Re: warning signs: from Chapter Three of the Ellsworth book, it looks like there was talk about his stepmother's death when he was fourteen. He also killed his neighbors' dog.
Xopher, I have heard good things about grout sealant reducing the required clean-up time for porous grout. (Second-hand advice, take it for what it's worth.)
Kitty litter also gets used by a lot of automotive shops as a clean-up material for spilled oil/antifreeze/what-have-you. It's similar enough to Speedi-Dri, but cheaper. (And -- full circle -- it looks like the makers of Speedi-Dri recommend it for deodorizing cat boxes!)
Other cleaning hacks:
If your shower is made out of a flat, non-scratching substance, you may be able to clean built-up soap scum more effectively by scraping the shower with an old plastic card (think Frequent Burrito Eater card or the like). Hold the card at a 15 degree angle and scrape. You'll still need to scrub to get rid of all the soap scum, but it really cuts down on the time. They also make razor products that can do this, but they're expensive and more likely to injure your shower. (Note: test an unobtrusive section of the shower first to make sure the card won't scratch. Some stainless showers will.)
Hydrogen peroxide (the medical stuff) works as a nifty cleanser. Downside: it isn't usable on marble, for obvious reasons.
Treated yellow dusting rags (or regular rags sprayed with dusting stuff) really are better at removing dust than old T-shirts. So are microfiber cloths. For inexpensive microfiber cloths, check out the auto detailing section of your local big box retailer. They're the same cloths as in the dusting section, but much cheaper. (Also, they wash well.)
I live down in Boston now, but I'm originally from a little town not far from Belfast. Everything in that article and everything said by their source is consistent with what I've heard from former employees about BoA's practices at the Belfast call center.
@#8: 25 years? Yowch. That's way beyond the statute of limitations for most debts.
Yeah, one of the Boston area radio stations (WZLX) is doing an Inauguration Day special on "The Change We Need: Top Songs from Z to A!" (It's a change because usually they go A to Z, you see.)
One of my Earth and Planetary Science professors used to call global warming the present experiment. (As in, "We don't know what happens when atmospheric CO2 triples, but the experiment's already started.")
I've always just gone with anthropogenic climate change, which (a) nails down the anthro part, and (b) preempts the jackasses who want to argue about how Boise, Idaho was colder last year than in 2006 and what do I think about that, huh?
Walking on ice: during the massive ice storm in Maine back in the late 90s, my father made my mother a pair of ice boots by taking tiny metal screws and screwing them into the treads of an old pair of hiking boots. They worked fairly well. (Staying off the ice would have been better, of course, but they'd been iced in for three days at that point, and they needed to be able to get to the brook for water and the woodshed for wood.)
Re: wool mittens: I second the suggestions for felting/fulling. I'd get someone to knit them three sizes too big (and four sizes too long), felt the crap out of them, and then go over the outsides with an electric razor to remove any remaining fuzz. I have a pair of alpaca mittens that have been slowly felting, and as they felt they pick up less snow (although I have not shaved the fuzz, which is turning into a tremendous halo around the mittens).
Re: spinning cat hair: I've spun fur from my parents' long-haired Maine Coon mix, mostly as a proof-of-concept. It takes a great deal more fur than you think it will but it's doable. The downside is that the fur has a short staple, felts quite easily, and has very little crimp/resiliance; I think mixing it 50-50 with wool would make it much more usable.
Also on the topic of things to do with cat fur -- this is arguably kind of gross -- you can make a little felted ball out of the cat's fur. (Out of my parents' cat's fur, anyway.) Brushing her generates huge piles of fur, so I once tried forming it into a ball and rolling it between my palms. It felted into a neat little ball, and without any soap or heat.
The BBC has more details, and confirms that the reporter was beaten in custody.
To explain that question: I've had both stomach-not-actually-flu and full-on doctor-confirmed influenza, and I vomited with both. When I had influenza, the vomiting was during the first 24-48 hours only. I had no idea it wasn't a normal symptom for influenza.
I've long suspected that my body tends to hit the "Vomit!" button more readily than average, though.
I'm curious: where does vomiting fit on there? Is it just not that common a symptom for flu?
I had the flu last year. I travel a great deal and have allergy-induced asthma, so I'm usually good about getting a flu shot, but last year I'd been sick through most of vaccination season, and somehow I never managed to get it together and get the shot.
I also hadn't planned ahead for being sick, which meant no broth, juice, Vitamin C, tissues, etc. At least I had toilet paper and painkillers.
This year I got my flu shot in O'Hare Airport (giving flu shots in major airports is a fabulous idea). I've doubled my minimum inventory levels for TP, tissues, juice, and broth, and added a backup supply of applesauce, canned fruit, painkillers, guaifenesine, Vitamin C drops, and similar items.
I'm not going to say I'm ready for the flu or anything, but if I do have it get it, at least I know it'll be easier to deal with than it was last year.
Yes. The total amount reportedly taken was $14 million, of which $1.5 or 1.6 million was taken from California residents; California's settlement is $3.5 million, which is larger than the amount taken because it includes fines and penalties.
There's a clearer article at Consumer Affairs.
(Ack. Actual settlement size in CA was $3.5 million; potential total settlement size is $18 mill. Just to clarify.)
@#132: that they're small-time crooks looking to do the equivalent of occasionally stealing a couple dollars you leave lying around?
No need to add the "equivalent" in that sentence, actually. Citigroup recently made a $18 million settlement in California for sweeping customers' positive account balances into their general fund. They reportedly took over $14 million, which puts them a few steps above small-time.
On buying cars: Remar Sutton's book Don't Get Taken Every Time was tremendously helpful when I bought a car earlier this year, and I highly recommend it.
@ #115: Credit-card companies moving up their due dates: one of my card companies did that to me a few years back. I paid the card one day late as a result of their sleight-of-date and got smacked with a $29 late fee.
I called to complain and they took the late fee off. Fees are a major source of revenue for them, but they do back down in individual cases if they're afraid they'll lose your business. (They won't take fees off if you make late payments on a regular basis, of course.)
I also got my bank to refund two $5 monthly account maintenance fees they charged me because my savings account balance went below the arbitrary $500 limit (which didn't exist when I opened the account) for two days which just happened to be October 31 and November 1. It's worth making a call.
I have similar pant issues. What makes it even more frustrating is that most of the brands that tend to hold up well (Eddie Bauer, Ann Taylor, LL Bean, etc.) don't fit me at all, while the brands where I can find things to fit (Target, H&M) last only a season, if that, before spontaneously turning themselves into dustcloths. Bah.
I found a pair of cords that fit at Old Navy yesterday, which is deeply weird; their pants have never fit me. And since the same size of the same model pant *didn't* fit in a different color, I've come to the conclusion that the pants that fit were unmarked irregulars, made to the wrong measurements.
They're comfortable, I just wish they'd screwed up the measurements for me in a color other than dark gray.
@#72: New-mown hay is phosgene, I think.
@#61: Central heating plants in the States are generally only found at colleges or in the city centers of older cities. (I know Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia have steam available in some areas as a utility; not sure about other cities.)
Otherwise, you don't really see CHPs in the states. Even a fair number of the multi-building apartment complexes in the US tend to use individual heating units for each apartment. It's too bad, because a CHP would be much more efficient.
What Rikibeth said.
My apartment is in a converted Victorian house and has natural gas heat delivered via radiators, an electric stove, and electric hot water. Heating here generally is probably 50-50 natural gas to #2 fuel oil. Some newer apartment complexes do have electric, but it's not common; our winters are cold enough that baseboard electric heat isn't all that cost-effective, and AFAIK heat pumps can't really handle this kind of cold.
I'm originally from Maine, which is where you start finding kerosene (Monitor heaters) and wood as heating methods.
Massachusetts requires CO detectors in all rental units. I've got one.
If you're worried about CO, Amazon sells a First Alert detector for $19.88. I hear they make great Giftmas presents.
Another poison-injection-opportunity I remember from my OSHA training: getting cut with broken glass from a poison container.
I saw hydroflouric acid baths in a factory once, and they terrified me. Half of our OSHA training was horror stories about what chemicals will do to you if you don't watch out, and the hydroflouric acid stories were especially terrifying. (The other half was dangling from wires, looking at the dents in the ceiling from when the instructors chopped the top of that compressed air bottle, and all that good stuff.)
@#7: I'd worry more about the TCE than about the silver epoxy. TCE is nasty stuff.
(Sorry about that -- just got error messages, didn't realize hitting reload would also double-post)
Here in Massachusetts, CNN is predicting that ballot question one will not pass and the state will keep the income tax. Fingers crossed that they're right on this one!
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| 2006 | 20 |
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