Just rattling your chain, Rob! What a weird expression. Or is it "rattling your cage" or "yanking your chain" . . . ? Anyway, it's good to hear from you again.

I just made a huge blunder. A while back, I bought some perfect fabric to recover two ottomans I have. I was planning on doing it one way, and bought plenty of fabric. So then I decided to do it another way, and was convinced I had enough fabric. Let's just say I hope the store still carries the fabric.

My new dining room and chairs (and "impulse" couch) are being delivered on Thursday. I was really starting to sweat it a little. I gave away my old table and chairs (my mother's set; I think I mentioned this) to a friend of mine. So, I was left with no place to sit down and eat. Now that we've decided to stay home for Thanksgiving, I was worried that we'd have to eat Thanksgiving dinner in front of the TV.

Today's a shopping day for me, too. Yes. AGAIN! DH wants to buy me a nice anniversary gift, and who am I to let him down? We're leaving later this afternoon, and then meeting friends of ours for a nice dinner and a restaurant I've never been to before. Tonight was supposed to have been our anniversary dinner, but the friends were free tonight so we invited them to join us. We can go out fancy another night.

So here's a stumper for you. (Why do I get in these moods some days when I just jump from topic to topic with no apparent rhyme nor reason?) Either our dog or our cat is suddenly having "bathroom" issues at night. It's typically on a rug, so we've now taken up every rug in the house. So last night, yet again, there was an accident on the oak floor in the family room.

We really can't figure out if it's our 2-year-old dog or our 16-year-old cat. Each time I'm convinced it's one, the other one does something that makes me think it might be that one.

We let the dog out right before bed and leave her out until she's "finished." It really shouldn't be her. But the cat has never done anything like this before.

So if it's the dog, how do you break a dog of peeing in the house at night? I'd hate to crate her again. We've been trying to lock her in our bedroom at night. It's carpeted, but she doesn't seem to have accidents (if it's even her) in there.

Ideas? Both have had urinary tract infections in the past. I'd try to get a sample to take to the vet, but then still wouldn't know which one to medicate.