Krista A

After my grandmother passed away, me and my mom were looking through her jewelry to pick some out, and I found the coolest ring. I had never seen it before. It's a filigree ring, I think it might be white gold, and I thought the stone was aquamarine, but my dad said it was actually my great-grandmother's diamond ring. The stone is definitely a blue tint, so I'm thinking it's either a blue diamond or my dad is mistaken and it's actually an aquamarine. I'm not sure how old the ring is. if it was my great-grandmother's engagement ring, then it could be over 90 years old since my grandmother's oldest sister will be 90 later this year.

But anyway, I was looking for markings on the inside of the ring to give a clue about the type of metal it is, and even the type of stone. the only marking is either an "M" or "W" inside of an elongated hexagram. Does anyone know what this means? I can't find it anywhere on the internet. Thanks!

I bought a magnetic bracelet made of Hematite. It has claims of providing pain relief from things like tendonitis, migraines, arthritis, etc etc. I thought that was pretty interesting. I've had tendonitis in my foot for over 5 months, so I thought I'd give it a try. The bracelets were really pretty, too, so I figured, even if it doesn't have the therapeutic effects, I still have a pretty bracelet.

Now, I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but 3 days after I started wearing it, my tendonitis pain is almost gone. I can walk around without limping, and my foot doesn't kill me when I get out of bed in the morning.

I just want to know other peoples' experiences. Don't say anything to debunk it unless you've actually tried it or know someone who has. I actually want to hear experiential stories, and not explanations on why you don't think it should work. Thanks.

I've had some problems with my voice. Something that always happens is that after work, if I've hardly talked all day, it will be hard for me to sing along with the radio on my way home. My voice does the weird Tarzan thing- that's the best way I can describe it. It doesn't really crack, but it will all of a sudden switch to this weird tone and has no power. It will be like this for a minute or two- back and forth like that- and then I can sing normal again. But yesterday it was like that all the way home from work- cutting in and out while I was singing. I really wanted to sing with the radio, though, but my throat felt really strained the whole time- like it was a tired muscle. One weird thing, though, is that it's not like this in the morning after not having spoken all night while I was sleeping.

And another thing is that my voice gets hoarse and sounds stained after singing for 20 or 30 minutes. I go to a Bible study every week and we usually sing hymns for about 30 minutes at the beginning, and then afterwards my voice is hoarse even though I didn't have any trouble while singing. This just started about 6 months ago, while the issue with singing after work started over a year ago.

Any idea what the issue is? Thanks!

It seems as if people get jewelry appraised for insurance or selling purposes, but do people ever get jewelry appraised just to know the type of stone, type of gold/silver, and monetary value of the piece of jewelry for no reason other than curiosity?

I have my great-grandmother's ring that no one knows much about. My dad said it's a diamond, but it's tinted blue like a very light aquamarine. I know there are blue diamonds, though, and that they can be very valuable. I'm also not sure what the material is that the ring itself is made of. It looks like white gold but I'm not sure.

So anyway, I want to get it appraised, not only to find out more about it but also know how much it is worth. I don't see myself ever selling it or insuring it, but I'm just curious about it. Is that something you would get done by an appraiser? Or would I go to a jeweler and just ask for details about the ring? Thanks!

I really don't want my YouTube account to be linked to my Google account. How do I unlink it??

I have a Johnson Brothers coffee mug- it's parts of a set of four and each one has a different English castle on it. One of them is the Raglan castle. On the mug the caption under the photo says, "Ragland Castle in 1792". But the correct spelling of the Castle is "Raglan". When I look up "Ragland Castle" online, it says, "did you mean Raglan Castle?"

So, why did they add a "D" to the end of it?

After my grandma died I was looking through her good jewelry and found a really pretty ring. The stone has a very slight bluish tint and I originally thought it was an aquamarine because it was her birthstone and she had other aquamarine rings. But when my dad saw it he said that it was his grandmother's (my great-grandmother's) diamond ring. At first I was confused because I always thought that light colored diamonds are always white (I know there are chocolate diamonds and yellow ones, but never heard of blue).

I found out online that there is such a thing as blue diamonds but they are rare. This one that was my great-grandmothers is tinted very slightly and from a color chart I saw it's closest to "fancy light blue"... But I can't find out whether different shades of blue diamonds are worth more than others.

And it's interesting that my great-grandmother would have had one. I'm not sure when in her life she got it, but if it was an engagement ring, it could be over 90 years old. Does anyone here have experience with diamonds, and especially if blue diamonds were available back then and if they even realized that it was considered a different color and not just tinted? Thanks!

I sprained my ankle about 3 months ago. I was told to go easy on it, but that I could do a little walking (just everyday stuff- not like going for a walk just-because). The doctor said that it should be better in a month. For the most part he was right- It hasn't hurt to walk on it at all in a couple of months, and it feels normal when I walk, but I still don't have full mobility when I bend it outward. It's still very stiff and sore when I bend it outward. Is this normal for me to still feel stiffness three months later? Are there any exercises I can do to get it back to normal? Thanks!

The second toe on my right foot has been painful on and off for the past two days. It's like a dull but stabbing pain that throbs for a few seconds and then it goes away for minutes to hours. It hurts when I bend the last joint of my toe with my fingers. It feels similar to when my middle toe on my other foot was healing from a break. I don't remember injuring it, though, and there's no swelling or bruising. So what could it be?

I have a suspicion that I brought bedbugs home with me from a hotel. Besides having mysterious bug bites, I found a bunch of things in my suitcase that look kind of like sesame seeds. They're the same size, anyway, and white. They're hard, not soft. Are they bedbug eggs?

Two days ago my betta developed a white bump on his chin. It's actually a bump and not just a white mark. Yesterday when I had gotten home it was bigger! He doesn't have any other symptoms. He eats normally, swims around normally... He doesn't have any symptoms of common fish diseases... So what is it? I want to be able to treat it ASAP if it's something treatable.

Discus fish are so cool and I'd love to have some in my 55 gallon tank. I'm also planning on getting about 6 female bettas.

1. Will discus get along with female bettas?

2. Is 55 gallon tank large enough?

3. How many discus can I have in the tank along with the female bettas?

4. I currently have 9 neons, 6 zebra danios, and 5 Julii cories in that tank. Will it be overstocked if I add the min amount of discus plus the 6 female bettas?

my property borders a large area of wetlands in my town. The far back of my yard stays damp or wet between rainfalls because of this. But while planting some plants yesterday close to my house (away from the part of the yard that stays wet), I found that the soil is very powdery. I've never seen soil like this before and was just curious if it's the kind of soil that wetlands (and bordering areas) are made up of..

I put up an ad on Craigslist a week ago, and I keep getting weird, non-specific answers to the ad that are really suspicious. Like I got at least three or four from people saying "I want to adopt your adorable pet" When the ad is for two cats. They didn't say "cats" or make it plural. One person is from Texas saying he's glad there are local pets available, but I'm in Connecticut. o.0 I got two responses that said the same thing- that the person will send a certified check and that they need my address. Then it says they will send movers. ?? It's like these people send out generic answers to all these ads like mass emails or something. I don't understand this. I thought I had someone legitimately interested- seemed really excited- then I got back to him about a good time to come see the cats and he never responded to me. All the other answers are suspicious-sounding and vague. Why do people do this on Craigslist? Are all these people really trying to scam me?

I poured hot grease down my kitchen sink last night and then it clogged up. I tried the baking soda and boiling water trick but it didn't work. Help!!

I was shuffling to my bathroom at 5 AM and my wood floor gave me a really bad splinter in the ball of my foot. It's about an inch long, and you can see where it goes in, and you can see the other end under the skin, but the middle of it you can't even see. It's not sticking out enough for me to pull it, and I tried using nail clippers on the opposite end- it looked like I clipped enough of the skin to get to it, but I couldn't grip it with the clippers. I worked at it for about 15 minutes and got nowhere so I put some vaseline on it and taped a piece of gauze to it (I knew a band-aid would fall off the bottom of my foot in seconds). I'm not sure if the vaseline is a good idea or not. But anyway, I read on the internet a few different ways to draw a splinter out and I'd like to try them, but I don't know if they will work because it's so long and the middle part is so deep. I have some of that drawing salve but it's at my parents' house. I read about 5 or 6 different things to try and I can't buy a bunch of stuff to try them all, so what would be the most effective on a splinter like this? Will the thing with the potato work??

Thanks!

I got a biopsy done last week on my leg, and they used a razor blade to shave the spot off my skin. The PA who did it told me to keep a band-aid on it with Neosporin and change it once a day. But the next day it started getting itchy. I thought it was because it was healing because sometimes things itch when they start healing. But anyway, it didn't start looking any better all week, and it was always itchy. after about 4 days, the edges of it started turning red. Today it's been 8 days since I had it done, and the itching hasn't gone away, the redness around it is covering a larger area, and it's inflamed like a hive. I called the dermatologist's office and she said that since I don't have a fever and there's no pain or pus or anything, she thinks it's a reaction to the Neosporin. I've never had a reaction to Neosporin and I've been using it my whole life every time I get a bad cut or scrape! Why would I have developed this allergy now?

When doctors ask if I have any allergies to medicine should I notify them about the Neosporin allergy?

Thanks!

I feel weird today- like really tired and my whole body feels heavy. I have a headache, my throat feels "hot"- it doesn't hurt, but it's uncomfortable and feels hot. My nose was a little sniffly earlier, but not at the moment. I also had a weird coughing fit earlier where it suddenly felt like there was a very dry patch in my throat and I started coughing a lot. The weird feeling sort of comes over me in waves. For a while I'll feel ok, just tired; but then I'll feel really crummy in general. I've been really tired for the past couple of days, so I was taking Airborne (just because of all the vitamins, including zinc and vitamin C), so I'm wondering if I'm getting the flu and the vitamins are kind of holding it back a bit (the same thing has happened with colds. I'll feel one coming on, so I'll take zinc for a few days in a row, but when I feel good I stop taking it and it feels like the cold starts coming back).

So anyway, I guess my question is, am I getting the flu? I think I may have had it one time before, but it hit me like a ton of bricks one day and didn't come on gradually like this is (though it could be because of the Airborne vitamins)

I have a male cat, Chester, who I've had for almost 2 months. My aunt had a stroke and had to move out of state with her daughter, and my mom volunteered me to take her two cats. -__- They're cute cats and everything, but I wasn't looking forward to the process of introducing them to the cat I already had. They're also males, btw. I brought them home a little over 3 weeks ago. I read some info online about introducing cats, so I thought I knew basically what to do.

I let my cat sniff them for a little while when they were still in their carriers and a lot of growling went on, of course. Then I brought the two new cats to their room where I got them all set up. They were in there with the door closed for about a week and a half and I would feed my cat outside the door, but they were still too nervous to eat at the time that I fed them, so they weren't eating on opposite sides of the door at the same time as Chester was. The space under the door was large enough for Chester to stick his paws under, which he did a lot, so I figured they knew he was there and they would be less afraid of him. One night I closed Chester in the bathroom and went in to spend time with the other cats. Meanwhile, I didn't know Chester got out of the bathroom by himself somehow, and when I opened the bedroom door he charged in and fought with one of the other cats (the third one ran under the bed). I finally got Chester out of the room, but the same thing happened a few days later. Anyway, I eventually bought two baby gates to stack on top of each other in the doorway so that the cats could see each other but couldn't get at each other. They seemed to do ok and get less shy and come closer to the doorway, so last week one day I decided to let them out, but Chester chased them back into the bedroom and the three of them fought under the bed for a while, and then they kept growling and hissing at each other for about an hour or so. I realized it was too soon so I got Chester out and put up the gates again. They were ok for a week or so, but now a few days ago, The cats started hissing and growling through the gates a lot. Chester kept banging into the gate trying to get at the other cat, and the other cat was sitting on the other side growling. They did the same thing last night, and I decided to just close the door.

Anyway, I feel like all the progress that was made was set back a whole step! It's so frustrating that they're still so agitated about each other. Chester doesn't want them there, and they don't want to be around Chester. I thought there was a tiny bit of progress because sometimes they would come up close to the gate and have a stare-off and then walk away, but now they're hissing and growling and banging against the gate trying to get at each other.

What did I do wrong? How long is this going to take? Should I open the door again so they can see each other through the gate? Are they eventually going to get over it?

When I was a kid we got a second cat and just put them together right away because we didn't know any better, and they fought all the time for months until we had to rehome the newer cat. I don't want that to happen with these new guys. Help!