Like you can control having cats on the counter? I have a large tea kettle of water that I always put over the last burner I used so there would be no accidental burned feet when I turned my back (I still do that, for general reasons now). We use Formula 409 around these parts. I give the dogs glucosamine and the friend I cat sit for gives her cats the same; it's inexpensive and it does seem to help with some of the arthritis onset or symptoms. (Hers comes in capsules that are pulled open and the powder sprinkled over food. The dogs get a treat-flavored tablet.)

Here's the ADHD circuitry when it comes to this year's overgrown garden areas: I have some cannas put in temporarily near the driveway (last year) needing to be moved to the other side of the house where I started a bed with some of them. That bed needs edging, and I need to get some stakes for the edging I have (stakes long lost or misplaced). I need mulch for the canna bed and for the garden. I get free mulch from a city park site (they call it compost though it is all wood chips) but I always overfill the bags and struggle to move them and don't use them easily so they sit in place (as I take a bucket over to fill from them) before they finally fall apart and the rest of the mulch goes into the nearest garden. I need to dig garden beds but the driveway cannas are in the way, etc. Most people see an easy starting point, but I can think that job in circles. This afternoon I decided to break the mulch part of the puzzle by taking a different tack and ordered a dozen burlap bags of a modest size (22" x 40") to use for the free compost. I put a tarp in the SUV to put messy stuff on and I should be able to fill a half-dozen or more of these bags and bring them home, all being a good size to carry without dragging or straining my back. No more large plastic contractor bags for now. I should also head to the local nursery and buy the stakes and stop bypassing that project.

I gave myself a break this weekend by deciding not to make the 2.5-hour round trip drive to the friend's birthday brunch. None of my other family members here were going to go (various health issues) and that drive all by myself - I have a lot of long drives on open roads left in me, but purposely spending a couple of hours driving around in Dallas traffic, no thank you. I sent her a note, she called, and she may be by tomorrow to pick up some flowers I picked that she wants to dry. (They're off of the elephant garlic - even in the trunk her car is going to smell like an Italian restaurant on the 5-hour drive west to where she lives now with her son. It beats the skunk we had in the house, though.)