I’ve never really talked about my brother, Layne, on here. There are plenty of good stories to tell. Some would make you laugh until Coke came out of your nose. Some would tug on your heart and make your eyes spill-over. And some would just have you shaking your head.

You can decide after this introduction to his world (because it truly is his own little world) which you want to do. Although if you cry it better be out of sympathy to his neighbors on this one.

Let me give you some basic information. He is 24 years old (soon to be 25). He decided not to stick with college and has been working at a very well-paying job that he’s good at. Layne had a roller-coaster of a life for several years, but to his credit he has made a remarkable change and it shows. He’s actually (gasp) a happy person now and trust me, he didn’t use to be.

In the past year he has become quite the grown up. Bought a house. Bought a nice new truck. We think he may even have a girlfriend. Responsibility comes along with all of those things and that is not something that Layne does well.

Case in point - take a look at the front yard of his house. Notice the tall weeds? That is actually grass he hasn’t mowed yet this year. Not that he doesn’t own a lawn mower. He does. My mom bought him one when he moved in.

The reason it’s not mowed? L.A.Z.Y.

What is funny about this is that the city has tagged his ‘white trash’ looking home and fined him for growing these weeds. They will now mow it and charge him. My only hope is that they charge him some astronomical amount, otherwise he will continue to let them do this monthly out of sheer laziness.

So there you have it. An inside look at one of my brother’s many quality traits.

Today as I visited our local Wal-Mart grocery in the hood I had to dodge running over shopping carts in the middle of the road. Not one or two…but 8 (yes, I counted!). Seems many of their customers from ‘The Projects‘ next door use them to get their items home and do not return them. What puzzles me is why they are in the street.

I really like this Wal-Mart because it is one of the new smaller ‘neighborhood’ stores. They only carry essentials and grocery type items, so there is less selection. But if I only need a few things like milk and dog food, you can get in and out quickly. No lines. No parking 4 miles away. The downside is that it’s not in the best area, but if you look past the fact I’ve seen fights, police, and people stealing items….it’s not too bad. (Although my husband won’t let me go there alone after dark.)

Instead of returning them, they go to the trouble of taking them half-way back to the store and just leaving them in the street? As you can see one of the carts was flattened by a car. Wonder how the car looks after taking on that metal? Maybe it was that angry tree-hugging man in the matchbox car from the other day at the gas station. He was probably on his way to a protest or something.

I had a dream the other day that the angry man had a bumper sticker on his Hybrid that said: “My other vehicle is a Hummer.” Now that would be funny!

You can win a wireless laser mouse made by Rocketfish (retail $45) at Props & Pans. Winner will be announced Monday so be sure to go over and check it out. I was sent one to review and I must say it is very handy.

There are lots of new reviews up about where kids can eat free & some new blueberry juice, TrueBlue - which is absolutely delicious!

O.H. M.Y. ~ I contemplated writing this, because I figure no one will EVER believe it happened. Ever. But I’ve tried to call everyone I can think of to tell them what just went down on my front porch and I can’t get a hold of anyone. So I need to tell someone. Who better than the blogging world?

Remember back to my weekend adventure with the garage sale. You know the event I held in our drive where certain people tried to rip us off. Some for a few cents.

A lady just came to our door and demanded her money back. “All 50 cents of it too damn it!” It took me a moment to register what in the hell she was even talking about, until I noticed the small car in her hand. Then I recognized it as one of Ethan’s old toys.

It was some Fisher-Price talking car you push buttons on and things pop up. Probably a $12 toy originally. Still worked and was in good shape, so I sold it for 50 cents. Pretty good deal I’d say.

I asked what was wrong with it and she replied (and I kid you not!), “THE BATTERIES DIED!”

I laughed. Then I laughed again and slammed the door. NO MORE GARAGE SALES EVER!

You’re never going to believe this. I really still think I must have been dreaming. There is no way someone would act like this. But after the experience over the weekend with the garage sale freaks, anything is possible.

I pull up to get gas today at a crowded station and even my debit card didn’t want to get out of my wallet! That’s how high gas has gotten - $3.37 here in the Midwest. I’m not complaining though, because we don’t drive much around town other than a short distance to work and I’ve seen how high it is in larger cities.

Actually, I was driving my husband’s vehicle (a Ford Expedition) when I got gas. So I’m minding my own business and letting the must-be-gold-gas roll out of the pump and into the endless tank. All of a sudden I hear some man behind me rambling on about the planet and “you people.” I honestly thought maybe he had one of those ridiculous ear pieces and was talking on his cell phone, so I ignored him.

(In a grocery store once, I couldn’t see the other side of this woman where the ear piece was hiding and I thought she was talking to me…so I answered her question of what we were having for dinner that night. EMBARRASSING!)

Only now this man is at the rear of my vehicle looking it over and asking how much of the planet we plan to kill with that vehicle. I was stunned! I know there is a big push to do your part and take care of Earth. I look over to see he is driving one of those newer Hybrid cars that was about the size of a Matchbox car.

Personally, I could never go back to driving a car for many reasons. Most of which are really none of his business.

Despite ignoring this irate man, he continued to make scene. I didn’t know how to respond. We choose this vehicle and we choose to continue driving it despite the status of our planet or economics.

All I know is that he should watch out, my monster truck can smash his matchbox car anytime!

I’ve been busy this week to say the least. Mostly with work, but in my spare time I’ve been preparing for a garage sale that was today. By preparing I mean pulling everything out of the plastic tubs in our basement and letting my husband do the real “work” of carrying it upstairs and outside.

My mom and I must be gluten for punishment, because we both decided we had enough junk that we needed to clean out room in our houses. Our junk differs a little though. Hers was knick-knack stuff, lots of baskets, flower pots and old things. It always amazes me because we’ve done this before and when she unpacks her stuff in our garage I think to myself there is no way anyone will buy that odd thing. Then they do! What cracks me up most is the way she prices her items. There were two of the exact same flower pots - one marked a quarter, the other ten-cents. I never mark anything ten cents. I figure if it’s not worth a quarter, it’s not worth selling.

My assortment included mostly toys, kids clothes and some household items. We also sold a few pieces of odd furniture (in hopes we might actually get to move next year). I have kept EVERY SINGLE item Ethan has owned since before he was born in dozens of large plastic tubs. My original hording thought was we’d put it all to use with another child….but it seems due to medical issues from a car accident a few years ago, that dream is unlikely to become reality. So in my own version of “therapy” I decided to part with almost all of it.

Overall the sale went well. We sold quite a bit of stuff and then packed up the remaining things and donated it to two local worthy organizations. But you know the interesting people you come into contact with when you open up your garage and junk to complete strangers!

First of all, when a sale says it starts at 7 a.m. do you arrive at 5:52 a.m. and expect to shop? I think it’s rude and I let the 3 shoppers who attempted know it by turning them away. Secondly, I realize you can bargain with the seller on higher priced items, but when something is a quarter and you ask if the seller will take twenty-cents….WHY? Really, a nickel?

My mom had brought a large metal briefcase looking box with the first ever made VHS tape recorder. Oh yeah! She had marked it $5 and in my head I giggled. All be darn if some weird young man with many, many piercings decided to buy it. The funnier part was when he was half-way down the drive my mom says, “He’s going to make a lot of porn with that!” Oh my, we didn’t need to go there.

I left my mom in charge of the money. I don’t do math - at all. Especially in my head under pressure. Early in the morning I think she got scammed by a Hispanic woman who pulled a rather well played “gypsy” type heist over on her. (I only know it resembled a gypsy con because I’ve been watching “The Riches” on FX.)

Later in the day we were almost taken again, but I put my foot down. I’m not entirely sure I did the right thing though. A woman came and bought a couple dollars worth of kids clothes and toys. She returned about 45 minutes later carrying her sacks and barged into the garage, slamming the items on the table. According to her she’d went to get gas, pulled her change out of her pocket and realized we didn’t give her the correct amount back after her purchase.

Now in the dramatic act she pulled the “change” out of her pocket along with about $40 and demanded $5 more dollars. I admit we very well may have short-changed her, but how am I to know she is telling the truth? And why didn’t she count her change before she left? I was polite and explained that it wasn’t that I didn’t believe her, but she should have checked her change before leaving. She wasn’t pleased and started crying and carrying on in front a dozen or so people. To add to her exit, she yelled to people as she was walking down our drive to count their change.

Although the profit is nice and a cleaner basement is great, I’m not convinced all the work before and after are worth it. Note to self: No more garage sales.

THE BEST NEWS EVER ~ I “donated” the 960 lbs. of rubber in our driveway to a Christian pre-school!! I had put a “free if you u-haul” sign as wishful thinking during the sale…..and to my amazement the ugly animals were the talk of the sale! So they are now gone. Now I just have to explain that to the in-laws.