Today's music? Chance the Gardener - "The Day the Dogs Took Over" (1996- Warner Brothers Records) Pretty cool roots-rock (think Wilco) My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work Is a photo missing on an older entry? Click here to find it at Photogra! The Other Links Back Issues Now About Me Notes Are Good! Andrew's Baby Favorites and Rings are now here! The life you save might be mine!

Thursday, Oct. 09, 2003 - 8:03 p.m. A cool win on eBay�.plus- just what I would buy for my 7-year-old son to wear this Halloween (if I had a 7-year-old son, that is�) I haven�t been bidding on much at eBay recently. Nothing has really been on my �to buy� list for a while. I picked up a cd here and there, but nothing much else. About 2 years ago, I decided I just had to pick up a piece of my childhood. The toy/game I wanted hasn�t been manufactured since the mid-70�s. Not because people didn�t want them. No, they haven�t been available to buy in stores because a few �slow� people couldn�t get out of the way quickly enough, and suffered severe puncture wounds. You have to love a toy that can also double as a murder weapon, don�t you? So I decided I would use the world�s marketplace, and find me a decent example of this toy. I never say an auction go to completion, though. Something about eBay not allowing the sale of any toy that was banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission? I kept a bookmark, just incase I ever noticed one with a decent �Buy It Now!� price. A few managed to get by the eBay police this way every now and then. They also went for ridiculous prices: most were near or over $100! For a toy/game! So my quest continued. Until this week, I had basically given up on the search. And then, something happened that brought me to the lost piece of my childhood that I won today: someone landed on my D-land page using Microsoft�s search engine. My page was listed #11 for the trade name for this toy/game, since I mentioned it here last year. Number 12 was for another person who had been looking for this same toy/game. He had finally won one of these items by finding it the hard way: the seller he bought his from didn�t use any of the trade names for the toy/game, nor its common name. He had listed it using the wording �Vintage Lawn Game!� Inspiration struck: I loaded up the eBay search page, and I typed that phrase into the box. I was rewarded with 5 live auctions! All had used the same wordplay to get by the censors. I placed my bid on the one I liked the best, and waited. It took less than a day to be bumped from the high bid. I decided to try �completed items�, to see what they were selling for. The average price was about $60 for a full, complete �set�. So I went back, reset my bid for a maximum of $51.00. I was again the high bidder at around $35.00. That was Tuesday evening. By the time I left for work this morning, it had risen to a little over $44.00. There were 6 hours left in the auction. I knew when I came home tonight that I would be �sorry-you have been outbid by another person!�. But I was wrong- the price stayed right there. After shipping, I am now out a total of $53.22. I couldn�t be happier about it, too�� All right, enough hinting around- here is what I was after, and what I will soon have in my sweaty hands: An early 70�s set of Jarts. It even has the extra fins, provided with the set incase you managed to break one of the plastic pieces. It even rained today, helping to soften up the rock-hard soil in my yard. If it hadn�t, I would have run the sprinkler the day they arrived. They don�t stick in the ground that good if the soil is dry. I hope they get here before it gets too cold. I can see a tournament happening here, if the weather stays nice. And I promise I will try to not put anyone�s eye out, too�. I know you can get about anything in a Halloween costume nowadays, but this item caught me a little off-guard: If I had a 7 year-old son, I think I would have to get the red, long version of this suit on the lower right side of this web page If you decide to plop down your Visa and pick one of these suits up, don�t forget- the hat is sold separately� Antique - Futuristic powered by SignMyGuestbook.com Have You Read These? A hot day for a wedding...9:26 p.m. - Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 So bad - but so funny, too.10:33 p.m. - Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009 Evil Black Walnut Tree from Hell!- times up!6:41 a.m. - Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009 My next door neighbor was on the Today Show?8:57 p.m. - Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 This qualifies as a "oh crap!" moment:9:55 p.m. - Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 Back to top