Last minute stuff

Why, why, why do I always wait until the last minute to get stuff done? Tomorrow I have to have a sign printed for the show on Sunday, have cards printed and cut, and get everything I need together. Also going to see Transformers with Sam! Can't wait.

Had quite a prosperous dive Thu. night! Fridge is full!
7 loaves of bread & hot dog buns
13 yogurt
2 coffee cream
4 tomatoes
3 jello cups
bottle steak sauce
1 small broccoli
1 cauliflower
4 corn
2 dz. eggs
cup of roasted peppers
Value- $40 ish
Time- 2 hours (did a lot of scouting)

If only I was allowed to bring onions in the house, it was onion genocide in one place! Oh, the onion rings I would have made!

Goodwill to all

Went diving last night, thought I made out great, but ended up being disappointing. Looked like a foreign grocery cleaned out their freezer, and I filled a box with still frozen meat & fish. Turned out the stuff was years old. Years, like 2-5. Someone call the health dept! Sometimes there's a reason things are thrown out. There was a package of Chicken wings from somewhere else only a few days expired, so we kept that. Sell-by dates don't mean the food has become instant death, just cook thoroughly. Not much good produce. Got a leaky bottle of cooking oil, a few things Melissa made me throw out: a few dented cans, a broken bag of sugar & flour. I guess every day won't be great finds. There was a good "mystery" can (no label). I guess it would be safer (and fun!) to stick with those.

Behind a Goodwill store is a trash dumpster filled with discarded things. Definitely not a donation dumpster. I made sure! There are lost of good & semi-good things in there I guess the store thinks they won't sell. Yard sale stock for us! I almost feel guilty because there's so little effort.
Rescued was:
A nice baby stroller
a computer that can probably go on ebay for parts.
baby mobile floor play thing
electric hedge trimmer
oil lamp (Melissa might want to keep)
Princess Barbie for Melina (looked like Sarah Furgeson doll-she got a bath)
electronics experiment toy for Sam.
a small gift basket of soap (keep!)

Getting ready for comic show on Sunday, my 1st one in a few years. I've learned you need to do more than sit there and hope people make eye contact with you. I started doing some sketches to sell cheaply that can work as promotional material and act as conversation starters. Artists that have familiar characters on display attract more customers to their table, and people standing in front of you instead of looking as they walk by from a safe distance on the other side of the aisle so they don't have to talk to you is a good thing.

Thanks to my friends from Crashland who are sending me great stuff to have on the table!

Take a Dive!

Results of 1 hr. of diving last night including driving time:
2 boxes of magazines
a watermelon
9 eggs (I know how to test eggs, don't worry. Also I eat a few raw eggs almost daily, and have never gotten sick. So there.)
2 bags potatoes
2 packs fresh green beans
couple tomatoes
1 bottle Aussie conditioner
1 bottle salad dressing
1 bottle chicken stock
a big broken dresser mirror (for a wife art project)
possibly a few things I forgot
1 hour of work= enough food to feed my family a couple meals.

Am I crazy for doing this, or crazy to keep working a "real" job? Talk to me.

New jobs, and comic show

Hello friends! Lately I've been preparing for a comic show in Akron, Ohio. June 28th. come by and say hey and get a high five! I've been practicing some sketches to do while there, check out the Hulk above. I'll also be selling some books from my buds at Crashland Studio. Can't wait!

I had decided to get a part-time job, seeing how the money situation was going to look soon. I put in 8 or so applications for easy things like pizza delivery, but who is the only place that calls me? You guessed it: McDonalds. I worked for McD's for 6 years after high school, 2 years as a manager, and swore never to go back. I usually don't even eat there. So I swallowed my pride, and worked there for 2 weeks before I quit! Not as easy as when I was a younger man.

Around the same time, we started getting interested in Freegans. Freeganism includes vegetarianism, living off the land, dumpster-diving, etc. Basically living an anti-consumerism lifestyle. I respect that. I like free stuff. As a kid we always picked through the trash, and always loved it! After reading more, I became more aware of the waste that we have in America. The average store throws out hundreds of pounds of usable and edible items that are at their "expiration date" (just a "better safe than sorry" date), simply unattractive to buyers, or slightly damaged, or even nothing wrong at all!

So I thought I'd try this out. I targeted one of my favorite bookstores, and found 100 one pot sample packs of coffee. good coffee, too! I couldn't believe it! I peeked in the neighbor's dumpster at work and found a microwave that looked brand-new. Are you kidding? It was missing the turntable plate, but you don't really need that. Turns out the thing is possessed or something, it beeps strangely occasionally, and we had to unplug it. Oh, well. It still cooks, someone might want it in a yard sale.

Encouraged by these great finds, we've gone out several nights, and found the following:
4 loaves of bread- there was lots more than we wanted in 1 find
2 kolochie (probably spelled that wrong) pastry loaf things
4 bananas
2 bunches of grapes
4 rolls
1 pack of dinner rolls
bag of apples
2 lemons
8 tomatoes
3 green peppers
2 dozen donuts (2 trips-there was more, don't take more than we'll use right away)
several boxes of books- only took 1
golf bag
bags of restaurant chips
3 bottles of dish soap- tops were cracked- messy but almost full
bottle of hazlenut creamer-goes good with my free coffee & donuts :9
a CD radio
2 board games
old records & direct TV reciever (thought these might have high value, but not really)

All the food we kept after inspection was mostly mixed with a few bad ones, lightly bruised, whatever. Perfectly edible. Meats I've stayed away from so far. Maybe winter diving would be safer for meat.

Being newbies, we did a lot of scouting to find out what's good, and what's not. Trial & error. I think the value of what we've found so far has been more than the time spent working a minimum-wage job. It's addicting, too. Even though it's not quite illegal, there's still the thrill of it. Plus I'm being green, saving the landfills, and providing for my family at the same time.

I'm going out tonight! I'll let you know what I find!