Yesterday I decided I needed a filing system. Tossing all bills and paperwork in a huge pile inside a cabinent may have worked when I was younger, but I'm a grown up professional homeowner now. For Pete's sake.

Mostly, my joints are failing at an alarming rate (a gift from my father's side of the family: we are tall, but arthritic) and sitting on the floor sifting through a small mountain of paper to find the one thing I'm looking for is getting not only too time consuming but painful.

I waited until the kittens were taking a nap, helped along by a pile of catnip, then I tossed all the paper on the floor and began sorting.

Everything important separated out in individual piles and one big ole "to be shredded" pile.

Holy actuary tables, Batman!! Do you know how much freakin' insurance you gotta have these days? I got your basic homeowners insurance, I got flood insurance, I should but don't have earthquake insurance, I have auto insurance, health insurance, dental, life, disability insurance, long and short term, nursing home insurance, and if I wanted it, I can now get cancer insurance. I have malpratice insurance. I've got one of those home warranty things that is essentially insurance for my appliances. I've got everything except the fridge and the cats insured!

By the time I realized I didn't remember to get file folders to put all these papers in, I'm tired, I'm sneezing out five year old dust mites and I'm in no mood for Highway 61 afternoon traffic. I call Jason and beg him to steal some folders from work, which he does not do, he stops like a good person and buys some on his way home.

So now, I have a nice, neat and tidy file box where my mountain o'paper used to be. It's like a grown up lives here or something.