Rachel

I have an old metal office desk that I want to paint. It was probably made back in the 1950's. It's original color is green and it has been painted over that with brown. Should I prime it before I paint it or should I try to remove the old paint before I paint it? Would it be best to use spray primer & paint or brush it on? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I have this old felt applique Christmas stocking. It is very old and has beads sewn onto it. The stocking has several different colors but the cuff of the stocking is white. The white cuff has yellowed with age. I was wondering if I could clean the stocking and get this yellowish stain off and how would be the best way to clean it. What worries me is that this stocking has a lot of red felt on it and I'm afraid it the red is going to bleed onto the white. Any suggestions on how to clean this would be appreciated.

All of the underarm area on all of my black dress shirts are stained with this white powdery residue. I have used the same deodorant for years and it seems like this has just started. What can I do to get the white stains off of my black shirts? I can't walk around my office in one of my black shirts that has white underarms.

I have a client that causes me so much trouble. He will make an appointment, then call at that appointment time telling me that he is unable to get there at that time. I'll tell him to come an hour later and he is still late. He'll do this three or four times before he actually shows up to get a haircut. Once he gets to the shop, it takes him forever to get inside the shop then he just sits down in the waiting area. (When he does show up, I'm standing there ready for him.) Then he has to go to the bathroom. It takes forever to get out of the bathroom. It will take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for him to get inside the shop to the cutting chair for me to start the haircut! When I wash his hair, he can't sit up from the laying back position from the shampoo bowl. I try to help him up but he doesn't try to help. The first time this happened and I was pulling to try to get him sitting up, something in my back popped and my back hurt for several days.

The problem is that this client is somewhat handicapped. He was born with a "Nerve Disorder". He cannot speak well and he is slow about moving around. I understand this and I take this into consideration when he is coming to my shop. My husband thinks that the reason he does this is not so much his disablity but him being rotten. He says that he thinks that he likes the attention he gets when he does this stuff.

I know in these tough economic times, I should be wanting all of the customers that I can get but he is so much of an aggravation. He messes up my scheduling and makes things difficult for me.

What should I do? I don't want to be mean.

As I was driving to work this morning, I started to think how those dryer sheets work. I understand liquid fabric softener like Downy and how it works. It is diluted into the wash water and distributed onto the clothes that way. I just don't see how the fabric softener from the dryer sheets gets distributed onto the clothes evenly.

I can't remember who killed Lafayette in the second novel. I have racked my brain and I can't remember.

I'm getting married next month (October 25th) and my family still hasn't picked out their clothing that they are going to wear. My bridesmaids dresses are blue with brown trim and the groomsmen are wearing chocolate brown suits with blue ties. My soon to be mother-in-law has picked out a brown dress and my father-in-law will also wear a brown suit. I would like for everything to coordinate. I am wearing an ivory wedding dress because I am red headed and that color looked the best on me. I was thinking about a black suit for my father with either a brown or blue tie and black dresses for my mother and grandmother. I was also thinking about Navy. A navy suit with a blue tie and navy dresses for my Mom and G-Mom. What are your thoughts?

I can remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001. I was reading gas meters and listening to Bob & Tom on the radio. I thought they were playing a terrible prank until they started talking about a second plane flying into the towers. That's when I called home to ask my Mom what was going on. I will never forget that day and the way I felt.

I'm just curious about what everyone else was doing and what their feelings were.

I work at a natural gas utility company. We have seven offices throughout our district and I have friends in all of them. I'm working on my guest list so I will know how many invitations to order. Some people have told me to just send one invitation throught our interoffice courier so my co-workers in the other office can post it on the bulletin board. Other people have told me that I needed to send one via USPS to each co-worker. What do you think would be best?

I have so many cabbages in my garden. Is there a way to put up the cabbage like canning it or freezing it. I think it would be nice to go get some to use for coleslaw or something like that in November without having to run to the store to by a head of cabbage.

My fiance and I would like to get married in a little white country church. We would both love to have it in a little wooded area with pretty trees since we are getting married in October. We both have churches that we are affliated with but they are both either too small or too out of the way and hard to find for out of town guests. We went looking for a pretty church and we found several that we liked but there was something about each one that wouldn't work for us. We are going to go look at few more but this morning, one of my friends told me that what we were doing was tacky. They said that we should just use one of our churches that we were already affliated with.

Do you think what we are doing is wrong and tacky?

Ethanol is an alcohol. Doesn't this cause the gasoline to burn faster?

It seems like when I fill up at a station that has the 10% ethanol added to the gasoline, I run out quicker than if I fill up at a station that hasn't added the ethanol. I can usually drive farther on the tank of gas that doesn't add the ethanol. Is this my imagination or is there something to my theory?

Are the gasoline companies adding the ethanol to make the gas burn faster so you have to buy more sooner thus making them more money?

My boyfriend and I just became engaged after dating for four years. What do we do now? Do I start dress shopping, finding a location, setting a date, getting engagement photos? There seems like there is so much to do and I don't know where to start. Please tell me what I need to do or where I could find this information.

I'm 31 and he's 36. We have never been married before so this is all new to us. We both have attended many weddings but neither have seen "behind the scenes".

This seems like it's going to be a lot of work...

My brother and I signed up for ours before the season started. The last game that I went to, I asked the people at the fan relations booth how many had been sold and they said around 700-800. I would really like to have a Predators tag but I'm beginning to get disappointed. They only have to have 1,000 and I just assumed that they would've already had that many sold, especailly to all of the season ticket holders.

It's driving me crazy! It's my left eyelid, it's been doing it since Friday. Does this happen to anyone else fairly often?

I'm not overweight but I have gotten slightly chubby during the holidays. I don't think that I eat very unhealthy foods but my boyfriend is always fussing at me to eat better. My usual breakfast is a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats and a glass of orange juice. My lunch is usually my big meal. Yesterday, I had a small hamburger steak that had been grilled, okra, and corn. I drank sweet tea, I am a Southern girl. I didn't eat anything else until late last night because I was working and this I know was not good but I ate two little White Castle burgers. Do I eat that poorly? How do you find out what is really good for you. My boyfriend told me that the okra didn't have that many good nutrients in it and the corn was the same way. I thought they were good for you because they were vegetables.

I'm off work this weekend and I thought I would put up my Christmas decorations. I have a red brick house and I always put evergreen garland on the window sills with white lights and a bow and an electric candle on the inside of the window. I have been wanting to put wreaths on my windows and I have went out and bought them. I got nine wreaths for ten dollars at a flea market. They already have red bows on them. The wreaths will not have any lights on them. I don't know if I should put up the wreaths with the candle in the window, use the garland like I do every year, or both. I'm afraid if I do both, it will be over kill. Please give me your ideas and suggestions.

I remember when I was a little kid, we got these little red tablets from the dentist that you could chew up and spit out to see if you were brushing good or not. I loved those things! I would chew one up and then brush to get rid of the red. I was wondering if they still made those things. I'm only thirty so it couldn't have been all that long ago.

My brother has been selling stuff and eBay has has been doing very well thus far. He uses the money he's making to help pay his college tuition. He hasn't had any problems until here lately.

He sold four mugs and started them out at $2.00. The auction ended and they sold for $106.00. Our mother packed them in bubble wrap, lined them with that foam sheeting and stuffed newspaper around them. She wrote "fragile" on the box and "fragile" was also stamped on the box by the post office.

The buyer just sent an email stating that two of the mugs were broken when he received them and wanted us to send half of the money back. He then sent another email saying that he wanted a full refund since he wasn't pleased with the mugs. I feel that my brother should not send him a refund. Our mother took every precaution to ensure that the mugs arrived safely. The buyer did not wish to purchase any insurance on the mugs when shipping them. What would you do, keep the money or send it back?

I have gotten really soft since I got this office job. I am 5'7" and I have gained up to 185-190 pounds. I want to get back down to my skinny weight and I know I am going have to start working out. I want to run in the Warren County TN 5k Reindeer Run in December. Is there any way I can get back in shape to run in it if I started now? I know that there isn't any way I could win it, I just want to finish without dying. Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to get back in shape and how to start running again?