The Scottsdale Experience

On Wednesday we followed through with our special lunch plans and went to the Tommy Bahama restaurant in North Scottsdale, $50.00 coupon in tow. Although I did not need a reservation, I made one anyway just in case. The restaurant only takes reservations for their second floor dining room and it worked out because Kuochun generally prefers to be indoors and I really enjoyed the view from our table. I included the photo from last week because we were actually seated at the table which is front and center in the photo. The first thing I said when we were seated was "now this is the Scottsdale experience!" I should have taken Kuochun's photo because he dressed for the occasion in one of the vintage Hawaiian shirts I have gotten for him over the years.

Although it was tempting to sway from my original plan when I saw the filet mignon salad being served to the table in front of us, in the end I decided to stick with the coconut shrimp which Tommy Bahama's is famous for and a Caesar salad. The salad just looks average in the photo but it was amazing. So garlic loaded, with baby lettuce, creamy dressing and fantastic croutons. I did not know the coconut shrimp was going to come with coleslaw which I am not a fan of but the shrimp was delicious. Kuochun's sea bass entree is in the background. Kuochun ordered the calamari as an appetizer but he was disappointed in the calamari, as it was strips of breaded calamari steak. He likes the tentacles. However he really enjoyed the salad which came with the calamari and I took on most of the calamari which was done to perfection. Unfortunately Kuochun did not fare as well as I did with his entree. He liked the sea bass but said the risotto was undercooked and kind of crunchy.

Kuochun was pretty full at this point but I wanted to try a dessert and ordered the malted chocolate pie. It was a bit of a tough choice between this one, the key lime pie and the pina colada cake but I decided against the pie because I was not in the mood for something tart and the pina colada cake had tons of coconut which I just had with the shrimp and crushed pineapple which I was not sure I would like. Our server wholeheartedly agreed with my choice and said it is the best. He brought us separate plates and forks and usually Kuochun is good for about a third of a dessert but he did not take one bite this time. Our server noticed so I had to take responsibility for finishing it! Going to Tommy Bahama's restaurant was a really nice experience, one made possible with the $50.00 coupon. I am just sorry that Mother never got to try it.

While we were at the shopping center, we took another 41 pieces of Mother's Eileen Fisher clothing to the store which was just down the way. They have a recycling program called Renew where they will give $5.00 per piece of preowned clothing no matter the condition. They are just not pieces that would be worthwhile posting online so now I am just down to about a dozen Eileen Fisher pieces that are more expensive or new with tags. This is the third time to visit Eileen Fisher with the clothing, Rachel went the first two times. We now have three gift cards to work with. There are no Eileen Fisher outlets in Arizona so I will save them for when we return and I will see if there is anything I can use at the Schaumburg outlet. If not, I will probably list them on eBay.

Kuochun came across an article that said the number one rated donut in the country on Yelp is in Mesa so he wanted to go. I read the article and told him it is called Novel Ice Cream and is not really a donut place but an ice cream place featuring an ice cream / glazed donut sandwich. He still wanted to try it so we headed there on Friday, right after our workout. We almost could not find it, it was off the street and in an out of the way place where you order from a window. It was not a place I wanted to go right after a workout but I decided to just let it be my lunch. It was about the size of a McChicken sandwich. I ended up choosing a peanut butter ice cream with Reese's Puffs as my topping and Kuochun went with a bourbon caramel toffee crunch ice cream with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. At least for mine, the flavor was extremely subtle and I would have preferred more of a peanut butter punch. Thankfully the donut portion was very thin, just enough to hold the ice cream and topping in place. I am not sure that we will be back again but it was a unique experience and I was glad we tried it.

On Saturday, I checked a couple of items off my "to-do" list. Mother and I used to go to Old Brick House Market which is a beautiful pop-up store in downtown Mesa which is normally open the second weekend of the month. They decided to do a one-day pop-up on Saturday so I decided to go even though I am not in the market to buy anything. It was actually strange being there without Mother because she loved it so much and the people who worked there were so kind to her. That feeling plus the fact that Kuochun was not enjoying it in the least as it is a girly event compelled me to leave. I will go on my own next time.

The next stop was American Way Smokehouse in Chandler which attached to a quirky antique mall and is not only a great lunch spot but has my favorite cookies and as a self-certified Cookie Monster that is saying a lot! The last couple of times we went there was no time for lunch and we only picked up cookies. They have a huge selection of craft soda. I went with an orange cream soda and Kuochun chose a root beer. The bread was a little hard to chew but overall I really liked the smoked turkey sandwich with havarti cheese and dill aioli. Havarti and dill is a great combination, I used to buy dill havarti cheese in Wisconsin. I chose the mac and cheese as my side and I loved that it was not too cheesy and had a great smoky flavor. My favorite cookies are the sugar with pink frosting and they had a great variety of other flavors to choose from. We walked around the mall a little bit because when we first arrived every table in the restaurant was occupied. Kuochun liked the mall much better than Old Brick House Market. Eating out was fun but I will not be surprised if I gained two pounds this week.

After working on it on and off for about two weeks, I finally had enough jewelry priced to fill a medium size flat rate box to ship home to the jewelry caravan on Saturday. I was able to empty a basket of "to-do" items now that for the most part I have the correct jewelry cards. I like the scalloped cards for the pins but only ordered them in the kraft paper color because the black ones were going to take a lot longer and I wanted to make sure I liked them first. I do like them for smaller pins and they will be good for barrettes but I do not like them for larger pins. I was able to use the round circle cards for a lot of vintage sterling cufflinks I purchased by punching regular size holes where the tiny holes for earrings were. I did not take photos but there are lots of goodies on the way. For some reason it is taking packages four days to arrive rather than the usual two so although they were shipped Saturday evening they will not arrive until next Thursday.

It is wonderful to have the main post office for Phoenix about 10 minutes away because they have a 9:00 PM deadline to get packages out for the day. Just about any time I go and especially if it is at the last minute, there are always other online sellers dropping off their packages. Kuochun always wants to go along because he feels that me going there alone at night is a safety issue so we ended up going to In-N-Out Burger afterwards. I asked Kuochun if he was sure he wanted to go at 9:00 PM on a Saturday night because it was going to be crazy and he was. Sure enough, it was a madhouse because a lot of college students go there as well as families with little kids. We were lucky enough to find a table once we ordered but it was right next to a family with tired, screaming kids. My parents had us in bed by 8:00 PM when we were kids. The family finally left and there was a big space of about 8 seats open next to us. We breathed a sigh of relief until a bachelorette party came in. Of course they sat right next to us but they were actually very well behaved.

Because I spent more time pricing the jewelry for the caravan, I only posted four new items online. One of the pieces I posted was this cool vintage Navajo peyote bird pin with an articulating tail. I also posted a couple of different pairs of Navajo earrings without stones and this eyeglass holder with turquoise nuggets and silver bench beads.

I have not done a jewelry purge in a while because they are so time consuming and the results were not worth the time spent. I decided to not give up altogether just yet and try posting three individual items per evening from Sunday through Thursday at flash sale pricing. Inventory levels are the highest ever so I thought I would try a "fast nickel" as opposed to a "slow dime." Out of the 15 items I posted, I only sold this cuff bracelet. However it went to a great home (the buyer had a matching ring!) and was not a piece I could sell on eBay due to the fact that it has claws.

It takes about 30 minutes to post the three items to 14 groups because four of them need to be posted separately. There is one group that allows me to post to 9 additional groups at the same time which is a great timesaver. If I could just do it once it would only take about 10 minutes. I posted mostly higher-end items this past week and understand that the lower the price of an item is, the more who can afford it so I will try some more budget-friendly items next week.

I accepted a Poshmark offer on this Southwest Style necklace that I have had a while. Because of their fees I am only receiving a little more than I paid but it was time to move it along. Items over a certain dollar amount are sent to Poshmark headquarters in California and examined by their team before sending it on to the buyer. I did not represent this necklace as Native American because I do not think it is so hopefully it will pass the inspection. Luckily I happened to have this one tested for sterling and it is.

Next week will be our last until we head up to Prescott. Jewelry-wise, things are well organized. I just need to repack the sterling jewelry from boxes into bags so more will fit in the car. I will be bringing back the online store inventory, the Gem Show items and as much other sterling as will fit under the car seats and in my Hulken bag. We might be bringing Mother's vacuum cleaner back with us because it would help our house cleaner. I could keep it in my attic space and then she would not have to lug the current vacuum up two levels from the basement anymore. Unfortunately due to all that has happened since we have been in AZ I was not able to get to the costume jewelry but it is all organized and packed up for me to work on when we get back in November.

I need to do some more work on Mother's estate and will try to get as much as possible accomplished before it is time to go. I have calls to make and more bills to pay. I also need to apply with the county court to be the personal representative of the estate so her will can be certified and Rachel will have everything she needs to register the car in New York. It is a lot but will definitely not be the stress fest it was when I was packing to come here last November!