I'm paying for my sins today. Usually, when I entertain, rather than spend a few days actually cleaning, I spend a few hours "scooping." That's what I call it when, instead of carefully putting the clutter away, I just scoop it all into boxes and stash it out of sight. Now that my back pain is under control, I've been cleaning up storage areas.

Today, after straightening up the desk in my front room (I can sew!), I set to work on the closet in our home office. To my horror, I found a fruitcake. Who knows how long it has been there; I didn't make fruitcake last year, and I don't remember making it the year before that. It had been chewed to pieces by rodents, who left ample evidence in the box. I didn't sort that one box carefully. Dumping it into the black bin (that's the one that goes to the landfill, not recycling) seemed like the best thing to do with it.

Now I know why fruitcakes are traditionally stored in tins.