Lol, with my parents I always had the "but will you even notice it's gone?" thought, when wanting to get rid of stuff.

Maybe you have friends and neighbors who need to borrow lights?

I'm offering this as a way to get rid of them, not a reason to keep them.

But if you get rid of some, how will he create next year's masterpiece, which will be even better than this year's? He'll have to buy more lights!

Part of my thinking is that I need to organize it all when I repack it

So do I. I have my great-grandmother's ornament and about 10 ornaments from my parents' first Christmas together that I definitely want to keep. Otherwise, I've been moving into sort of a bird-themed decoration scheme (hokey, but I love it) and the avian acquisitions have crowded out a bunch of older stuff. I have a couple of boxes of unused ornaments that I should just donate to the PTA thrift store so someone else has the option of using them.

David, I'm so glad Matilda's winter trip is working out.

Darn it, Mac!

I have a few sets of lights, but for one reason or another, I didn't put the ones that often go in the window or along the porch roof up this year. I was talking to one of the newer neighbors and complimented him on the lovely lights he has up at his place. His response (clueless, I think, not malicious) was that he loved Christmas lights and wanted to have them before he was too old and unsteady to put them up. That was the night before my dentist appointment where I was told that a bit of gum recession was perfectly normal at my age. I really need to invest in a cane so I can shake it at all these young whippersnappers. Or maybe put up some lights.

FTR, laryngitis is ouchy and inconvenient. I have an 11AM appt with nutritionist and they said to go ahead and come in after discussing symptoms. I do appreciate medical offices that will text with you. I am supposed to take DIL to get her cast put on her fractured heel this afternoon but I'll give her the option of DH taking her instead just in case I am contagious. Blah. eta: DH said he rather I stayed home and was a bum and he would happily take her.

Oh no, Laura! I am crossing my fingers I don't get any of the many things that seem to be going around...

My deviled eggs made it to the office, only a little bunged up. I have in the past not filled them until I got where they were going, but I'm already going to be late to our lunch due to a late-breaking meeting, and didn't want to take the extra time. Oh well! They still taste good, I'm sure.

Yum deviled eggs would not be rejected by me for not being perfectly pretty.

Also, I steamed the eggs (per Kenji Lopez-Alt) and it really is amazing. So much faster, not boiling all that water, and they came out nearly perfect.

Yes, steaming eggs is the best!!

I finally have my desktop podcast listening application up on github.

[link]

It's only built for Linux at the moment, but it's still too rough for general usage anyhow. I'm using it and I like it, but it's still pretty bare.