Garage sale, flowers, spiders and dogs

So we finally decided to have a garage sale and invited family and friends to contribute their goods, time and energy. Above is a good shot of Matt and Emily, oh and their adopted dog Sugar in the chair between them. Mike is waaaaay back in the corner guarding his baseball cards and Snoopy collectible books. We started out on Friday with muggy temps in the mid-80's and ended the day early afternoon after the heat index rose over 100. Saturday started quite muggy, then a HUGE storm rolled through around noonish and left us with some temporary cool temperatures. The pics of flowers later are taken after the storm when everything was so pretty and green. Here's a closer shot of the kids and pup.

and this really cool neon yellow spider. It was really tiny, maybe 1/4 inch counting the legs.

Now for some awesome shots of the flowers, starting with the deep purple butterfly bush:

and the milkweed. I didn't have my camera out when the Monarch was fluttering around it. Click on the pic to zoom in on the spectacular droplets of rain.

Our pear tree is absolutely COVERED with fruit beginning to grow larger. I'm already beginning to panic just thinking about the harvest and subsequent peeling, slicing, canning, freezing and baking that I'll be doing. That will no doubt require a few days off work to get it done and is very difficult to predict when it will happen, thus the panic.

Now, back inside for a minute to show you our temporary dining room furniture. Oh, I forgot to tell you that we sold our very old set that I had picked up for only $50 back in 96. Got a whacking $35 out of it, so not too bad, huh? Anyway, following the picture of the table that also shows the three dogs lined up in their queue waiting for Mike to feed them, are two shots of the existing circa 1969 vinyl (or perhaps linoleum?) floor that was found under a layer or two of carpeting. We're finally getting new flooring in the dining room and kitchen this month! I'm SOOOOooooooo excited! You'll know why when you zoom in on the pictures.

 OK, now is that gross or what??? It's only the one big spot by the back door that's all cracked like that, but it's really creepy! We're getting sheet vinyl that looks like real slate 12 x 12 tiles. It will feel like a whole new house once we get that put in. Little by little we're getting things done around here.