Zach K

I write for nintendolife.com and soon I'll review the 3DS game The Oregon Trail. This is a game that I grew up playing in school, as did my entire generation, so it really resonates with me on that level. But I'm wondering, do you youngsters, adolescents, teens and tweens still play this at school?

We don't want to de-claw because the vet says it's terrible for them for many reasons. How do I train my cats to stop taking their claws out when palying and to stop scratching the furniture?

I could have sworn she was dead! Who was I thinking of if she's not dead? Is she dead? She's totally dead, right?

I'm trying to play one of my favorite Windows 95 games, The Space Bar by Segasoft, on my Windows 7 computer. Even when I select Compatability Mode, I get this error message: "The program or feature... cannot start or run due to incompatability with 64-bit versions of Windows. Please contact the software vendor to ask if a 64-bit Windows compatible version is available.

Is there any way around this? Thanks!

Mine's probably Justin, but it's hard to say. How about you?

Sometimes my cat will get wound up, his tail will begin to wave around like crazy, and his butt will begin to move. Here's the part that worries me - he'll look back at it the same way as a dog looks at its bum when it has a bad itch and wants to chew it. He looks at it like there's something else in there. For a second he'll frantically begin to wash it, then bounce around a bit, with his butt seeming to move kind of of its own accord. Could my cat have some sort of worm or bug living in his butthole? I've never seen worms, neither from his butt or in his poop (though I rarely look at the former), and he doesn't have diarrhea, nor is this a constant, or, really, frequent problem. I'd feel weird going to the vet and saying "My cat's butt is going crazy!" Maybe he's just wound up and that's how he acts when he's wound up. He's only about 2 years old. Does he have a parasite in his bum?

My fiancee and I bought a Hasbro Ouija board and we can't get it to work. We turn out the lights and light a candle and all that stuff, but no ghosts! How to make the spooks come out? I wanna get SPOOKY.

When measuring for a men's (linen) suit, are "jacket size" and "coat size" the same thing?

I am getting married in a little under three months and have a best man, two groomsmen and an usher, and all of us are spread out across the country as is the wedding location, which is on a beach. There is no way for us all to get to the same tailor or suit store. I was thinking of buying this suit and getting everyone else to do the same - http://www.suits4menonline.com/bianco-brioni-itali... - but the fact that the measurement only lists general size + waist, not length, of pants worries me. Is there a smarter way to do this?

Book suggestions???

a jump b run bu i loss

My fiancée and I are planning our wedding (well, I have to admit, she's doing most of the work), and for the ceremony and reception we were planning on having a small ensemble, a few string instruments and other necessities. It's a small wedding, and we're expecting 30-100 people. We'd budgeted $1200-1500 for the music.

My fiancée's been in talks with a manager of such ensembles in the area, and he's just written an email stating that the smallest ensemble that would be appropriate for a reception and danceable would involve a few vocalists and an instrument arrangement that would run $4000 at the very least. He's said that anything less would only disappoint. I have a feeling that he's just trying to get as much money out of us as he can and that he knows the language to use to do it - for example, he originally said that the person he spoke with who he manages quoted him $8000 and wanted a larger ensemble, which he followed with the word "ouch!" But maybe he's right. I don't know, I've never had a wedding before. Can anyone help us out? We're kind of at sea. But we can't spend $4000 without feeling very, very wasteful, if we can even get the money for that together at all. We need some cash left over for the marriage itself! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

He keeps meowing.

I'm about to buy a laptop computer with Windows 7, and my dad has always bought this type of thing before. He's a disciple of Dell, but I'm not convinced that they're the best company, simply because they're all we've used and I thus have no perspective. Also, I'm finding more and more that buying through retail stores like Best Buy can get you ripped off. What's the best way to get my new computer?

I graduated from college in May 2008 and plan to go to graduate school in the fall of 2010, and I'm in the process of asking my old professors for letters of recommendation. My question is do I have them send me the letters or do I have them send the schools to which I'm applying the letters? If they are to send them to the schools to which I'm applying, then doesn't this mean that all of my application materials will come piece by piece instead of all in one bundle?

What are your opinions on synthetically created (in a lab) diamonds for engagement rings? Here's my thought process:

In favor of mined diamonds:

1) They are rare;

2) Thanks to the Kimberley Process, I don't have to worry about it being a conflict or blood diamond;

3) I won't feel cheap;

4) In the words of the jewelry salesman, "A diamond created in a lab is fake, like a cubic zirconium."

In favor of synthetically created diamonds:

1) They are identical to mined diamonds;

2) Some question the reliability of the Kimberley Process, which worries me. They say that it is easy to get certified, that those under the agreement are poorly regulated, that it's a soft law, so that while someone found violating the agreement would not be able to trade their diamonds around the world, they would not be able to be charged for a crime otherwise - though this trade restriction is probably a big deal to diamond traders. Still, should I worry about this?

3) Saving money on the diamond will mean more money to spend on us, on our home and our future.

Can anyone please help me with some of these thoughts, or at least tell me what your reaction would be if your engagement diamond was synthetically created?

My girlfriend's father recently put her cat to sleep because the vet told him that the cat had kidney failure and that the only way to help it would be to put it on an IV, but it would still be in pain. This cat was 23 years old and seemed happy, but in the past week he hadn't been eating and seemed to be feeling sick. I have a cat whose kidneys failed and he is still very healthy because of protein pills, Pedialyte, etc. I've just got to keep my mouth shut about that - it would break her heart to tell her that the cat could have been saved. But her cat is much older than mine (my cat is 16 years old). I'm not sure if her 23-year old cat would have died from kidney failure or not, considering its age. It's dead and gone now, but this has been troubling me greatly. Does anyone have any more information or experience to relate to this matter? Thank you.

I put a marshmallow Peep on a paper towel and set it in my microwave. After about fifteen seconds, it caught fire. Why? Does this happen often? I thought they were supposed to inflate!

They've asked for my bank's institution name, routing number and account number. This is so that I can publish something I wrote on Amazon.com Kindle. It says that it is a secure page and that it is free to publish online, but is it a good idea to give them this information? I know they are a reliable company, but I still have reservations.