Oh Demi, you are my kindred spirit. I relate so well to your tears over that sofa. That being said, I have had to force myself to let items leave my capable hands. I felt as though it was my duty to keep the items left behind by my entire deceased family. I have items from three aunts, a mother and father, a first cousin and a sister. Did I mention that my aunts saved everything that shined? Sigh. I had quite a collection of very well cared for and loved antiques. I have managed to give a few things away, but I still do not have the ability to rid myself of the bulk of it. This situation is not like yours. You have one lovely item, that I am sure will find someone to care and love it. Me? Well, my situation requires purging and I know it. This summer for sure. All of these keepsakes are not the memories of my husband and sons and it is unfair to make them live buried by some of these things. Heck, some of it I don't even remember seeing at my relatives' houses! Like you, everyone knew that I was the sentimentalist and kept giving me stuff. We both need to be selective. Let's repeat the mantra: You can't keep everything. As I said, this summer for sure.

I never put paper items in my trash especially things with my name on them. My garbage is mostly kitchen stuff and cat litter. I recycle paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and cans. I don't use my composter anymore because of the rats found in our neighbourhood this summer. I use grocery store bags for my garbage and have it hanging on a hook on my landing out of reach of the cats and dog. As soon as it is full, I tie it up and put it in the plastic garbage pail outside my side door and take the pail to the curb on garbage day. I put my bag of cat litter in my neighbour's Herby Kerby with his permission because sometimes the garbage man won't take away the trash if he sees a bag of it in the pail. We are supposed to bury it and not put it in the garbage but who does that? Tonight though because it is still windy I got a big green garbage bag and went outside and took all the grocery bags of garbage out of the pail and put them into the bag and out to the curb. I put the cat litter in it too. LOL The garbage man tends to leave the pail on the road instead of my lawn. My pet peeve about the garbage man is why do they always break my pails. I am one person and don't have a lot of garbage so my pail isn't heavy. They break the handles off, or they toss it so much that the sides break. I can't use my wheeled garbage pail anymore because the handles have broken off and they took away the lid. LOL I use a shorter green plastic pail now and they even broke this one. Anne

There is a bagel shop spittin' distance from my house that is called New York Bagels. Back in the 70s the owner went to New York and apprenticed to learn how to make bagels. He came back and opened this shop. To this day, they are the best bagels in Houston. I can't personally say how they compare to real actual NY bagels because I haven't done any comparison tests - I admit that when I visit NY, bagels aren't my highest priority! However, I've been told by multiple people who have lived in NY that they are right on par with the best NY bagels, if not better. Comparing bagels in NY vs Montreal is probably a lot like comparing BBQ in Texas and N. Carolina. Both of them have the same name and SOME of the same basic ingredients but the similarities stop there. It's a regional difference. And the variety should be celebrated IMO, not fought over! LOL

No idea how you did this...kinda cool...if you stick to targeting actual spammers. Too bad you chose the wrong post to practice on *sigh* bless ya for tryin' tho!