I spent today at my parents house, helping my mom, offering my services to organize and declutter (my forte) the basement. We made a significant dent in throwing away things of little value, four large garbage bags worth were put out to the curb. We created several bins to either make their way to a flea market or be donated, my mom hopes to make a few pennies from some of the items with utility. And there are far fewer cardboard boxes storing items in an attempt to eventually move all items into plastic storage bins. It is a basement, it can get damp, and I strongly advocate using all plastic containers for storage. We got a lot done together and made significant progress. We ended up having a nice old-fashioned sit-down family dinner together, each sitting in our traditional seats at the dining table that we used to always sit in when we were young. Mom at the head of the table, Dad to her left, me to her right, Joe next to Dad and Steve to my right. My other brother Dave always sat at the foot of the table, but he wasn't there. I need to make a better effort on getting over to my parent's place more often, either to help out on some project or just visiting for dinner.