in anticipation of moving out of this sold house at the end of the month, we somewhat hesitantly decided to have a yardsale today. by hesitantly, i mean that typically when want to rid ourselves of the detritus that accumulates in the nooks and crannies of our closets and basements we normally just call goodwill or the salvation army and rid ourselves of it quickly and painlessly. i mean, who wants our junk?

apparently lots of people want our junk. from lamps that don't work to half-used containers of plumber's putty to gallons of paint, used toilet plungers, broken ceramic tile, wobbly fans, countless jars with and without lids and endless amounts of other items that one "collects" over the years.

one person's junk really is another person's treasure.

perhaps the most astonishing fact is that we even have anything to sell. we're ritualistic minimalists. anti-savers. the bane of pack rats. we're constantly looking for things to give away and yet we're always amazed at how the cruft collects, seemingly reproducing in the dark, dank corners of your home.

there were a few items that were difficult to part with, including the canoe. but it was priced "to move" and move it did. it was sold before the sale had officially even started.

o.k. i'll admit it. books usually always manage to slip through our cruft cleansing. but not this time.

amusingly, for most of the sale, it didn't look like anyone wanted our wares and we decided that it probably wasn't the right kind of market for something like ego and archetype or orality and literacy.

but then, in the waning last hour of the sale a lone buyer swooped in and cleaned us out of most of the inventory.

if there's ever a version of trivial pursuit for our lives, it will note that i could not part with A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake for reasons that aren't really clear even clear to me; nor could i say goodbye to my copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach, which holds the record for the book i've owned for the longest period of time ( over 15 years ), yet never finished. but it's a sentimental favorite because it's also the book that has spawned 1000 intellectual investigations that have, quite literally, helped shape who i am today.

books are funny like that.

later after Lightening the Load, it was off to grammy pam's house to celebrate her birthday.

we were tired since we were forced to awake at an the insane hour of 5:00 a.m. to prepare to Lighten the Load ( because everybody knows that The Professionals will always arrive hours before the announced start of the sale ).

luckily odin and his cousin - formerly known as wheeler but now known as evelyn - were able to occupy themselves, at least temporarily, with an old, very used shoe.

yet more evidence that "real" toys are overrated.

we really did Lighten the Load today by selling our 1997 toyota camry to a family member while at grammy pams. we really are fully unencumbered now!

we've had the camry for 8 years and logged almost 150,000 miles with it and can quite confidently claim that it is an amazing marvel of reliability.

but we don't need two cars at this point in our lives and we're happy to see her go to new owners who will take good care of her.