BBRittz

Little bit of a long story here. My boyfriend decided to attach a hose to our ac drain pipe to collect water for our garden. His intentions were good, he was trying to conserve water, but I think it has thoroughly messed up our AC. It was 106 today where I live and by the afternoon I noticed that the house was way too hot. Our thermostat said it was 80 and climbing. Great. I climbed up in the attic, the drip pan was full. I went out back and took the hose off the drainpipe, and pulled a ton of orange slimy algae out of the pipe. It poured water for about five minutes straight, the drain pan emptied. Yet the AC still doesn't seem to be working. It's blowing, but weakly and the air is warmish. The house is still 80.

Tomorrow is going to be a 110 degree day, and it's going to take awhile before our landlord gets anyone here to fix it. I have two small children who were hot and miserable this afternoon. Can anyone give me suggestions as to how to fix this issue? My boyfriend is at work and will be until Thursday but I don't mind climbing in the attic and getting dirty if I need to. I just want to get this fixed before the house becomes an oven tomorrow.

Thanks in advanced for any advice!

Hello there!

I'm a firefighter and two days ago we responded to an electrical disturbance with smoke involved. It was a small apartment with an old couple living there. They had two dogs and a cat. Afterwards the homeowner approached me and asked if I was interested in taking his cat. With two dogs in the small apartment they just didn't have the time or room for her and he wanted to give her to a good home.

Well, how could I say no? Yesterday I went and picked her up. She's a one year old, blue-eyed, Siamese beauty with the most wonderful personality. However, very shortly after we brought her home her nose started running, and every once in a while she'll blow heavily out of her nose and green snot will come out. Today her fur is a bit crust from where she's been trying to clean herself and the snot has gotten on her.

Now, getting her here was very stressful for her. She panted like a dog the entire car ride and was extremely stressed out about being removed from the apartment. So I'm not sure if it's a stress reaction, or if she's possibly allergic to something in our home, or even a delayed reaction to the smoke from the electrical disturbance. Her little nose was not runny like this at the apartment went we went and got her.

We have a dog and another cat, 10 years old. She lived in the apartment with two big dogs so I'm doubtful that she's allergic to ours. I also have a three year old daughter and a 15 month old daughter, so we use all natural and mild cleaning products.

Does anyone know what this could be? I should also mention she's spayed and has all her shots and everything. She's still a little nervous but her temperament is great. She's not acting lethargic, she's eating and using the litterbox and playing.

Is there anything I should do to help her not be so snotty? I prefer natural methods for healing any living creature, but if this persists we will certainly be taking her to the vet.

Thanks in advanced for any tips and ideas. I'm worried about our new little furry family member!

Today is the last day of fire academy for my cadet class. I was planning on baking a cake for my fellow cadets, but last night two of them told me they don't like cake. So, I'm looking for fun baking ideas. Something that isn't cake or cupakes. Maybe an unusual cookie or brownie recipe? There are six cadets including myself and our two captains, so it's not a massive baking project.

Thanks in advanced for your ideas!

Ok...this is probably going to be a long story.

My boyfriend and I have been together for two years now. He's 29 and I'm 21. We found out that I was pregnant like 3 months into our relationship. He took me and my daughter from a previous relationship in, and we've been doing our best to make everything work. The relationship isn't perfect and we've definitely had our rough spots, but we're both trying very hard to make it work for the kids and recently things have been great.

In the later part of my pregnancy, my boyfriend's mother convinced him to move us several cities away so that we would be close to her. He agreed and we ended up moving when the baby was four weeks old. It was definitely a very hard transition for me because we now live in a place where I have no friends or family. We've been living here for a year now and I'm in a fire academy, about to graduate and become a volunteer firefighter.

The problem is, the entire reason we moved to this city (which we both hate) is because his mother swore up and down that she'd be here for us to support us and watch the kids if we ever needed a break. At first she was wonderful. She had us over all the time and watched the girls once or twice a month. We were close and she always said how she was so happy that I was the mother of her grandchildren, and that she considered my older daughter to be as much her grandchild as my youngest.

About five months ago, however, she started coming around less and less and then not at all. She never watches the kids, except for a few nights when I had training, and even then she made me either come over in the middle of the night when training was over and wake up the girls to take them home, or she would make me come get them at like six in the morning the next morning because she didn't feel like dealing with them. Every time we've asked her if she could watch them for a few hours or so that we could have a date night, she's made some kind of excuse about how she doesn't feel well or she just flat out doesn't feel like watching them. And she even made me miss a few nights of training and I almost got kicked out of the academy just because "she didn't feel like watching the kids."

She refuses to talk to me anymore and the very few times that I've seen her she acts like she can't wait for me to get away from her. We haven't had any sort of fights or anything so I don't know what her deal is. My boyfriend said he talked to her about it and she apparently said that I pulled away from a hug she tried to give me once. I don't remember doing that...I'm an extremely huggy person and am not the type to pull away from a hug. I have been extremely stressed out lately, though. Fire training has been so, so hard and my boyfriend works 48 hour shifts so I'm a "single" mom a lot. I've been asking for a break so that we could have a date night since December...just a few hours without the kids for my sanity but the woman refuses.

Now she's been inviting my boyfriend over and the girls (or sometimes just the youngest girl) but I'm not invited. She's been doing this a lot and I'm really hurt about it. She's been creating "family" functions that I'm not invited to...I'm angry and hurt and I don't even know how to deal with this. My own family was very dysfunctional and abusive so I don't know how to handle these kinds of situations. I don't want to make it worse...and I don't want to make my boyfriend mad at me by upsetting his mother if I say something wrong. I've asked him if he'd talk to her about it and he tells me to email her and not drag him into the middle of it. She's doing the whole "family function that everyone is invited to except for me" again tomorrow and I'm at my breaking point. I keep getting angry and then sad about it...I feel like crying at this point.

Also...just to clarify...I DO NOT expect or ask her to watch the kids a lot. I know they are my children and it is my job to raise them, of course. But in all honesty I feel like since we moved here just for her she should be at least obligated to watch them for a date night once every one or two months. I'm so strung out...I've been working so hard without a break for so long. What do I do? Is this fixable?

Sorry for being long winded...and thank you in advance for any answers or advice. :)

Feeling ill after training?

I am currently training in a fire academy for a volunteer department. Yesterday was a particularly brutal day. The sun was pretty harsh and we were in gear(50lbs) and airpacks(35lbs) for the vast majority of the day. Training went from 8a.m and ended around 6p.m. It was mentally exhausting as well as physically excruciating, as we were doing things like rescue buddy breathing and constricted movement. I knew it would be tough coming into this, but I guess nothing can really prepare you for how tough it actually is, and there's no guessing at what it's like to have all that gear on until you're there doing it.

I had to sit out of the last exercise yesterday because I was shaking uncontrollably and everything got spotty and swimmy. I was drinking a TON of water all day, although when my captain checked me out he said I wasn't sweating and that was a bad sign.

Today I feel absolutely awful. I'm incredibly sore, which is to be expected, but it's a sore like I've never felt before. Instead of an ache my muscles are burning, and every time I move and feel that burn a huge wave of nausea hits me. My head is still pretty swimmy and I get pretty dizzy if I stand up for too long. Headache all day and occasional disoriented. I've been on the couch a lot today. My temperature is weird...I start to feel way too hot and then I'm clammy and way too cold. I don't think I'm fevery, however.

Just a bit about me, I'm a 5 foot 4 female, I weight 123lbs. I eat pretty healthy, no caffeine or soda or fast food. Very little red meat. I have a gym membership and work out about 3 times a week outside of training, usually a 30 minute run, abs, and then I alternate days where I'll either do back/bi or chest/tri. I ran a Tough Mudder back in October and didn't feel this horrible afterwards.

Is this just exhaustion, or are these symptoms of incorrect nutrition? I'm trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again, because training is only going to get tougher. :)

Sorry for the long-windedness, and thanks in advanced for your answers!

This is going to be such a dumb question, I know. I grew up with just your standard, wood-burning fireplace. I'm living in my first house outside of my parents place, and it's just gotten cold outside for the first time. We have a fireplace, but I'm very confused about how to use it. It's got leftover ashes in the bottom, like the people who lived here before burned wood in it, but it's got a little door off to the side of the fireplace with a little nozzle, as if for gas. There's no gas logs....so I'm not sure whether or not I'm just supposed to burn wood in it or if I'll need gas logs or if I can just pop on the gas and light it and it'll work like a stovetop! Lol!

Thanks so much in advanced for any answers to my impeccably blonde question. I'd just like to have a cozy, warm house this morning. :)

My boyfriend's birthday is on Tuesday. I have very little money so I'm just planning on trying to make his day really special. Breakfast in bed, we're doing lunch with his mom, I'm hoping I can get her to watch our two kids for a bit so we can go play tennis or go to some batting cages.

Anyway, I'm trying to think of a nice, romantic dinner to cook him. I'm hoping to feed the girls and put them to bed a bit early and have a nice candlelit dinner, then afterwards maybe a nice candlelit bath! ;)

He's not really picky as far as food goes, and I'm willing to try anything. I was trained in all the cooking basics, so "hard" recipes don't frighten me off. I'm hoping to cook something really savory so he can eat like the king he is to me. :) Any ideas or recipes are very greatly appreciated! Thank you so much.

My boyfriend will be turning 29 on Tuesday. I'm really beating up on myself because I tried and tried to save up for it but I only have a $20 bill. We've got two girls under the age of three...I'm a stay at home mom and he's a paramedic. I really, really want to make his birthday special, but I'm not sure what I should do with two kids and almost no money. I was thinking about just trying to make the day special, like get up early with the girls and let him sleep in, serve him breakfast in bed...that kind of thing. I also thought about writing him a list of all the things I love about him, but he's not really into sentimental stuff like that. He loves the outdoors and pretty much every sport. Any ideas are very greatly appreciated. Thank you so, so much in advanced. :)

Last month I had to take a Plan B pill. I got my period on the fourth of September, and it was extremely painful and lasted for over three weeks. Now I'm unsure whether or not to be freaked out because I haven't had my period yet this month. Could that monster period have thrown off my cycle? Or should I freak out?

Also, I tried to go to planned parenthood to get checked out last month because I was bleeding A LOT, but they were awful and turned me away and denied me treatment. I have no health insurance, and can't afford to go get checked or anything...Anyone else take a Plan B and have something like this happen?

Thanks in advanced.

My boyfriend's Xbox 360 started giving us the open tray. He bought it refurbished and there was no warranty, so he figured it was screwed anyway and gave me permission to try to fix it. It was quite dirty inside, and I thought maybe the laser wasn't scooting up under the disc light it needed to because the rods that support it were covered in hair. A good cleaning and the laser was moving like it needed to, but the disc wasn't spinning and I still got the error. I tried loosening the left screw on the back of the laser, just the tiniest bit, and it started spinning, just not quickly enough. I loosened the screw a bit more and it stopped spinning at all again. I re tightened the screw, keep in mind these are minuscule increments, and now the damned thing has gone RROD on me. What the hell do I do now?? He's prepared to buy a new system but I kind of have my heart set on fixing this one if I can. Thanks in advanced. :)

My boyfriend's birthday is in a few months...I've been trying very hard to save money to take him skydiving. He's wanted to go since we met, but circumstances have always prevented us. We live together and I'm a stay at home mom.

Anyway...I dug through my jewelry and plucked out everything of value. Most of it is silver...an old ring and a lot of james avery stuff. I also have a very nice amber necklace that I've taken very good care of, as amber is my favorite. It's like new. One of the silver necklaces is a bit broken and tangled...I'm not sure where to go to sell these things? Do I go to a pawn shop or one of those scammy sounding cash4gold places? I don't know how much to expect to get for these items...at this point if I raise enough money to just be able to let him go skydiving without me, I'd be happy. I really want to make his birthday special.

Any advice would help. Thanks so much in advanced.

My boyfriend and I had a serious lapse in judgement last night. We're human, it happens. I had a baby five months ago and am breastfeeding, I've had two periods since and my last one was two weeks ago. Needless to say we're freaking out. We wanted to get the morning after pill this morning but he had to go to work (two hours away.) He had to take my car because his just broke down, and we just moved here so I don't know anyone to ask for a ride to the pharmacy. (Also he's the one that has all the money, so I couldn't buy it even if I had a ride.) He works 24hr shifts, and will be home around 8 tomorrow morning. The accident happened at about midnight last night...will the morning after pill still work if we go straight to the store and get it monday morning? What kind of side effects will I be looking at? Thanks in advanced for your time and answers. I'm definitely a bit shaken by all this.

My boyfriend and I had a serious lapse in judgement last night. We're human, it happens. I had a baby five months ago and am breastfeeding, I've had two periods since and my last one was two weeks ago. Needless to say we're freaking out. We wanted to get the morning after pill this morning but he had to go to work (two hours away.) He had to take my car because his just broke down, and we just moved here so I don't know anyone to ask for a ride to the pharmacy. (Also he's the one that has all the money, so I couldn't buy it even if I had a ride.) He works 24hr shifts, and will be home around 8 tomorrow morning. The accident happened at about midnight last night...will the morning after pill still work if we go straight to the store and get it monday morning? What kind of side effects will I be looking at? Thanks in advanced for your time and answers. I'm definitely a bit shaken by all this.

So my boyfriend's mom bought us a Roomba yesterday. I'm STOKED. I...I have an attachment to the thing. I want to glue googly eyes on it and knit it a sweater. But that's not important.

I have the 350 model and it said to let it charge overnight before first use. It's been charging for well over 24 hours and there are no lights coming on, no responses when I press any buttons, nothing. How do I bring my new little robot friend out of his coma? D:

I pulled out the battery tab, and all the parts are in place. It's brand new....so what's the deal? :(

This is starting to freak me out. For the past two months or so, every once in a while my webcam will randomly turn on. I have a Skype, but it's turned on randomly even when I'm logged out of Skype. Sometimes the computer will just be sitting there with nothing open or running, and I'll notice the webcam is on.

This has happened about eight to ten times in the past two months. I have a Dell laptop, and the webcam is built into it. Is someone watching me? I DID live with my paranoid aunt when I got this laptop. She had her IT guy from her company work on it a few times...although I moved out a year ago, I wouldn't put it past her to have had him install something so that she could access my webcam. Is there a way I can check for such a thing? Do I just need to permanently have a sticky note over the lens?

Or could it be something entirely innocent and I've just got myself mildly freaked out over nothing? o_o

Thanks in advanced!

I just bought two little ratties off of a lady who is a breeder. I've been in contact with her for several weeks, and she said that when they were weaned she would sell them to me. Today will be the third day I've had them, and they won't touch their food.

I've had many rats before, but never any this young. She says they're four weeks old. They have all their fur, and are about the size of adult mice. I thought the first day that the environment change kept them from eating, but now I'm worried because they haven't touched a bit of their food.

She sent some food with them, and I thought they might like eating something familiar so I gave them that to start with. When that didn't work, I gave them my home made mix and they won't eat that either. They won't even eat treats or fresh fruit. They seem to be drinking plenty of water...but they need nutrition.

Does it sound like they aren't weaned yet? Should I give them formula? I'm hoping I didn't end up with babies too young to be away from their mommy. They seem really scared and codependent; all they want to do is curl up in my hand and suck on my fingers. :(

I just put peroxide in my hair to lighten it ...I know it's not the /best/ thing for my hair, but I needed a little bit of a change and I used to peroxide it in highschool all the time. I didn't have a spray bottle so I just mixed the peroxide and water and got in the shower and poured it over my hair and combed it through. When I got out and saw myself in the bathroom mirror...well...I have white streaks all down my body where the peroxide dripped on me.

I know, I'm an idiot.

I'm already incredibly light skinned; I'm surprised the peroxide made me lighter. Like...translucent. Is there any fixing this? Or do I just have to wait it out? It's not the worst thing in the world...I just look really weird and streaky. Thanks in advanced!

I feel really dumb. XD

Ok...hopefully I can remember enough details to be helpful in finding out what the name of this movie was. It's been driving me nuts for years! I watched it when I was young...and I remember it was very long. Two VHS tapes long! This is a live action movie.

Here's what I remember:

A girl and her father go to some magical land. I think I remember them going through a mirror or something to get there.

I remember there was a prince who got turned into a dog, and the dog got touched by someone (I think the father) who had gotten king Midus's touch and he turned into gold.

A wolf man was falling in love with the daughter, and there was a singing engagement ring. It looked like a giant pearl with a face on it.

I don't remember much beyond that. Sorry it was so vague! If anyone could help me out, I would be really grateful. I've been trying to find the name of this movie for a long time. XD

With my first baby, I didn't get the bloody show until I was well into labor. I'm three centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and the baby is very low. I just wiped and there was pink on the toilet paper every time I wiped! I'm trying not to get /too/ excited yet, but I was wondering if it sounds like labor will be soon? I've been having regular contractions for a month now, and my lower back is really achy today.

My boyfriend is at work...his job is 2 hours away and he's a paramedic, so his shifts are 48 hours. I'm nervous about going into labor and calling him too late to get home on time. Should I call him and tell him to have his bags packed and ready to run out the door at any moment? I've given my midwife so many false alarms with this baby I'm almost afraid calling her will jinx it. :p

Gah I'm just so excited and energetic now, after I was feeling like crap all morning.

This isn't a troll question and I'm not trying to be inappropriate, I'm genuinely nervous about what happened.

My two year old daughter NEVER gets up at night. She's always slept 11-12 hour nights. However last night, three hours after her bedtime, she got out of her crib and silently came into the master bedroom. My boyfriend (who she sees as her father) and I happened to be having adult time, and I'm not sure how much she saw because I just happened to look over at the door and she was standing there. She couldn't have been there more than a minute, tops.

I wrapped up and took her back to her crib and made sure she didn't need anything, and tucked her back in. She fell back asleep almost immediately. I was EXTREMELY upset afterwards. I started crying when I got back to our room and was up all night feeling awful and anxious.

She hasn't acted weird at all today, or said anything about it....am I stressing over something that's not a big deal? I just feel so horrible that she saw us doing that. (I know it wasn't anything unnatural or bad, but I still feel guilty she witnessed it.)

I guess I'm scared I might have traumatized her or something. Has this happened to anyone else? My boyfriend said he walked in on his parents when he was a kid and that even though it wasn't his favorite memory, it didn't haunt him or anything.

Should I be beating myself up this much about it? :( It's possible I'm being over emotional...I'm due to have my second little girl in three days and everything is just so overwhelming right now...