pink ceramic cow creamer (made in Japan), a vintage ash tray and a vintage box of cupcake foil holders

A Captain Kangaroo Christmas album and some vintage Christmas matches. The Santa match containers are dated 1966. There is no date on the matchbooks with the bottlebrush trees on them

It was another fun weekend and maybe the last saling we do for two weeks as Easter is coming up next weekend and there may be little in the way of estate sales. We do have Monica's birthday in the middle of the week and we will celebrate together as we do every moment of our  lives together and our adventures together amongst the ducks.