Finally getting a little somewhere on the raised bed...and full disclosure of new purchases.

Well, here's the garden bed starting to take shape. Doesn't look like much, but it has exhausted me to get this far. Was going to make soup and do laundry tonight, but instead I will take some aspirin and go to my own bed. I put down newspaper under where the garden will be. It was no small task as even though there didn't seem to be a breeze, there was one about every 3 or 4 minutes. But, I got the paper down, put plastic over it and secured the plastic around the edges so (hopefully), nothing will be able to blow away.

The plastic extends about a foot beyond the garden. I'm going to mulch that area so the lawn guy can mow right over it and not have to use the edge trimmer around the bed. Hopefully, the plastic will last a few years and keep the grass from growing there. I will cut the plastic out from the bed itself once I get dirt to put in there. I'm hoping to have everything done but the dirt tomorrow, but at the rate I've been breaking down, that may be optimistic.

Full disclosure: I bought a new pair of garden gloves. Mine had such holes that it was rather fruitless to continue wearing them. Also, I'm thinking about purchasing a $59 pop-up roof thingie (they call it a tent, but it has no sides) at Ollies. I am planning to do a couple craft shows this summer. I wasn't going to bother with a tent as I'm not sure I'll be successful enough to continue, but the Ollies tent is a good deal and you can never count on anything being at Ollies from week to week. I doubt I will find a pop-up-type tent used...they only started making them recently and I am so old and decrepit, I need the convenience of a pop-up.

Thinking I am "allowed" to buy this "new" blender and charger.

The offspring broke my Ninja blender, which I loved. It was a $40 blender that did a fabulous job at a variety of tasks. I've been cruising estate sales and thrift shops for an identical blender for weeks to no avail. I wanted an identical blender not just because I loved it, but because I still had all the various blades and bodies (so, spares if any should break or get lost).
I found this Chefman blender at Ollies. It is identical to my old Ninja, so I'm guessing (hoping) it's a rebranded version and all the parts will be interchangeable. At just $25 and giving me the ability to interchange my existing parts, I could not resist (especially since I did have an "ick" factor in buying a used blender...I feel like you can never be sure plastic parts are thoroughly sanitized). I also picked up the charger I went in for. The phone chargers I use in my car get banged around so bad, it seems even the best ones never last a full year. So, I have a decent lighter-adapter "plug" that accepts a usb port and I replace the usb connectors with cheap ones as needed. At $2.99, you can't go wrong...if I could even find one at a thrift store it would cost close to that.