Cat trouble. One of my cats just seems not to be able to keep from chasing the smallest cat in the house, who also happens to be one of my friend's cats (whose house, if you will recall, is where I am living). It doesn't seem the usual behavioral modifications (spray bottle, etc.) seem to have any effect. So now I am thinking of putting the kitty on Prozac. Yes, it has come to this. Well, I guess it's better than the prospect of seeing him live in the basement more or less for the next month or so, until I am back in Rochester.

Speaking of moving, I discovered a couple things messed up in my house-for-sale. Very minor, but the kind of things that should be addressed for show-- lawn overgrown, leaky external faucet (requiring some internal water-damage repair too, alas), but all easily fixed. However I went to a local large housing supply place and they gave me a reference to a contractor who, after looking at the stuff I wanted done, contacted me today with an estimate, which included $100 for lawn mowing my postage-stamp of a lawn and $400 for a simple gutter-cleaning (we're talking a total of maybe 15' of gutter here).

We didn't get very far into the conversation.

I called the painter who did my new paint job and hopefully he will be able to address these general issues for more reasonable compensation.

Lesson to be Learned (this will be particularly funny to those of you reading this who who live down here):
"Egads! Not even northern Virginia is safe from outrageous prices and those who think they can charge them!!"

Har, har, har....