Over the last couple days we've made quite a few decisions about what we're going to be doing over the next couple weeks: many house projects.

Today we went to Lowe's and arranged for delivery of a hardwood floor that we'll install in the big front room and hallway; an installation of new carpet in the media room; the delivery of slate tiles for the kitchen; delivery of several hundred pounds of stucco mix with which to coat our yard's retaining cinder-block walls.

Plus we're going to finally replace not only our rather aged, not-working-very-well double walloven with a single walloven (after building the carpentry to deal with the size difference and adding cabinets in place of one unit), but also a new dishwasher that's modern, quieter, more energy efficient, and capable of executing a delayed start.

So changes, they are a-coming. And so are many guests for Thanksgiving week. I expect we'll be done well before then, so there's always the baby room to work on if we get bored.