Luludou: I understand the heat issue. I hurried outside around 6:30am to take care of a few outdoor chores before it got too hot. Warning! Web surfing can be hazardous to your project list. It acted like fertility pills to my project list and they have now multiplied.
SparkleNana: I love the term "clearing the decks". I think I'll borrow this. Sure sounds better than "cleaning house, decluttering, organizing". After all, how can we deck the halls if they aren't clean.
I do love the internet though. It impowers me to attempt repairs with alot more confidence. I have 3 broken ceramic tiles in my kitchen and one in my main bath that needs replacing. Since I put them down I had an idea as to how I was going to replace them but after a few "How to's" I'm really confident now. You would know all of the broken ones are smack in the center of high traffic areas so they were very visible and would otherwise mess up my pretty Christmas home for the holidays. We just can't have that!
DH and I have made plans to take our Christmas photo with both of our 5 month old baby black labs next weekend. We got home yesterday and they were both gone. DH & I were devasted. Pets can get so close to your heart in no time. After 4 hours of walking, screaming, driving and people all over in a 5 block area looking, we found them. Sorta. They decided to play in traffic on a nearby busy highway and were rescued by a loving lady who rescued them and called Animal Control. I put new collars on them a few days ago and had not switched over their tags to the new collars so there was no identification. I'm just waiting until I can go get them at 10a.m.. It will cost me about $300 to get them back. Now this little vacation of theirs certainly put a dent in my holiday funds. Honestly, I would have paid more to have my beautiful silly puppies back.
I did get my preliminary christmas card photo done though. of course only one out of four animals cooperated but that's what photoshop is for right? (also works for the 16yr old) 
