The "corpse shovel-toss"!! TOO funny! We have groundhogs that expire due to "lead poisoning" & my husband gives them a "shovel ride" up the hill to a patch of loose sand that should have rows of headstones! The occasional former aquarium resident goes under the rose bushes, and we have lovely roses! For several years I house-sat in the country for the 1st 2 weeks of July each year. One year the resident dog (Blackie-I swear he lived to come up with mischief!) brought home a groundhog friend, only Mr. G had met with mayhem some time ago & resembled a furry basketball in appearance, and something VERY nasty in scent! Of course this was shortly before I was expecting guests for a picnic, so I grabbed the shovel & heaved Mr. G into the treerow. Blackie responded by bounding into the treerow & returning the foul carcass to me, all the while smiling (I swear!) and exclaiming What Fun! What now? I grabbed a large garbage bag & attempted to roll Mr G into it with the shovel while Blackie enjoyed trying to keep the carcass OUT of the bag! Finally I won the battle & the dog won a "time out" in his fenced area. Now I start to toss the bag in the back of my car until the smell hits me again & I say "In my CAR!? NO way!" Now what? In the end, I hold the bag out the open drivers window & drive slowly down the dirt road beyond the property where I pitched it down a ravine about a mile away! The dog had some fun, & Mr. G did not return!

Well, here it is Wednesday and still no official word. I spoke with my attorney's office on Monday and they are still trying to verify the closing on Monday. I am about to lose my mind. I think it is possible that my buyer's attorney is waiting for the other transaction to close (the buyer of his client's house) before he schedules the closing, but I can't even get confirmation of that! I am trying to stay calm but this is very disturbing. We have in our contract that if the house does not close by April 10th then we can back out. Of course we would have to give the buyer her earnest money back and the house would have to go back on the market and if there were any offers, they would likely be less than what we are getting now. I am disinclined to back out right after the 10th as long as I have a reasonable expectation that this will happen. My husband is saying that we shouldn't give them much time after the 10th to make this happen and should put the house back on the market and give her right of first refusal if we get an offer. My buyer does not have any other means to purchase the house and she has taken a big hit on hers. She wants the house, has been trying to move to this community for 2 years, so I know she is motivated. My emotions are in turmoil at this time.

Your two-tiered, pie crust edged table is also called a "dumbwaiter". First appeared in England in the mid 1700's... usually for displaying pastry shop wares and much reproduced and copied since. Furniture isn't my strong suit, but I'd pretty much agree with the above date time frame.

I inherited an IRA as well. Upon death it was put in my name w/my ss#.I mean really.... they want taxes from the living. Yes, my SSN is on the account now, but the paperwork that I was filling out for the new brokerage needed the SSN of the person I inherited it from. Apparently there are different rules for these inherited IRAs than other types of accounts. I can't believe how easy it was to find it on the National Archives site. I didn't even need her full date of birth or death to find it.