pre-holiday cleaning (lag)

Has anyone besides me hit the point where you're putting off certain types of cleaning because if you wait three more days you won't have to repeat that cleaning between now and the holidays (when you may be hosting people at your home)?

I have the additional excuse that I probably have workmen coming in and out of my house between now and three days from now, but I stil feel like a bit of a slob.

On another note, Bill and I seem to have slipped into that frustrating vortex where it feels like we're constantly doing laudry or folding laundry (or moving unfolded laundry back off the bed because we're just too tired to deal with it) and on the other hand we keep hitting lacunae of specific types of clothes. In my case, I've recently put holes in a few pairs of black socks and am seriously considering the black socks club people keep mentioning to Neil.

The happy news is that I found my favorite black shirt, which came up missing when we went to pack for our last Chicago trip -- I have started wrapping christmas presents and it turned out we used a couple of my shirts to protect something coming home from Chinatown in October.

car shopping

A couple months ago we narrowed my car search down to Volkswagon. I really like the german engineering and the look and feel of the cars along with various features. I've test-driven the Jetta, the Golf, and the Beetle.

Tonight I finally got a solid sense that the golf is not the car for me.

If I buy one of the cars currently at the local dealer, I'm deciding between a Galaxy Blue 2004 Beetle GLS and a Spice Red 2004 Jetta. Both are discounted for having been a service loaner or show car. Neither has more than 3000 miles on it and both would carry full new-car warranty.

Any thoughts?