we went to a bike auction in a neighboring town this morning. at 9am the mayor and some city hall employees stood on the steps of the building and auctioned 45 bicycles to an eager crowd of locals. it was fantastic.

the bidding began at one dollar and went up in dollar increments. (like i said, fantastic.)

in fact, this cutie came home with us for only one dollar:

it is a smidge short for tom, but since he got outbid on the bike he wanted, it will do for now and then will be great for sharing with shorter-legged visitors.

by comparison, this bike was crazy expensive:

we won it with a bid of five whole dollars.

they both need a major tune up, and a cleaning, but for a total of $6, they will be perfect for getting us around the local trails.

since we were out and about so early on a saturday morning, we also took advantage of the beginning of yard sale tag sale season and searched for some bargains.

we came home with a bulletin board for the craft room, some nice note cards, some books, an impact driver:

a monkey book for little miss monkey toes:

tom’s favorite find of the day, a box full of computer goodies:

the box said, “free, take all or take none, please.” what’s a boy to do? take all of course!

and a very important buy, a new old air popper:

we already have one, but live in fear that it will some day stop working. and who knows when we might have to make massive amounts of popcorn quickly. better to be prepared, especially when preparation costs only two dollars.

here we witness old old popper welcoming new old popper to the cabinet:

is it just me, or does that picture remind you of the mummenschanz? ewww. so creepy.

some good stuff and a fun morning, all for under 20 bucks.