Thank you, DtG, and that reminds me, time to let one of the usual suspects out of the digital hoosegow . . .

Despite years of decluttering threads (an homage to katlaughing who loved to read those) I do participate in the music threads (I need to get back to one - a Sandburg American Songbag project that Joe initiated). Every now and then someone living in an over-stuffed house emerges in the current thread and reveals their lurker status and USUALLY also reveals that they went ahead and did it - cleared out a room or a house. Makes the rest of us slow-motion declutterers feel like duffers, but it is nice to have inspired someone to get started.

There is always sound in my house - a radio in every room - and I have an extensive classical CD collection. I originally had a modest set but got lucky at an estate sale (300+ high end CDs in a 30-gallon bin with a disparaging handwritten note on top "All Classical.") I was examining the bin, wondering if I wanted to dive in, when the woman running the sale walked up and complained "I'll never sell those. $20 and the bin is yours." Sold, and it took two of us to lift and carry it to the truck. (Think about all of the high quality name brands out there - Naxos, EMI, DGG, Angel - they make up most of the contents.) Upon examining the collection I speculate that the original owner must have taught a music class in which various conductors' styles were compared and includes a remarkable sub-set of non-religious vocal classics.

My father was a folksinger (who loved classical) and I know many of his songs, but I am not a performer. I confine my music to the piano and the antique family instrument needs to be restored one of these days. I have my dad's extensive folk collection here and have slowly been working my way through notes and papers. He was also a retired reference librarian so the collection of obscure song books is the motherlode for researchers. I need to transcribe the reel-to-reel and cassette tapes and donate them one of these days (probably to the University of Washington, since Bob Nelson - Deckman - has already donated a number of performance recordings there that include dad).

Family-wise we're to the stage when the grown kids live elsewhere and we stagger our holidays on the calendar (this year the xmas eve/morning events are on Dec. 28 and 29). One runs a university computer lab, the other is a computer science geek for the one of the world's largest online retailers. Son and his girlfriend are at her parents home now, and they fly here early on the 27th. My daughter lives an hour north in a particularly active and vibrant college town. Several of them share a house, and she'll probably bring a friend down for the festivities. We plan to prepare three of their father's Puerto Rican recipes for xmas eve dinner so the kids learn some of their Abuela's recipes. Their dad lives nearby, it's one of those we-get-along-much-better-when-we're-no-longer-married situations and we do all of the major holidays together.

I still work full-time in higher education, though am planning to retire some day and move into a new job for a few more years. In January I will begin volunteer tutoring K-12 students in a program near my university; I'm an organic gardener and I cook most foods from scratch. I can (hot water bath process), freeze, and otherwise preserve much of what comes out of my garden and since the garden is in full view in the front yard I share produce with my neighbors. They don't see a jungle of tomatoes, okra, and eggplant, they see many summer meals in the works. I love the mudcat food threads (something that Rick Fielding was so brilliant at starting when he was here).

Will this work for you, Dave? :)