Sleepy

Didn't go last night, too tired. Physically and mentally- stuff is getting me down.

Forgot to mention a great find the other day- 2 cases of cookie dough- ready to bake. From some local vendor who must have had a promotion at the store, then chucked his leftovers! Yum!

Instinct?

Diving night tonight! I usually go Sunday night (good 'cause a lot of places close earlier sos I can get to bed earlier!), Tue or Wed, and Fri. or Sat. Notable stuff from the past week:
2 computers (possible ebay sales. I've gotten $20-30 before)
1/2 gal & 4 pints ICE CREAM!
a good boxful of organicish cookies & crackers
2- 1/2 gal organic milk
2 5lb roasts
gift-worthy notebooks, pens, stationary-type stuff
about 30 bath/shower soaps

I need more produce, especially bananas- I feel potassium deficient!

There's an excitement & thrill about going out hunting through dumpsters. Did I talk about this already? o well. I feel like it goes back to man's primal instinct to hunt. There's a thrill of pursuing the game, and a slight hint of danger (apparently not from the police in my area- cops have seen me twice, and passed on by), and the satisfaction of having a successful score. I feel pretty alive and proud after a successful few hours of hunting! Beats sitting in a tree stand waiting for the food to come to you!

The greatest commandment

Hey there! Not a lot of diving the past week, it's been so rainy & hot & muggy here, makes it hard to get out. Did have a great find of books & neat things from bookstore. Another big bag of dog food. Our dog is small, this would probably feed her for 6 months! We are able to find enough to supplement us so we only need about $200 a month for groceries. For a family of 4, I think that's really good.

We've been through a lot over the past few months. Without wanting to go into much detail, we ended up in a situation where we were left feeling unloved by our church family. It's strange that it took that to truly start caring for others. It took unforgiveness to teach me how to forgive and love unconditionally. This has possibly been the hardest 6 months of our lives, but I'm thankful for where God is leading me as we go through it.

On a related note, during this time, God had been working on my attitude toward gays. I had always felt funny, or uncomfortable around gay men. I can't explain why, but I think it was from judging them, and not loving unconditionally as I should. All men have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. I'm a sinner. Is my sin worse than a gay man's sin? If I can sin and call myself a Christian, why can't a gay man (or woman)? A week or so later, I reached out to a friend in need, and he ended up telling me he was gay. I was quite shocked, but also quite accepting. We ended up having a great talk, and a great time! Yes, God loves gays, too! *gasp* if the church would just love gays (or anyone else, for that matter), you would not be able to keep the gays our of the churches. It's not our job to try to change anyone, God does that! Our only responsibility is to love. It is the greatest commandment.

Anime mania!

Hit the local wasteful book store trash the other night, what a great find! several boxes sealed up (a good sign there's something good inside), containing returns & slightly damaged items. Quickly loaded into the van was:
Anime series boxed set ($100 value)- a tag said 1 disc wouldn't play, but played fine for me
Scooby-Doo boxed set
Several dvds & cds
Anime series wall scrolls (big fabric posters)
2 Twilight hoodies (why=?)
2 boxes of books
a few book lights
I thought there was something else exciting, I can't remember what it was.

So some of this stuff we can sell, some can be used as gifts. If only I was an Anime fan, I would have been in heaven! Where is the super-hero trash at?

Forgot to say the other day, found a case of frozen mashed potatoes just past sell-by date- still cold in the dumpster! I wasn't greedy, only took half in case someone else "shops" there.

Found some competition at my favorite spot, and had to pass it up. Maybe there wasn't a good find for them, and they crossed it off their list.

Had a strange blessing today- I got a call from a local radio station saying my Incubus tickets were ready to pick up- ok, I didn't remember winning any tickets. They had my name, address & phone, just my last name was wrong. After showing my ID, they released them to me. Not enough of a fan to go, and we could use the cash, so I managed to sell them for $50 on Craig's list just a few hours later. Thank you Lord, for orchestrating such a unique blessing!

And now...peanut butter!

Continuing the trend of a big score of 1 item, I got about 30 or so single-serving organic peanut butter cups! o yeah! If only I had got some jelly! Actually I did bring home about 20 jelly packs from McDonalds that were left over, so there you go. Last night's score also included:
9 yogurt cups
2 large yogurts (fat free, don't care for it too much, maybe add some of the bananas!)
2 large cottage cheese (one of the few foods I don't eat even from the shelf, everyone else likes it)
6 nice cornbread biscuits
another dozen apples (we actually have too many apples, don't know if you can freeze 'em?)
5 single serve juices
4 bags of bbq chips :9
1 hummus dip (never had it, but my chips look lonely)
2 more corn on cob
1 can kidney beans
1 celery bunch

all from 1 dumpster- time: 1 hour -I know this one is always pretty good, if I went straight there & back, I would only be 1/2 hour.

We've gotten some surprising positive reactions from some people who know we do this, what do you think?

Bananas are the new yogurt

Went diving again last night, couldn't go all weekend because my wife was in the hospital, no one to be home with the kids if I went. She's OK, though. Last night's tally:
Bunches of bananas
2 great organic juices I like
1/2 bag of sugar
lots of strawberries
a few loaves of bread
3 packs hamburger buns
3 boxes of mini donuts
1 big box of greeting cards from our local wasteful bookstore. We may never have to buy cards again (for certain occasions!)

I brought home more bananas than we could reasonably eat before they crossed the line from browning to brown mush. Along with the more questionable strawberries, we can make some nice smoothies! It seems I can find large quantities of certain items one day, and a different item the next. 2 days in a row I found about a dozen or so yogurt cups that had just hit the sell-by date.

I've been wanting to start on the next Children of Light pages, but want to wait until some drama gets resolved around here. In the meantime, I offered to letter Joey Endres' Colossians comic.

It's Thursday like a Friday

Hey! Show was pretty good Sunday, made about $24, talked to a lot of people, did a few sketches. I'll do some reviews of what I bought later.

Good dive the other day, found a 30-pound bag of dog food! Turns out it was senior dog food, so we were worried Sushi wouldn't like it (like she would notice). Turns out she gobbled it up, when she usually won't eat her regular food. Score! I'm not sure how much a big bag of food like that costs, I should go in the store & price it. I'm sure it was worth my whole 2 hours out. Also found a new favorite spot, just a block or 2 away from my #1 spot. A name-brand bakery thrift store was just filled with awesome! It was funny, there was vaseline or something along the rim of the dumpster to deter diving. I grabbed one of my trusty garbage bags and placed along the rim, and hopped right in. I'm off tomorrow, so I'll head back there tonight to get some goodies for the weekend.

Happy 4th!