Mission Complete

Removal of the porch bird is now complete. It is a very good thing that Abby has a soft side collapsible hamper, which worked well as a net. We are now back to 3 people and a dog in the house. No pests (knock on wood).

Here's another cute Abby in her Brazilian outfit. She is going to start packing her bag for Florida as soon as the 10 day forecast for the 24 comes out. We can't wait!

We started the car hunt yesterday. What a monumental task! Right away our first pick became close to our last pick. We took a Jeep Patriot out for a drive and decided quickly that it was a little too narrow in the backseat for a car seat and an adult (or in the future for two car seats and an adult or a car seat and a dog or any other combination). If it weren't for the cramped back seat, then it would still be a good choice. We also climbed into a Jeep Compass, which had less leg room in the backseat than the Patriot and was a no go. The Jeep Liberty seemed to be about right size wise, but we didn't drive it, just climbed in, so we don't know how that would ride. We also checked out a Ford Escape and thought it was pretty good, except that it wasn't as nicely made as we'd hoped (some wires and such were visible in the back and there wasn't as much space under the front seats for the backseat passenger to use for stretching out legs). It's a good thing Steve and I aren't too picky - we will be happy with whatever car we manage to find that has the space we need and falls into our budgeted amount and mileage (odometer, not gas mileage) requirements. Abby was a very good test rider yesterday, except that somewhere at the Jeep dealership she lost a boot and we were never able to find it. So, after all the testing we ended up at Walmart to buy a new set of shoes for Abby's little feet.

We are also cleaning for company. Those of you who know me well know that I don't place cleaning in my list of priorities very often - I'd rather spend time with people and helping others than being meticulous about having sparkling clean floors, counters, etc. In my mind there isn't going to be a crown in heaven for the person with the cleanest house, so I might as well focus my attention in areas where I can make an eternal difference. That being said, we are having company up next weekend, so cleaning is temporarily on the priority list. While we were cleaning out our single downstairs closet to make room for the Christmas decorations I found two old afghan starts. One was already big enough for a crib afghan, so Abby won that maroon and white beauty (the pattern isn't finished, so it looks a little odd, but then again I like odd, so it works). The other is being pieced together and stitched up, since it was a large granny square pattern. It's not quite baby colors, so we will have to see what I can do with it when it is done. And now... back to all that cleaning.