Phil

Help settle a discussion as to what his curfew should be

Ok, I understand that I am the adult, and that I need me make the effort. I know, and have tried to make the effort. So if you are going to response with this type of answer, don’t waste our time. This is my situation.

I have a 10 yo step daughter, who I have been in her live for the last seven years. I have adopted her. She has been a very difficult child from day one, mainly for her mother.

My problem is that I don’t like little girls, especially tweens. I find them annoying. I believe that some of my feelings come from childhood. I didn’t have a great childhood, and tween girls wanted little to do with him. And I just really find the stuff that they are interested in is totally opposite of what I feel is important for her to want to be interested in.

So, does anyone have suggestions on how I can improve my relationship with my daughter?

Sometimes he seems ready to give it up, and others he is really attached to it. When did your kids give it up?

In Florida 2000, the Dems screamed that every vote must count, regardless if it followed the rules. It was the voter's intent. Again, in Ohio 2004, the Dems insisted that every vote must count. We even have to keep polls open past closing time because someone can't figure out how to get there except 10 minutes before it was to close.

How can Dems now, with a straight face, claim that Florida and Michigan primaries shouldn't count? Yes, they violated the rules. But why should that matter?

To those of you who were stupid enough to take out a mortgage that you couldn't afford, why should you get a bailout?

You took adjustable rates, knowing that the rate would adjust. You took out interest only loans, hoping to sell for a profit before you had to start making payments you couldn't afford. You gambled, and lost. Now you want me to help you pay your house payment.

How is this any different than stealing?

I keep hearing that Bush lied to go to war. No one explains why it was a lie, except ‘No WMD = a lie’.

A lie requires an attempt to deceive. Bush didn’t go see if WMD existed. He was briefed on the results of the intelligence reports, and believed them. Bush wasn’t the only one. The majority of those with access to these reports did too, including members of both political parties, members of the civil service, and senior military leaders. It wasn’t only the US analysts that reached this conclusion. So did most intelligence services. Hell, Hussein used WMD in the past, and claimed that he still had them.

Where did the WMD go? I have no idea. Maybe they were used. Maybe we destroyed them. Maybe they were shipped to Syria. It doesn’t matter. It was reasonable to believe that Iraq had them prior to our invasion. This is the conclusion Bush reached. Since he reasonably believed WMD existed, he didn’t lie when he told us they did.

Several years ago I ripped all my CD's to MP3 at 180 using Musicmatch. It was ok, but the quality is just not as good. I'm wanting to go through this one more time, and this time get the very good quality. I thought about doing this at 320 using Windows Media Player. Any other suggestion?

Who are your top five Blues musicians? All time? Current?

I broke down and bought an electric smoker to BBQ stuff without having to deal with charcoal. It came with ceramic rocks, however I'm not sure if there are enough. They are really small (pee sized) and they are below the heating element in the pan. Should they be touching it? It heated up enough to cook the chicken in the expected time.

Also, I soaked hickory chips and put them in the rocks. However, I didn't get hardly any smoke from them. How can I get better smoke?

Any other suggestions?

Say a batter hits the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles, and starts running around the bases. Between second and third base, the batter has a heart attack, and dies right in the baseline. Since the batter cannot cross home plate, does the run score? The fielder cannot tag him out since they can't get the ball. Does this become a ground rule double?

Our 12 week old boy absolutely hates to be placed on his belly. He will scream until someone picks him up, and then is fussy for a couple of hours. He loves to stand up (with our help), and has good neck and head control. When we put him down on his belly, he kicks his feet like he is trying to crawl, but won't even try to push himself up or lift up his head.

This really has my wife worried since our previous two kids didn't do this, and she has never seen any other kid do this. Anyone else experience this? When did your baby start to enjoy laying on his belly?

I have seen many posts by mothers here that refer to children as 'my' child. Even though they are talking about an issue between them and their spouse, they question goes, 'What should I do when my husband does ... to my children?'

Why isn't this 'our' children? Don't the father's have rights also? Or are we just suppose to be a silent wallet?

Today is July 4th, the day we celebrate our 'freedom'. Yet we seem fine with the government taking away our freedoms. For example, in Ohio the owner of a business no longer has the right to determine if they want to allow smoking.

An older example is changing the drinking age to 21. How can we say that someone is old enough to start a family, but not old enough to drink a beer?

What other examples do you have where the 'Land of the Free' is not so free?

My kids are not allowed to be anywhere without adult supervision, but since their friends all have cell phones, they want one too. I don't think they need one. What age are kids getting cell phones?

Say I am going to the store for an hour in the middle of the day. At what age is it alright to let a kid stay home without adult supervision instead of making them go with you to the store?

My kids are bugging me, saying that all of their friends get to, and that I am too strict about this. So, when is it alright to let a kid sit up front in a car?

I have Zoomtown IDSL, with a Belkin wireless router, 802.1g, with WEP on. I replaced a similar router that broke. The network monitor says that my signal strength is excellent and speed is 54.0.

My problem is that I keep dropping connection to a virtual private network that requires a constant signal. (This worked great with the previous router.)

Any thoughts on what I can do to stop this? I have changed the channel, and it still says that my signal strength is excellent.

I am once again stuck without a clue of what to get my dad for Father's Day. He is 75 years old, and because of his health is no longer able to do any physical activities. The problem is that he doesn't have any passive activities that he enjoys either. He rarely reads, doesn't enjoy much music, doesn't build models, doesn't collect anything. His favorite activity is going to the coffee shop and bitching about everything. Did you see the movie Grumpy Old Men? That is him.

I appreciate any help you can provide.