EQ

I just got new glasses. The prescription was:

....Sph....Cylin...Axis...Add......PD

R..+1.25...-1.50...100...+1.75...31.5

L..+1.75...-2.00...076...+1.75...32.0

The glasses came with a card showing what I assume were the actual measurements of the lenses I received

....Sph....Cylin...Axis...Add......PD

R..+1.22...-1.40...100...+1.72...31.4

L..+1.69...-1.84...076...+1.72...31.9

These were VSPs "Unity PLx" progressive lenses, where the marketing hype says, "Freeform technology uses state-of-the-art lens processing equipment and advanced digital lens designs to deliver the most precisely crafted prescription possible. Customized UNITY lenses can be created to address your patients’ specific visual requirements, within 1/100 of a diopter" blah blah blah.

Given that, some of those numbers seem further off than I was expecting. I'm also having a hard time adjusting to these glasses, though they aren't my first pair of progressives. I seem to have a much narrower field of clear vision than with my old pair, and it... well, hard to explain, but it doesn't seem to be in quite the right place.

Do those measurements seem within a normal, expected range compared to what my prescription called for, or should I add this to my list of reasons for being suspicious that these glasses aren't very well made (eg, I don't think I got the Crizal coating I paid for, either)?

Last Tuesday I adopted a kitten. She has an upper respiratory infection, which so far hasn't been too bad. But this morning she had some green discharge from her nose--which I no longer see--and is having more trouble breathing. She's snorting a lot. I know she was drinking well as of this morning, not sure about eating.

Of course, it had to be on a Sunday. I THINK she's ok to wait until the vet opens tomorrow (and she has an appt Tuesday anyway). I'm reluctant to go to the emergency clinic because I've been hearing bad things about them lately, especially about being left waiting for hours--plus it's a half hour away. That sounds like a lot of stress and not much help, so if it can wait a day I'd rather.

Obviously she's piled on a bacterial infection, but does it require an emergency clinic visit today? I can make sure she's getting food and liquid with a feeding syringe, and I'm taking her in a steamy bathroom periodically to help her breathe.

Does anyone know when the actor William Gaminara was born? I can't seem to turn up any info online.

I have a great landlord, but I do occasionally run up against a few idiosyncratic ideas about home maintenance on his part. I need to know if this is one of them.

The caulking around my tub (between the top of the tub and the tile) has a chronic mildew problem, and is actually coming up. He wants to just take it out--he claims the caulking is unnecessary because the flange around the top of the tub, behind the tile, keeps it from leaking.

I'm sure this is not right, but I need a clearly articulated argument of why. He's an older guy who, while very nice, doesn't love being corrected by a girl, so I need to be clear and definitive in order to not be brushed off.

We've decided to go ahead and sign up for Comcast Internet service, which means tackling setting up a home network. I'm pretty mystified by the range of equipment choices.

Our situtation: one desktop on second floor and one notebook on the first floor--pretty much directly below. Desktop is about 2 years old, notebook in process of being replaced with new one. Looking at 6mb Comcast service, but may replace it with Verizon FIOS once that hits our area.

I had looked at the Motorola SBG1000 Gateway, but I'm thinking the all-in-one isn't a great idea if you need to upgrade or replace one part of it. So now I'm looking at the Motorola SB5120 modem and the Linksys WRT54GL router.

Any reason these are or aren't good choices? Anything I should consider?

I have an 18 yo cat. He has serious hyperthyroid, high blood pressure, arthritis, and his vision is bad. His kidneys are OK but on the downward slide, and his liver is iffy.

Every time I go to the vet they say, "Well, he's not getting better. Let's adjust his medications, and bring him back in 3 weeks--plus I'd like to add another medication." These visits and tests run me close to $200, and of course they never have a clue what the medications cost. I've been through this several times now.

Well, he's not going to get "better"--he's 18! What will all these adjustments really achieve, besides costing a fortune and denying me the chance to really deal psychologically with the fact that my cat is slowly dying. But they only write the prescriptions for a few weeks at a time, so I have to go back.

Can I/should I say I don't want to do any more blood panels, and insist they just renew the prescriptions he's on for some reasonable period like 6 months?

Periodically he will go to Kinkos and have them bind little books of the stuff, which he gives to everyone he knows. It is really, really awful stuff.

I will say something like, "Thanks for sharing that with me, it was nice to get such a personal gift, and it looked really professional the way you had it bound and everything!" But inevitably I'm directly asked, "How did you like my poetry?"

I'm a terrible liar, even the "little white lies." I try to spin something positive-sounding that isn't a total lie, but I wind up stumbling and stuttering and, well, it doesn't sound so good.

Even if I straight-up lie and say it was great (which I can't do well), I know there will be tricky follow up questions about what I liked about it and which one I liked (and they're too awful to read them all). Any suggestions? I need a positive-sounding but evasive answer! (This is an adult, BTW)

Where does she get off saying money is being wasted looking for the lost climbers on Mt Hood? Besides the fact that practically every "fact" she cited is wrong, why is this any of her business? Why does she feel that she has to open her big mouth to comment on every little thing she has no idea about?

And WOW, could she possibly be more insensitive to these families who just found out their loved one is dead, or about to be left for dead? Do you really have to voice every idiotic, heartless thought that flits through your head on national TV?

Is anyone else disgusted and infuriated by this? Why do they keep giving her shows?

http://www.katu.com/news/local/4968916.html

Like Wm. for William or Thos. for Thomas (actually, those are the only two I can think of). They're not nicknames, they're not initials... is there a word for it?

My husband brought home a big frozen bag of "medium precooked beef ravioli" from a restaurant supply store. I want to make it with a 25 oz bottle of pasta sauce I have on hand, but I don't know how much ravioli to prepare for that much sauce.

Since the ravioli has to be boiled before mixing it with the sauce, I can't just keep adding it until it looks like the right amount--I have to weigh out the right amount before cooking.

Any ideas?

I have MusicMatch 10.1. I have gone into the properties for each CD drive and, on the Autoplay tab, selected "Take no Action" for music files and music CDs. In Exact Audio Copy, I have selected "Disable CD Autostart for audio and data CDs while EAC running." Yet every time I put a *&#$ CD in, even with EAC running, MusicMatch launches and starts playing it! Even holding the shift key down while putting the CD in isn't guaranteed--I hold it forever, but the second I let go, half the time MusicMatch launches.

How can I turn this off? I HATE the stupid buggy MusicMatch, which causes no end of problems on the computer in general, and don't use it, but DH paid for it and does. So deleting it isn't an option.

I'm using Exact Audio Copy (V0.95 beta4) with LAME (V3.97 beta2) today. I went to re-rip a CD for my husband that was somewhat damaged and didn't come out to well when he did it with MusicMatch at 128 CBR. He needed a small file size, so I used the V5 setting (specifically, the entire command line was -V 5 --vbr-new --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tg "%m" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d).

This should have given me a bitrate ranging from 110-150, averaging 130, according to Hydrogenaudio. The bitrates I saw in the lower left corner of the LAME window as it encoded were almost all in the 150s, and went as 165 or more. The final file size was 76.7MB, vs 65.8MB for the Music Match rip.

If it means anything to you, the disc was disc #3 from the box set Led Zeppelin.

What's up with this? Why was most of what I saw above what I thought the upper limit was supposed to be?

Is there anywhere in the Portland area that sells Utah Apple Beer? Ideally East County, but anywhere in the general area, or even anywhere between here and Seattle.

I know I can order it online (http://www.applebeer.com/), but I'm looking for a place to buy locally.

I've been thinking of getting one of these, but couldn't believe they stopped including an AC adapter. I already have drawers full of adapters for various gadgets--might one of these work, and how would I know (other than the plug fitting, are there power specs or something?)

Also, I know the AC adapter charges much faster than via USB. Does the quick charge have any impact on battery life? I think I remember reading once that quick charges shorten battery life (not the charge, the overall life of the battery).