Mostly, everything but Sewing

I received my second shipment of Nancy Drew books yesterday. They are in very good shape. Now I just have to find a place to put them. Here I am with my whole collection.

(Click to enlarge)

I won a couple of small ebay auctions yesterday too. They were for a cute little row counter and for 8 Trixie Belden books.

I’ll have to wait a while to get the books since the auction owner only accepts payment by check or money order. My check is now making it’s way to Connecticut. Once it gets there, I’ll still have to wait until it clears before my order is shipped. Oh well, I’m patient.

I devoted the morning to some house cleaning, washing clothes and organizing my art room. Once my drawing table was cleared off and cleaned up I did a little work on some of my colored pencil drawings. What I like to do when I have some time on the weekends is sit at my drawing table, surf on the computer, read bits here on there in my current reading books, make todo lists, and generally doodle and while away the time very pleasantly.

While I was whiling away today I was also keeping an eye on a couple of eBay auctions of Nancy Drew book lots. One lot was 14 books of 1960’s edition whose price was holding at about $25 dollars.

Another lot, also of 14 books from the same type of 1960 editions that I’m interested in, were going for about $18.

Of course on both of these you also had to consider the extra shipping and handling costs, which on one was about $18 and the other was unspecified. I was willing to make a bid on one or both of these lots if the price didn’t get out of control at closing. Unfortunately I realized that both auctions were scheduled to close just about the time we were supposed to be going out for dinner. I dawdled a bit so I would have at least a chance to make a bid and see the closing for one of them. So while getting dressed up for dinner I kept running back to the computer to try to put in a bid at the very last second.

I was thrilled to see that my bid for $36 won for the first lot. I swooped right in at the last second. It came in about .50 short of my bid limit. Combined with the shipping and handling price for this lot, each book will cost me about $3.90 which was just the range I wanted. The next lot didn’t close for another 20 minutes or so, and since I didn’t want Marty to faint from hunger ( I was pretty hungry myself) , I put in a bid and took off. I just crossed my fingers and hoped other interested buyers wouldn’t outbid me in the meantime.

To not make this too suspenseful, I did win the second auction for $37.09. The shipping and handling was eventually calculated at $9.59, so my total price was $46.60. Even better than the first one. I’m happy and vowing to stay away from eBay for awhile

I had been toying with the idea of having another go at the Nutrisystem diet plan. I’ve been stuck at around 150 pounds. The good news is that I am down a little over 20 pounds from my highest weight a few years ago. I lost 10 of those pounds in the last six months helped along by Nutrisystem and the Gallbladder (I’m afraid to eat) diet. The extra 4 pounds I lost after Gallbladder surgery came right back as soon as I could eat again,drat it.

The bad news is that I’m still overweight and need to lose at least 20 more. I want to be in the normal BMI range. This is my ultimate goal. It sure sucks to be short sometimes. If I was a couple inches taller I would be at my perfect weight already.

Anyway, before shelling out another $340 for 5 weeks of yummy Nutrisystem meals. I decided to give calorie counting another try. I downloaded a software application called Diet Organizer to my Palm to help me keep track of my daily calorie intake. It’s a neat little program that not only helps you count calories but also:

• tracks how the calories break down into their fat, carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and mineral portions
• comes with a food database of 6000 foods and super-fast food selection.
• does the calculations for you.
• checks that you’re getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals.
• helps you know at a glance how many calories you have left each day.
• builds a history of what you eat and how much you exercise.
• includes exercise in your daily calorie equation.
• tracks body measurements and weight, and lets you see your progress in chart form.

It will be a really handy and portable way to log every calorie that I eat. My biggest problem when I’m not on a structured diet is to keep from casually overeating. This will help me be aware of the quantities I consume and to know when I have to stop. We shall see.

When I got home I found that I had received my set of the 75th Anniversary reproduction Nancy Drew books.

These are a reproduction edition of the first six volumes published in the 1930’s. They have the original illustrations and dust jacket designs which show Nancy sleuthing about in her very proper 1930’s outfits. I will probably buy more older edition books from eBay. I like the ones that came out in the 1960’s. I can get large lots of books at decent prices if I shop the auctions carefully and watch out for ones I like. Can’t wait!