I have a Toro leaf blower/vacuum. Shreds nicely for dry brown leaves, but freshly fallen autums leaves or wet leaves do not shred as well, they mainly get vacuumed up and partially broken. My pinecones are about 1.5 inches (daughter calls them the "baby cones") and we get plenty. I rake them out of my garden beds and lawn into a pile on the lawn. Then I use the leaf vacuum and suck them up. They chop up into a fine reddish brown mulch. Even applied in spring, these shredded cones have not led to any pine tree sprouts. The mulch smells nice if you like the smell of pine. WARNING - very dusty job. The bag that collects the shredded material will send out dust from the shredded pine cones, more than the dust from leaves. If there is a medium wind, I do it standing upwind of the bag so that the dust blows away from me. The earthworms LOVE the beds I have applied the pinecone mulch.

I'm sorry, but this time you lost me back at the bakery, er, I mean pantry. I know you need to nail down these last minute switcheroozies before Thursday's install, Sylvia, but without seeing a layout drawing from where you're starting, there can only be guessing. I also recognize that your descriptions and explanations sound perfectly clear to you but that's because you know what you are looking at, people here do not. It's truly amazing your contractor is still allowing changes this late in the game. He has so little leadtime left. Sounds like he's one heck of a guy in the customer satisfaction area. Lucky you!

DIlly-Dally have you ever gone into court and gotten a judgment against someone? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to collect on a judgment? Remember the tenant has moved out. Before you can collect you have to find them. You have to either find a bank account or find out where they work. Then you have to file for garnishment. If it's a bank account you have to refile each time you go into the account to garnish funds. Most people just change banks leading the collector on a merry chase. If they have moved out of state you can just forget the whole thing. You may have "won" in the courtroom but all you've actually done is paid a lot of filing fees and spent a bit of time for the "paper". It's not like on Judge Judy. LOL Yes there are statutes as to how much deposit a landlord can require for a pet. Actually in California their is no "pet deposit" In California under civil code section 1950.5 "pet deposits" are considered as part of the security deposit. The landlord can only collect a security deposit with the following maximums: Unfurnished rental unit: The total amount that the landlord requires as security cannot be more than the amount of two months' rent. If you have a waterbed, the total amount allowed as security can be up to two and-a-half times the monthly rent. Furnished rental unit: The total amount that the landlord requires as security cannot be more than the amount of three months' rent. If you have a waterbed, the total amount allowed as security can be up to three-and-a-half times the monthly rent. Let me tell you. It can eat up a lot more than two months rent to repair the damage one peeing cat can do. Plus the landlord is out of the rental income during the extra time it takes to get the property ready for the next tenant.

About a week and a half ago I shoved every bit of sewing detritus to the back end of my huge cutting table and brought out the wrapping paper. This was fine while I was wrapping gifts. Then the DH and the DS went into my studio to wrap gifts. I may never see the table again, LOL. Paper scraps, ribbon bits, tape on the cutting mat, and where the heck did they hide by 6 1/2 square ruler??!! I must find that before I hit it with the rotary cutter. I usually use the day after Christmas as a day to sort and play with new fabrics (DH bought me (5) 1/2 yard cuts and a 2 yard cut of gorgeous fabrics this year - he knows the way to my heart), but it will have to wait this year. I love taking this time of the year to sort and organize. BUT - my son has a new girlfriend. She's gone for the holiday, of course (they are seniors at UT Austin), but she will be back on Monday. He wants decorated cookies to take to her. I have plenty of gingerbread cookies baked (I give them to the neighbors), but he was serious - he wants to decorate them himself, because Krisztina doesn't believe that he can. He's really quite good at it. So I'm going to be up to my ears in royal icing in several colors - I mix, he decorates, LOL. Here are some he did last Valentine's Day (for a former girlfriend).