On Monday's strip, the hermaphroditic midget claiming to be 'Deanna' expressed a desire to renovate the kitchen of the Pattermanse only to have Michael whine like a toddleexpress his concerns. Now, we see Deanna run ragged as a direct result of her lousy parenting skills. This tends to suggest to me that she might, shall we say, put any such ambitions on hold for a while. Perhaps to the day where her children could be trusted to be mature enough not to require constant supervision. Owing to her Elly-like failure to set real bounds on her children's behavior and Mike's hateful, John-like refusal to have ANYTHING to do with his children that isn't fun, that day will sadly never arrive. I can readily see Elly commiserating with her daughter in law about renovation plans that she never had the time for. I also know that, like everything else human beings create, houses (especially if they're not maintained adequately) can reach a point when it may be more cost-effective to simply scrap them and start fresh. This means that by the time Mike and Dee consider retiring, they'll do so in a condo closer to the city while watching a DVD of the Pattermanse's demolition.