And people have broken down in tears over many, many windows. There are windows that aren't square. There windows with many bracket holes drilled over the years, none of which quite match with your brackets but keep your screws from getting a good grip.

I wouldn't recommend nails, though. They'll pull out eventually.

Thank you for all of that! I may try again.

I have been told that you can wedge epoxy putty into old screw holes and put the new screws right into that without even letting it dry. I haven't actually tried it yet, but I have the putty. The guy at the hardware store recommended coating the screws with WD-40 if you want to be able to get them out again later.

I don't have old screw holes, more's the pity. The previous brackets were on the inside part of the window that got removed. Which also means my old shades are too wide. I bought some new, but not all new. Wah.

Well, yay someone else taking care of it, of not today.

And I do feel I need to say - those little round tins that TJ's chocolate comes in? I'm pretty sure I really do need a zillion of those.

I am a horrible mother. I dared to meet Mac's flight with frozen yogurt. You know like the worst thing ever.

Irredeemably evil.

I have been told that you can wedge epoxy putty into old screw holes and put the new screws right into that without even letting it dry.

That would probably be better than the traditional method I use -- toothpicks and glue.

I've used a lot of toothpicks and glue! Works wonders for stripped holes. I've used both, but I always have toothpicks and wood glue handy.

Toothpicks was the first thing I was going to try but I was out of toothpicks.

There is a moth problem at work (which is a HUGE problem for the costume department) and it seems they are breeding in some of the cardboard, so we are in the process of getting rid of all the cardboard. I spent $2000 on various plastic bins which has taken care of maybe 75% of one of our storage areas. It going to take a while to get to all of it.