Yes, Mudcat has been pretty slow on a consistent basis for the last couple of weeks. I think Max has restarted it a couple of times, I don't know if he's working on anything to speed it up.

I understand about the contents of the house. Yes, we have been removing stuff and only not finding more efficient ways to store it. I understand about the furnishings conundrum - it takes me a long time to get around to removing pieces. In the last year I donated a loveseat sofa that came from my best friend when she moved out of the area. It isn't the couch that is important, it is the memories of the kids "camping out" on that sofa in the living room when they were little, and those memories aren't gone. Someone else is now using that sofa who needed it more than I did. I have family antiques that will go to the kids, but I have a lot of "gray area" stuff that they probably won't need, so that is where I need to concentrate on my thinning. The next big thing to go is the futon in my front room. Yes, the dogs sleep on it now, but I've kept lots of layers of sheets and blankets on it to keep it from picking up an aroma. My daughter's housemate is moving in December and taking the living room futon, so my futon will go up there to replace it. I've given her other sizable pieces of furniture, and when she eventually gets ready to move into a house of her own or they somehow break up the household (she shares a house with four or five other students) then I might help her move it elsewhere, but not back here. With that gone my front room will be a lot more manageable.

SRS