Things to do

I haven't been getting a whole lot done this week, apart from puttering around the house attempting to clean things up a little ahead of Saturday's party. I did get to the Container Store yesterday to get parts for the new kitchen island and shelves in the front bathroom (taking advantage of their 30%-off Elfa sale). But I somehow ended up with the wrong side-rails for the island (one of their basket-drawer towers, with a butcher-block top). So that brings us to the first to-do item.

( the list: most readers will want to skip this )

Monday's a holiday, but Saturday's almost completely eaten up by the party (If you're reading this, you're invited). Unfortunately I've been a little under the weather most of the last two weeks -- I didn't really notice how little energy I had until I got it back.

The season of giving

I'm a horrible procrastinator; for the last couple of years I've mostly "handled" charitable contributions by letting the begging letters pile up until the end of the year, then paying them all at once, usually at the last possible moment. (There's actually some logic to this -- I get paid on the last work day of the month, so I have two paychecks to draw on. Also, this year there are some tax advantages to payments made between August and the end of the year, thanks to hurricane Katrina.)

Nevertheless, I may have to reconsider for next year -- 31 contributions so far, plus a couple I want to discuss with the flower_cat in the morning, ranging from $17 to $150. That doesn't count a couple of ongoing "just charge my credit card every so often" items. It's not so much the total amount as the time it takes to sort a whole file box of envelopes, cull the duplicates, decide which to support (about 2/3 or more of the total, I think), write the checks, lick the damned envelopes, and apply the stamps and return address stickers.

By the way, if you design mailings for a charity, please make sure that your reply envelope is big enough for a standard check, and for your reply form as well. And if you call somebody and they say they'll give you a contribution, but only if you don't call them again, take them off your call list! Just a suggestion.