Community garage sales. On one hand, they're a blessing: dozens of sales all clustered together in a few block radius means less walking, less time wasted and more sales to visit. On the other hand, most of the community sales haven't borne much fruit. This week though, every community in Chicago was having a garage sale, so we concentrated our efforts up around Edgewater where there were (according to the ads) over 100 garage sales to attend.

G. Turner: Loads of people means potential intriguing items! Too bad their only item of anything vaguely interesting was:

unitdaisy: Poor Pinocchio amputee. Too many lies and your feet fall off.

G. Turner: Look! It escaped from its memory vault! (If this joke is lost on you, you have no one to blame but yourself and your lack of Psychonauts.)

unitdaisy: Maybe it was a picture of an ex-boyfriend and had to be cut out. Snip snip.

G. Turner: There's so much that could be said about this, but I think I'll remain silent on the issue.

G. Turner: Cherries and a sink, for your refreshment needs.

unitdaisy: I really should have bought the cherries. I was so hungry an hour later. Don't sellers understand the need to sell refreshments for the dedicated shopper?

G. Turner: A Players Choice copy of Luigi's Mansion for $10? I think I can do better.

G. Turner: Someday someone will release The Wizard on DVD. Until then, this copy is mine.

unitdaisy: Oh dear, I'm going to be busy the day Mr. Turner invites his friends over to watch this.

G. Turner: Dueling iMacs!

unitdaisy: If only they'd had a Ruby. I like my computers to match my collection of vintage glassware.

G. Turner: Yes, $25 for an iPod (5GB), iBook rechargable battery and an iBook AC Adapter. We couldn't believe it either, and spent the rest of the day wondering if we had been taken. Not a chance - the iPod runs just fine, battery life is healthy, and the unit has been taken care of pretty well.

G. Turner: Believe me, you'll need a good dousing of that holy water after reading that!

unitdaisy: I really think the God of Abraham will strike you down from trying to make a profit from holy water.

G. Turner: I wasn't the one talking about reselling it on eBay.

unitdaisy: Geez - babies are disgusting enough when they are new, who would want a used one? Maybe you can just throw them in the dishwasher to wash off the residue of the former possessors.

G. Turner: My summer reading pile overfloweth!

unitdaisy: He looks so determined.

G. Turner: If only Edgar Teglee had this kit (again, Psychonauts. You're a lesser person if you do not own it.)

G. Turner: Sadly, we had a very difficult time deducing whether this yard contained a sale, or was just one phone call away from a health services alert.

unitdaisy: Maybe it's out for the trash and therefore free!

G. Turner: Tracer Ace! Acer Trace!

G. Turner: That's a sneak peak at the next Brick Flick.

unitdaisy: So many possibilities, you could have played with it at your Wizard party with your friends.

G. Turner: We're cooler than that - we're going to duel with Power Gloves.

unitdaisy: If I ever get serious about reselling this is first on my list of 'man, I should have picked this up.'

G. Turner: Finger flickin' good.

unitdaisy: It even came with blue cheese...

G. Turner: Someday we'll have a dining table to house such a glorious creation.

unitdaisy: I can hardly wait.

G. Turner: Continuing the odd run of wicker-based creatures, here's a wicker monkey with a hat. I wish I knew what it meant.

unitdaisy: Poor wicker monkey amputee, the Army was cruel to you.

G. Turner: You never know when those Gremlin-catching lessons will pay off.

G. Turner: Ah, the original Simon. Ralph Baer, you are a madman.

unitdaisy: I do a fine Simon impression. Beep bep beep Beep beeep.

G. Turner: Phew, I was worried about my smart friends. Now I know it's OK that they're smart.

unitdaisy: Smart has something to do with soccer balls? Who knew.

G. Turner: Now that's some old-timey goodness.

unitdaisy: I know I could win back all my money if we had those chips.

G. Turner: Yes, but can you win back your clothes?

G. Turner: Finally, some games. Oh wait. I have a PSOne, and these games ....

G. Turner: I'm sure someone will reprimand me for not buying one of these games.

G. Turner: A Nintendo 64 with all the fixin's.

unitdaisy: More color! Consoles need more color! Hooray for Nintendo!

G. Turner: If memory serves, this handheld LCD contains 15000 games in one package. Amazing!

G. Turner: We (and by we, I mean unitdaisy) stumbled on an effective new acquisition technique: Ask the people running the sale if they have any video games. This older couple (man not pictured), asked us if there was anything in particular we were looking for, and unitdaisy mentioned that we roamed sales looking for video games. Turns out, the woman recalled that she had some in her basement, went down and came back out with a Gemini.

unitdaisy: I didn't expect the technique to work, especially not at this sale.

G. Turner: If you haven't heard of a Gemini, well you're in good company because we hadn't either. It's nothing more than a Coleco-manufactured 2600 clone but for $5, why not? Besides, those combo sticks-and-paddles are sweet.

unitdaisy: Very nice of her to go find it for us.

G. Turner: Damn ceiling fans follow me everywhere.

unitdaisy: You are imagining things. Again.

G. Turner: Apparently, toilet paper is the new signifier of a garage sale. So what happens if it rains??

unitdaisy: A big mess. A big messy mess.

G. Turner: These toupees keep getting scarier.

G. Turner: This hard-drivin' biker also had the following at his garage sale:

unitdaisy: So very very creepy. Womanly art my ass.

G. Turner: Hey, now we can tell whether it's severely humid, or cripplingly humid!

unitdaisy: Frankly the fact that I "glow" all day now, was enough to alert me to the oceanic texture of our summer air.

unitdaisy: I did so love these tables. Someday I will buy things just to use on my decorating show.

G. Turner: Another Nintendo 64! We managed to woo the owners into selling us GoldenEye for $2 through ... questionable practices.

G. Turner: Industry for chemicals! Blood for olefins!

G. Turner: About damn time I became a land owner.

unitdaisy: Time to pack up the wagon and move!

G. Turner: I don't get the satire here. Ron was totally rappin'.

G. Turner: Sadly, we had to cut our salin' short as we had prior obligations. We quickly found it that we made the right choice though as about half an hour after hit a pub for lunch, one heck of a thunderstorm rocked Chicago. Heading home, we were treated to the following sight:

G. Turner: Tree down! Tree down!

unitdaisy: That tree was coming for you. Good thing we weren't home.

Find of the week: It's a tough call since the iPod, despite its ability to play Breakout, isn't a gaming device. So find of the week goes to the Gemini, regardless of the fact that we now have four devices to play Atari 2600 carts on (two 2600 models (the 'Vader' model and the traditional 'wood grain') and a 7800).

Lesson of the week: Actually ask people running the sale if they have any games or consoles stashed away that they want to depart with. Apparently, many just don't believe typical consumers are interested. Go figure!