Everything went smoothly with preparing my taxes again this year and I was able to submit everything overnight in the early hours of April 15. I am glad that things went well and that another tax year is behind me.
On Tuesday, Kuochun decided to take his car in to the Honda dealer for service to prepare for our driving trip back to Mount Prospect next month. He is always kind enough to keep me company when my car needs an oil change so I offered to return the favor. We do have two cars here but I figured we would just wait at the dealer for the car to be ready so we drove together. Instead of waiting though, we decided to walk about 1/2 mile each way down the street to Marshalls. I have rewards certificates built up so I thought it might be a good chance to try and use them. It was kind of warm that day but not horribly hot. What I did not know was that we needed to cross over an expressway to get there, which was scary for me because I am afraid of heights. The area was also littered with trash which we had to navigate around. I did not find anything to buy at Marshalls but overall I am glad I tried.
Along the way there was a Volkswagen dealer and the ID.Buzz really caught my eye. There were three different colors on display outside, this lime green, orange and blue. Since we were on foot, we were able to take a closer look. I thought they were so cute and a great way to travel cross country! They are electric so I do not know how charging the battery would work when not at home.
It turned out that Kuochun's car needed more work which was going to take more time, so surprisingly he wanted to stop by the Copenhagen furniture store. It is similar to Dania but even higher-end. I guess the recent talk about redecorating got him to thinking about what kind of living room sofa and bed he would like. We did see a sofa which was very comfortable but it is white leather which is not practical. We did not see any beds that we loved.
By the time we got back to the dealer the car still was not ready so we thought it would be a great chance to try Waymo, the self-driving cars and get some lunch. We see them all the time around town, even before we knew what they were and they appear to be very safe. They do not make driving errors, unlike humans. Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix along with limited access in Austin, TX. They use fully electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs. I had recently learned about a restaurant in downtown Phoenix named First & Last, who is said to have the best sandwiches in town. We decided to grab a Waymo and head over there since it was about 15 minutes away from the dealer. The drive was perfectly smooth and it was definitely very nice not to have to constantly chit chat with a driver or at the opposite end of the spectrum have a driver who does not want to talk but blasts bad music. Waymo had peaceful Zen music playing, which could have been turned off if we wanted. We did learn that pets are not allowed with the exception of service animals. However when we arrived at the restaurant and entered in, we learned that they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Luckily there was a restaurant around the corner named Pita Jungle. Mediterranean food is not my go-to but it was OK. The Greek salad was very nice for those who like it. I got a chicken wrap with lavash which is much thinner than a typical pita or tortilla wrap. We shared an order of garlic cilantro fries but I did not care for them - all they did was dump garlic salt and cilantro on top of the fries. They are a local chain which has been around for 30 years but I would not go back, there are so many other amazing places to eat around town.
We took the Waymo back to the dealer and the car was ready. I was glad that we got the chance to try Waymo, it was a great experience and I would definitely use it again. It would be perfect for special events where parking is difficult like the Heard Museum Indian Market and the Willo Home Tour. Both events require a lot of walking so it would be nice to save our energy for the actual event.
Kuochun and I normally do not give in to the hype and higher prices associated with dining out on a holiday but this time I thought it was important to take some time out and do something special since this Easter was our first major holiday without Mother. I learned that one of my favorite restaurants, The Herb Box was going to have an Easter brunch buffet and the menu sounded great so I made reservations. We were seated at the very far end of the banquette and the garage doors were open since it was a beautiful day. We experienced a bit of a cooler spell Saturday and Sunday which was perfect timing.
Here is my first plate - red velvet pancakes with marscapone and Grand Marnier sauce, fluffy scrambled eggs, apple French toast, sausage, bacon and a few sweet potato chips sprinkled on top. Everything on this plate was very good!
Something always seems to have to happen though - on our second trip, we were 3/4 of the way around the serving table when we ran into a log jam of four people. They were all going the wrong way. One older couple in particular was super grumpy and acted like we were in their way. When I gently said it should be the other way, the man exploded, started moving around funny and yelled at me, saying "YOU'RE MAKING THAT S--- UP!!!" I came right out and said that's rude and you shouldn't speak to a woman that way. Kuochun glared at him and said 'HAPPY EASTER!" They said nothing but did back up out of our way. Kuochun kept glaring but I said "it's not worth it" and we went back to our seats. There was another younger couple right next to us, very casually dressed in tank tops, shorts, flip flops and baseball caps. They were going on and on about where they should vacation next. First the woman suggested Borneo for a safari and then said she heard about someone who was mauled by a jag-u-aire (that's how she pronounced jaguar) so maybe they should skip that idea. Then she suggested Antarctica for 13 days! It did not occur to me at the time but maybe some Phoenicians decide to go for a cold vacation to take a break from the heat. She then said they better go somewhere before they have kids! He did not seem enthused about any of her ideas. Luckily they were a little ahead of us and left before we did.
For the second round, I tried a pulled pork slider and a chicken sandwich along with some mac and cheese. Unfortunately they did not keep the sandwiches warm so they were ice cold. I never like to waste and should have left the chicken sandwich behind because it was too large for a buffet serving. The desserts were really good but I unknowingly selected two chocolate items. One was a tall petit four but I did not realize it was full on flourless chocolate inside and the other was a chocolate parfait with cake, mousse and whipped cream. They had other selections including beautiful Easter-themed sugar cookies with sparkling colored sugar on top. I chose one which looked like a bunny Peep. The service was glitchy, after the first plate our table was totally cleared off (I guess the bus boy thought we were finished) and we had to wait for new utensils and waters. Kuochun was not happy that a plain orange juice was not included and he had to pay $5 but I did warn him ahead of time. We were also told to use our dinner forks for dessert which was not appetizing since I had just used the fork to eat mac and cheese. Overall I would give the buffet a "B" grade.
I only had time to post two items this past week - the cuff stampede continued with this dramatic cuff bracelet with a charging one-eyed bear motif as well as this smaller classic cuff bracelet with a turquoise centerpiece. There were no sales but this makes sense with Tax Day and Easter falling on the same week. Even if I can just post one item per day going forward, I need to try. More and more wonderful pieces are coming my way and I have got to get them set up to find new homes. The prediction is that silver prices are going to skyrocket even more by the end of the year, meaning some Native American artists may not be able to affordably create new pieces any more and that the vintage pieces are going to be more challenging to find than they already are. In the meantime I have plenty to work on though!
I recently learned about a company who can offer unsold boutique clothing purchased at wholesale to a secondary marketplace. They charge a 15% commission, send me the orders and I pack and ship them. My homework so far is to fill out a spreadsheet with my inventory of new items. Hopefully they already have the SKU numbers in their system so I would not have to provide photos. I gathered everything up and so far I have 183 line items in my spreadsheet, with a bunch more to go. I had to push back the follow-up meeting because I did not have time to even start by then but the goal is to get the spreadsheet complete by the meeting next Tuesday. I hope this works out as it would be a big job to post each piece of clothing online. I think I can get a better hit rate and overall return this way. But if it does not work out, at least I will have the online inventory together and ready to process someday.
Last week I mentioned that I was going to start the redecorating project here in Scottsdale but have come to the realization that I need more time to save up for it and to host a proper redecorating sale. It was causing a lot of stress thinking about how I was going to completely clear out the first floor and garage and this should be a fun endeavor. I asked Rosie the dog sitter if she could take care of the girls during the day when I thought I was having a sale May 1-4 but in the end she was not sure because her son might be coming back from the military that weekend. I did pay for the design work so maybe that phase can be completed but the execution put on hold for now. I will have to break the bad news to the designer, I am not sure how she is going to take it.
During the cooler spell over the weekend, I was able to reorganize the garage and make enough room to get my car back inside. Because Mother's unsold items are in the garage, there is not enough space for both cars but I considered this to be good progress. I bagged up all of the costume jewelry and it is now in storage in my multi-drawer cabinet. I just need to pack up the Tibetan jewelry which is still out on display, put the table linens away, bring the sterling silver jewelry out of the garage and recycle empty boxes and then the garage will be pretty much ready to leave for the summer.
Goals for next week are to keep up with estate sale work and start consistently posting new items again. I better hop to it, see you next time!
