Okay now, I'll do my best to make this short (yeah, right)? So let's see, the lady I've been dating, Gloria aka my OO, has only been to my house 4 or 5 times when we started dating this past Thanksgiving, and then I began noticing that she just doesn't want to come over here anymore. By the way, she's taken to calling me her OO. OO!!! I'm not always the sharpest knife in the block, but I kinda figured she really didn't like my narrow path through the construction (someday) materials and debris, and all my piles upon piles of crap. We hang at her house, which is immaculately clean, orderly and very nicely decorated. Or we cross the street and hand with her brother, a really nice guy. And his house is immaculately clean, orderly and very nicely decorated in most manly kind of way. I thought her not coming over to be the cat's meow. I hated trying to clean up anytime I had a date coming over. Impossible task. So since she stopped coming over to my place, I had no reason to even pretend to clean. I was one happy camper. Golly gee, I sures does love this here a bachelor livin'. Blue and I get along just fine, thank ya. She brings in all sorts of treasures from the backyard -- big sticks, bones, tumbleweeds. Me and Blue have an understanding. I don't make her clean up her messes if she doesn't make me clean up mine :) Yes, I have a point somewhere. So I'm working on my Miata camping trailer, actually building a folding platform on top of it that will hold a new deluxe inflattable double bed inside a 2 person tent (gotta have room for Blue to sleep next to me when camping). So I've got it all figured out, on paper anyway. But my platform has to be exactly the size of the two person backpacking tent I bought last summer that is still in the box I've never opened. And my deluxe inflatable double mattress, best you can buy mind you, came via UPS yesterday. So in between backflips and retrofitting this motorcycle trailer I bought last year, it dawned on me that I needed to set up my tent and new mattress to figure out how I'm going to tie it all down so I don't take off to Oz like Dorothy. A tent 4 feet off the ground could become airborne when one of those mountain storms blows in. Couldn't set it up in the yard, hell, it's worse back there than in my house. Logically, I need to set it up in my living room. I did that last summer with my shower tent. It stayed up for several months. Back to present. I had so many piles upon piles in my living room aka Blue's bone yard that I had no place to put up my tent. So I got enthused. Best reason ever to clean my living room. After all, I didn't want my tent to get dirty :) So I have this big white shag area rug I bought a couple years back when I was in my "decorating-myself-out-of-grief" phase, folded up in front of the couch so Blue wouldn't get it dirty when she comes in after swimming in the filthy water in what used to be my goldfish pond. Oh, Gloria did let it drop a week or two ago, that she would come over if I cleaned up the living room and put that white rug down over the oak floor that I'm going to someday refinish. Pulled the carpet out maybe 6 months ago? Floors just a tad bit dingy after being covered 40 years by wall-to-wall carpet. I did sweep it. But never mopped it. Needless to say, I don't go barefoot in my house. Works for me :) So, I need to get that big folded up carpet that you have to climb over to get on Blue's leather couch, to make room to set up my tent and brand new air mattress inside it. Only place to put the rug is under my bed. But I hadn't swept in there in over 4 months, and Blue (a Healer) sheds like nobodies business. I didn't realize it, but all that hair seemed to have migrated itself under the bed. So I had to sweep my bedroom, but first had to pick all my dirty clothes thrown about. Then I finally got the rug moved and hidden away, and actually picked up and swept my living room getting it all ready for my tent set-up today. I was enthused, so I even swept under Blue's couch. When I pulled it out from the wall, you won't believe what I found. There amongst 7 or 8 Blue toys and Blue tennis balls was, wait for it......, my friggin' tv remote I've been bellyaching about losing for what, the past 3 months? I found my tv remote!!!! What a great day this is turning out to be. Gotta go, got me a camp to set up in my living room :) Scottie