The Indianapolis Home Show at the Fair Grounds is always fun to go to - it opened this weekend! And yes, it was a veritable hodgepodge of vendors of all kinds...even the South Bend Chocolate guys AND a Watkins distributor (STILL the best vanilla I've found to be available around here...can't always depend on a neighbor to hand over a big bottle of vanilla from the Bahamas.)
Anyway, I am not one to walk along silently, not yakking with all those friendly vendors. I like to yak with strangers - and do often! BUT I happened upon a catch phrase to let me 1. converse in my babbling way to any of the vendors and 2. remove me from their clutches quickly without having to be rude. What is that catch phrase? Well, the first version of it was...
"I am currently Houseless"
Now, that only means that I am currently living in an apartment, not a house, and therefore not in the market for new windows, tub inserts, new gutters, or any of the other myriad things a person with an actual house might need.
And read it again - I said "I am currently Houseless" That does not mean to indicate I am HOMELESS, but I guess it came across that way in the first second or two. On the first vendor's face, there was first, shock, and then a bit of pity, and then a bit of WHAT??? and then...Hhhheyyyyy, and then I smiled and said "Let me rephrase that...!" Those first two guys were crawl space refitters, and wow, one of them just snickered the entire time I talked to them. He really enjoyed the conversation - he was either bored out of his head (and it was only the first day of the show!) or I was extremely amusing...
Anyway - the rest of the show I used a rephrase " I am currently without HOUSE" and that being said, I was then able to simply look over their offerings (pens, ice scrapers and oh, this cool metal measuring tape from Fentress Builders) without then having to burst their possible sale! bubble AFTER they spewed their sales pitch. This way - no sales pitch was offered and because I was amusing, they did not begrudge me the aforementioned giveaways.
Anyway - what did i actually purchase? Well, it was not the really cool albeit pricey back/neck/carpal tunnel electric shocklike/ massager thingie ($299.99 WITH the cool case) nor was it the $99 for a 2 night 3 day stay down in Branson MO ( ALLL you've got to do is give us 2 hours of your time!) ... I did buy my usual stuff from the Watson Vanilla guy, and I bought a bottle of raspberry wine from the Carousel Winery (Bedford INdiana) and these really powerful hand clippers (that I should have had for the past 18 years when I owned an acre of yard) that I will send to my Mom for her birthday. (Yah, Mom..don't read this if you want to be surprised!)
After leaving there, we went to a really yum restaurant - Iaria's Italian Restaurant on College Ave, in Indy - for an amazingly good pizza and cheese bread that came with a bowl of their spaghetti sauce that is OUT of this world. I NEVER buy spaghetti at a restaurant (not when a box of pasta costs a buck!) but wow, hopefully they'll slip me some sauce along with the Margherita pizza that we'll get when we go back. AND we brought a portion of Tiramisu home for a later dessert. Yep, that was amazing as well!
I had a really good time yesterday. I LIKE Good Saturdays!
