I arrived in Austin on a Friday night and made plans to go out and hit some sales the next day with a local Texan (a short-lived Seattle expat). Lisa had warned me not to expect too much, saying that the thrift stores can be good with repeat visits, but that most yard sales are pretty bad. I was thinking “How bad can they be?” Let me just say: BAD. I know that Jenny and I are lucky and we live in a part of town that yields some major finds, but I had no idea how different Texas would be.

We started out hitting some regular sales, nothing to report. We had to drive all over Austin to get to the few sales that we did hit — it’s spread out around these parts.

We went to a very strange perma-sale.

I am not actually sure if it really was a sale that he had all the time, but it had that feel. Nothing good to buy, but he had a ton of stuff.

Lisa and I hit a sale that has a table of fuzzy kitten items. I was too shy to try and take a photo, but the woman showed us a Renaissance Faire item that looked like a kitten on a stick that I guess you put into your top with the kitten sticking out of your boobs and then you make it move its head with the stick running down near your waist. We high-tailed it out of there fast.

We stopped at one more sale, where they had a suit of armor and a table full of nutcrackers.

Lisa purchased some records and a really cool lamp for $3. I for once didn’t buy a single item!