Five Minute Friday :: Sale

• Five Minute Friday :: Sale linkup at Andrew's Place. Andrew hosting while Kate heals has been such fun, especially with Sylvia joining in!


For Sale. Not for Sale. There's the basic you can purchase this item or this service because it's for sale on the retail market; then there's you can get it at a lower price because it's not only for sale—it's on sale.

What are my favorite things for sale and on sale?

I love to shop. Any kind of retail therapy! I love thrift stores. I especially love yard sales / garage sales, though recent ones haven't been as enticing as they were in the BCE (Before Covid Era) olden days. I usually say "yard sale" and I've read about tag sales, but I've never called them that. The terminology must be regional.My plants header is from our church yard sale three years ago in October 2022. For some reason, churches usually talk about their rummage sales. What's rummage? Is it what you find when you're rummaging around?

I enjoy eBay, where I've bought a whole lot of books and a lot of clothes. I often wonder if I'd have discovered it if my cousin hadn't introduced me to eBay on her long ago visit to San Diego.

As much as I like Target with its sometime clean spare mid-century Scandinavian vibe, Dollar Tree is my favorite sale venue of any time, any where. I love its practical everyday items and the many surprise treasures I never planned to buy and couldn't have planned because I never knew such a thing existed.

What for sale and sales have I left out? Given that food is my love language, I need to mention seasonal fruits and veggies. Subway meal of the day. My faves are Chicken Teriyaki on Tuesdays and Tuna on Fridays.

What sale stuff do you hanker after?

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Tuesday Trip to the Getty Center

• Premonstratensian Canon, possibly after Hans Holbein the younger, Swiss about 1250

The description tells us this depicts a canon or professed religious of the Premonstratensian [or Norbertian] order. Google says they adopted the Latin Rite after Vatican II, but retained some distinctive liturgical practices.

• Vincent van Gogh, Irises, 1889

• Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Apples, 1893-1894

• Edouard Manet, The Rue Mosmer with Flags, 1878

• Alfred Sisley, The Road from Versailles to Saint-Germain, 1875

• Claude Monet, Sunrise, 1873

• James Enser, Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1869, 1888-1890

• Joseph Wright of Derby, Two Boys with a Bladder, about 1769-1770

• Museum store with books

• Museum store corner with a David Hockney print and black Getty shirt

• Los Angeles panorama

December Menu

Five Minute Friday :: Christmas Sweater

• Five Minute Friday :: Christmas Sweater linkup at Andrew's place

This week Andrew wrote – "penned" with quill – another sonnet, after all.

The way people pick up on trends, phrases, and preferences without a thought bothers me a lot. For example, the idea of an ugly Christmas Sweater makes rounds every year, yet when you look at those various jacquard, fair isle, reindeer, tartan, snoopy, and nativity bear sweaters, very few are objectively "ugly" at all. The adorable sweater illustration Andrew provided is an example, as are the bear and horse in sweaters I got on Creative Market a few years ago.

Though even in this era of covid-tinged casual I'd be hard put to wear one to work, to Sunday church, or to a professional networking event, Christmas sweaters belong around the fireplace, out caroling, at Christmas dinner where they enhance the ambiance and remind everyone not to take themselves so seriously so much of the time.

What else bothers me this time of year? The way people in the global north often get mired in mild to moderate to severe Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD, which is a real thing. It's such a reality that very few people can avoid at least a touch of it when shorter days deprive them of necessary sunlight. But getting consumed by SAD and ignoring the hope Advent brings? Even denying the Light of the World Nativity offers?

Oh, I know. Everything gets too overwhelming, so let's remind each other. Do you have a testimony of light in the darkness? Do you have words about new life from the apparent hopelessness of loss and death? When the days are shortest, nights are longest?

Happy Christmas Sweater time!

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December Brunch

Another Santa Monica special, this time on Tuesday of Advent 1. The fabulous food in these pictures plus a surprise a cappella concert of holiday music by The Oceanaires.

Five Minute Friday :: Turkey

Your wonders awe those who live
at earth's farthest bounds; you
make the gateways of the morning
and the evening shout for joy!
Psalm 65:8
• Five Minute Friday :: Turkey Linkup at Andrew's Place

Writing on Friday

Andrew's hosting FMF auspiciously has led to an epicurean – or is that an edible? – trio of coffee, chocolate, and now turkey. Turkey because the prompt went live on Thanksgiving evening, or for another reason? I'll take the reason that I love to write about food; I love gifts of food; I love to enjoy food. Food is my love language.

Like my late uncle, I'm [almost] everyone's BFF. I don't think it's genetic, but I believe some people are wired that way. That introduces my saying yesterday I again ventured out to the Santa Monica Church where I had Thanksgiving dinner last year and in 2021. For 2025 I went with a couple of housemates from the hostel where I'm staying and managing; a third joined us at the venue. Although it's an annual community dinner, it's on the small side. Best guess is we had 50 guests, which borders on intimacy for this kind of gathering.

Isn't sharing a meal or a snack a leveling experience? I leveled with the people I've been living with, those Santa Monica church peeps I already was acquainted with, neighborhood people who were first timers at that church and first timers with me. We had food for the table. We made room at the table. When there's room at the table we can call each other friends. All those people I leveled with now are [at least my] BFF.

When food and friends come together, that's a love feast. Food is my love language. And yesterday included turkey.

Do you have a turkey commentary or any comments about turkey?

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Grand Hope Park

The larger grander Grand Park was my original Tuesday destination, but with shorter days and therefore limited time I found myself at the much smaller and previously not known to me Grand Hope Park. Given that the urban oasis blooms between Grand and Flower on Hope Street, what semi-accidental redirection could be more perfect as the season of Advent – that time of renewed hope – begins again?

My picture show begins with a funky presentation of trash containers outside the park; I noticed several of these same designs along my route.

In this Utopian Garden
Splendid in Art
Shall the Spirit of
South Park Replenish
The Heart of the City

Dedicated June 12, 1993
Mayor Tom Bradley, City of Los Angeles

Trees in autumnal beauty

All four sides of a pair of mosaics; next time I'll research their origins.

Welcome to Grand Hope Park includes hours and guidelines for visitors.