the whistler

I got it for Christmas. At the time, it worked fine. It didn't need anything installed because we have Windows 7 and it works automatically on that. It worked for a couple of months, then one day it just didn't. There's no visible damage (I have kids here, so you never know). But if you plug it in (it has one of the common USB cables as a connector), nothing happens.

Now, I can tell from the searches I've done that it's not exactly one of the top models. But I also can't afford to get a better one, so I'm going to have to try to get this one working again. I can find no help on their web site or anywhere on the internet for this problem. I can't even find anything to try! I did test it with a different cable, but it was not a new one, so that may not help. I submitted a support ticket but I don't feel much hope in that... most product web sites offer a little troubleshooting advice before you ask them for help and this one didn't. They couldn't even spell "technical." Not very encouraging.

Does anyone know anything I can try get it working or at least to help me figure out whether it's the cable or not? So far all I can do is not rule it out.

My 3-year-old got some of the colored portion (unmixed) of a Zubber kit on her shoe and tracked it all over our apartment. We have green polka-dots on the rug now but that isn't even what worries me. It's the kitchen tile. The color is gone, but a very thin, dry, slippery residue remains. I figured from the feel of the stuff that it must be oil-based but a scrub with dish soap failed. The floor still feels like non-stick cookware and a little research online has revealed the reason. The stuff is made of silicone! And according to still more research, it takes heavy duty chemical solvents to remove silicone.

Does anyone know something a little more kid-safe that might make the kitchen floor less dry-slick? It's like whole sections have been dusted with baby powder. The 3-year-old already fell on her heinie in there, and while that might sound like karma, I would prefer if it didn't happen to anyone else. The residue on her shoe might scuff off on the sidewalk, I hope. But I can't go rough up the tile.

I'm skeptical about my chances with this but I figured I'd better check around before going out to buy some big rugs.

I am just trying to see how far it is and how long it would take to drive there, but the stupid camp doesn't have a danged address! The one given as an answer to the same question on this site is the wrong address. I did, after searching for an hour, finally locate a little map they had in a brochure, but it's not a very good map and certainly doesn't give mileage. What's more, I can't find the camp in any yellow pages and I am beginning to wonder what the big secret is. I've seen slides and it doesn't look so special, just the same dessicated California desert countryside, but my kid wants to go her scout campout so I have to find out if I can reasonably pick her up myself coming from Fullerton, since she would have to go home early. But like everything else scout related that we've run into since we started this, there's too little information, vague promises, lots of irritating jumping up and down giggling and yelling and clapping, and lots of people expecting me to take their word for how great it is and hand over my kid without too much fuss. I just want something better than a crappy brochure map guiding me through the California outback and the jungle of freeways therein.

Does the danged camp have an address that an online map service can use? Is it even in an actual city? I'm about ready to just blow it off and disappoint the girl, rather than have her whisked off to some place that people don't seem to want you to find.

I know nothing about the instrument. My 5th grader just started playing one this year in her school music class and she says that she cleans it but that it has been getting harder to blow. Her words, mind you. I just wanted to know if there is some maintenance we have been neglecting. It is a fact that she hasn't been practicing and isn't enjoying it and won't be continuing after this year. It is also a fact that it is a rental and I want it returned in good shape! So I've let this go too long... but, that said, is there anything to what she says, or is it just that she isn't likely to find it any easier since she never practices?

I've also seen the first word spelled Flosst, Floesst, and Flöst or any combination. I'm finding it very hard to locate the lyrics to it.

I've been checking toys online and in stores for Christmas, and Amazon is great site to check reviews. But in the process of checking those, I was shocked to see the prices of the toys. I've compared 3 so far that I looked at in Toys R Us today, and the prices on Amazon are twice or more what the toys cost in the stores! And none of these were on sale. I can only imagine the difference if I was comparing to toys at Wal-mart or Target. I hadn't figured Toys R Us was going to be the cheapest, and I'm sure they're not, so what is the deal with Amazon? $50 bucks for an okay plastic marble run with lousy marbles, that is $20 anywhere else? And their Littlest Pet Shop prices are interesting to say the least.

Anybody understand this? I mean, I suppose they count on lazy or hurried customers who don't check. I dunno.

My son's DS recently stopped playing games. When I checked it out, I found it was in manual mode, so I set it to auto mode thinking that would fix it. But after I tried turning it off, putting a chip in and turning it back on (all following the instructions on the DS web site, so I did it all right and several times over besides) it still went to the main menu. When I checked to see what mode it was in, it said it was in auto mode. I pressed A and it repeated that it was set to auto mode, but even with a chip in it, it will not start the game. Just that same main menu. The DS web site doesn't cover the problem. Anyone here dealt with this?

She's almost eleven and is having some problems in school, so I'm starting to look at different issues she's had in order to try and identify any inborn problems. Frankly, her school trouble looks like bad attitude. If there's another reason, I'd love to find it quickly. I've been looking at symptoms of dyspraxia in an effort to work out just what the heck it is, but it's looking as vague as all those various syndromes and disorders that fit a few people and are believed to fit more, if only there was a way to test for them...

Anyway, I've noticed she never seems to remember right from left. I don't know if she's just having a lazy moment when it comes up and not really trying, or if she's tired or nervous and her mind went blank... I will have to ask her directly about it today, cold, to see what she does. But it seems every time she is asked to do something based upon right or left, she hesitates or chooses the wrong one. I remember taking at least as long to get it worked out myself, though, so does anyone know what's standard?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23042737@N07/sets/721...

I've been trying to figure it out for years. I must not be asking the right people. I even snapped off a branch and used an online leaf identifier. None of the trees listed matched it! Crummy program. Anyway, they are all over Orange County in Southern California, lining streets, filling parks and campuses, tall, sometimes bare and white, sometimes tan and peeling, sometimes convoluted from numerous trimmings to keep them polite and respectable city trees. Their tops as the pictures show appear tufted from below, like something drawn by Dr. Seuss. The leaves are narrow, light to medium green, slightly curvy, pointed, and grow in masses along the branch. I don't know about nuts or fruits from them.

My son wants Yoshi's Island for his DS for his 7th birthday, but I heard it suggested that the Gameboy Advance version is overall a better version of the game than the actual DS game. I know that Advance games can be played on the DS, but is it really a better version? He's 6 1/2, he's never played the original, and he'd probably be just as happy as long as baby Mario is there. But if there's a better one, naturally I want to check it out.

Which is fine with me. It's a $30 little clearance desk she uses to do her homework. It's laminated particle board so painting really wouldn't make sense... Regular acrylics would just scrape off and anything stronger is just not suitable for a kid's desk, and painting a desk with the littler kids running around is definitely out. It seemed to me that for the purpose contact paper seems the best option. I'm having a surprising amount of trouble finding it, however. I have found some at Target and the grocery store, but beige seems to be the dominating color. It's not like she's picky about the shade of blue, she just wants blue, but they had none. I can order online of course, though I have even found some trouble locating it on the net, but I would really rather just walk into a store, buy a roll and stick it onto the danged desk.

So what I'm wondering is, first: what other stores would sell the stuff, preferably more varieties? Second: is there something else I could use that would result in a smooth, reasonably non-toxic surface (she's ten, she won't be chewing on it)? Third: does it go by any other names I could use in my online search?

Not an earth-shattering problem, I know, but irritating. I periodically change the picture (of course) and this time I put up a bitmap image I scanned onto my computer. I've not had trouble with these before as wallpaper, that I can remember at least. It's been on there for months and I just picked it and used it.

It displayed when I selected it, but when I shut down and turned it on again later, all I got was the background color. If I switch pictures, I still only have the background color. If I manage somehow to get a picture there, it will be gone when I turn the computer on the next time. If I leave it as is until I finish using the machine, I will suddenly see the picture later on, but only for the duration of the shut-down sequence, as if it was under there all along, so to speak. I tried refreshing the desktop and had no change.

I've had stupid wallpaper problems before, getting the wrong one displayed, or changing mine alone, only to find another user's has spontaneously changed to the same thing. I can't rule out user error, but danged if I know what I could have done to make the machine figure the selected wallpaper should be "covered" by the background.

I know it's early for Halloween shopping, but let's face it, it's all on the internet anyway so why not get a jump on it? And it takes time to find some of this stuff and order it... like vampire fangs for my 10-year-old.

Now, I've found the best looking ones, the very popular Scarecrow brand. Trouble is, she only has one upper canine as of now, and might have lost the second by then! I know she could just put them on the nearly front teeth (whatever they're called) but given the uncertainty of a kid's teeth, I need a back-up plan.

Those plastic ones are hopeless, what with the one center tooth and all. I once saw a kind that fit up in the roof of the mouth and could be retracted but I can't find them now.

Are there any other kinds besides the caps and crummy (and painful) plastic ones?

I've had an infuriating time of it, finding my size after years of discomfort wearing the wrong ones, and I've just about got it nailed down. But I'm in sizes no store carries, certainly not in soft-cup, so I order online. I started with the recommended 42F after measuring in my "best fitting bra" (which of course doesn't fit) and found it lacking. Well, I've worked out the band size necessary to hold things up enough, but the cup size is now threatening to rise to an I-cup or higher based upon my most recent order that included a 38H. My concern is that the H cup still did not separate the breasts completely, that is, there's a visible cleavage line but the bra covers the flesh without bulging. I will probably try to test a higher cup size but it's so tedious ordering that I ask here, is that as good as it gets in these sizes? It fits securely, with good support. But how much I can hope for in my size, and should I send these back? Each cup size up slashes the number of choices.

I've been using an additional card to the personal card my husband uses. I manage the card separately online and it has its own billing address. Unfortunately, I found out when a purchased was rejected online that the street name was off by one letter, just one. I tried to change it online and found that the necessary link to do so... just wasn't there. If I log in on my husband's card, it's there, but with the additional, nothing. I have since tried changing it by e-mail, which had no result but a lot of butt-kissing form letters that include instructions on how to use the link that isn't there. They said they changed it manually for me... no, they didn't. I tried calling, got a butt-kissing human who had no earthly idea why the link was missing, said she'd change it for me. Now the street and number are gone, too. A further e-mail asking specifically why I had no link allowing me to change my address resulted in the same form letter I got the first time. ARGH!

My daughter's scout troop is camping this weekend at the beach and they say they are camping at Cabrillo in San Pedro. She said it was the same place as the aquarium, I thought, and something about using Boy Scouts facilities, and I think there's a pool where they'll be. I thought I understood what she meant, but as far as I can figure, there is no camping at Cabrillo. I've been there several times and looked it up as well. I have to pick my kid up early from the campout and I can't work out where to go or figure how early I have to arrive to be able to get in and out again. I'll call the troop leader this evening for more info, but for now... does anyone here have any insights on the whole matter, beach camping, hours, sites that fit the description?

I confess I have no idea why someone would invite me as a friend when they don't know me. I'm not taking the title "friend" too literally, mind you, but it still seems like something you'd reserve for people you actually know, whether in person or online. It's like the roommates I had in college who wanted to see some photos I had, even though they didn't know anyone in them. Makes no sense to me. I accept very, very few friend requests. I've just had 2 blind ones, one from a friend of my brother's, and one now from a TOTAL stranger. This seems to be commonplace for a lot of users, but I ask again...

What reason would someone have for sending such a request?

My kid has been in Junior Girl Scouts since the start of the school year, and she has been trying to tell me that the badge she got last year from a school whale-watching trip is a Girl Scout badge and wants me to sew it onto her vest. Weell I dunno about it, she has always had a somewhat ruthless tendency to believe that her version of what should be is real enough for the rest of the world to simply accept... In other words, if she says her troop leader said it was a badge and I sew it on, somehow no one will look at it and say, "Hey, that's not a real badge."

I even went online to try and find the answer because I didn't get around to asking the troop leader, and the only badge I found was a whale-watcher badge, on one site, that had far more requirements than getting on a boat, getting seasick, laying down and seeing one whale's tail from where she lay.

So tell me, is there such a badge? And if so, can you really get it by going on one school whale watching outing?

Let me just say that I personally have no reason to believe it does, however, my husband is insisting that a pair of his Dockers that fit last week now no longer do. I changed nothing in the laundry process except that I started using Borax because the hard water we have here. He made sure he didn't have an older pair by mistake, and says the measurements match the pair he put on for work after the shrunken pair didn't fit (in case you were thinking what I did, since the identical pair fit, I guess it wasn't just him).

Anyway, he's been tetchy about the Borax since I bought it... "Isn't Borax a poison?" so that's the first thing he thought of. I just want to know what did make them shrink so that I can keep using it and hopefully get the towels soft enough that they won't stand up by themselves. I can't tolerate ammonia scented laundry, so never mind that option.

I posted a question not long ago about the flower that grew in our backyard when we moved into our new apartment. I finally have some pictures that might shed some light on things. I know they're not bird of paradise as was suggested... I know what they look like, but this one has us all stumped.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23042737@N07/?saved=1