Melch

My mother is in town while I have to serve. Can she stay in the waiting area? I have to report for grand jury in NJ.

I will be staying at the Marriott Downtown in San Fransisco and was wondering if it would be safe for me to walk to the salon at night?

My family is visiting PR the week of Thanksgiving and we wanted to eat out to celebrate the holiday. There will be 13 of us staying in Humacao. My sister wants to go to Guavate. Will we be able to get seating with so many people? Also, we don't want to do the whole tour bus thing since we have cars. Open to other places and suggestions as well!

I'm just wondering tax-wise. My condo community wants to put together a holiday fund, which will collect thousands of dollars to distribute amongst the staff. We send a check to the organizer (whom I completely trust) and the staff will be given cash. I know the IRS considers tips income no matter what, and I'm sure not every recipient reports it accurately. Is there any difference by giving as a group or just handing out cash on your own?

We have our own snorkeling equipment. We'd like to rent a boat and drift off but I'm not sure if we legally could. We've already been to Nassau and Culebra so we are open to other suggestions. We plan on going in March.

I was bitten by something on my eyebrow about two weeks ago. When I first noticed it, I saw a tiny little blood spot where the bite was. It was slightly swollen and red for about 8 days. It started to go away but yesterday someone noticed that my brow was red again. It slowly started to swell throughout the day. I took Benedryll before I went to bed but I woke up this morning and my brow to my eyelid was swollen! I saw my internist and she didnt know what it was and didnt really care and prescribed me bactroban. Should I be more concerned? And also, the are is pretty itchy now.

I know someone who has 4 young children. She is an army nurse and on active duty. Would they really send her to Iraq or Afghanistan when there is no one to watch her kids? Or do they force her relatives to take her children?

I need to make a dish that you could taste the liqueur in and that could be transported at room temperature for about 4 hours or more.

I've never been to Miami. I'm staying there for one night before taking off on a cruise to the Bahamas and want to make sure I take in the best flavors Miami Beach has to offer. I'm up for anything -new and trendy or the traditional hole-in-the-wall.

We want to take out a girl in her mid-20s but don't have time to go to NYC or Philadephia.

I have a thick waist for my height. I'm 5'2" and my measurements are 34-27-35. I wanted to wear a sash with my wedding dress. Is that advisable or not advisable? If it's ok, what shade of purple should I go for? Dark, bright, pale...?

I need a band for my pre-wedding celebration. It's going to be in the Scranton area in PA so I'm looking for a band in the NYC or Philly area.

This is for a wedding and I want to request song fun songs. The band plays mostly jazz but I want to come up with a couple of songs that are modern. It could be a throw back too, as long as it's upbeat. Oh and the vocalist is male so no girlie songs...

I'm pretty average. I've been about the same weight since the 8th grade and now I'm 27. I just feel like the weight keeps distributing to different places. For the most part I was always more pear shaped. A few years ago, I liked the way I looked because I was heavier on the hips and thighs. I've never had a nice slim waist though. I really want to trim my waistline and I thought cardio was supposed to help that. I've been running 3 or 4 days a week religiously since March and I am not getting the results I want. My thighs are thinner and I've lost some pudge off my back but I look disproportionate. My waist hasn't slimmed at all! I hate my figure, I have a 26 1/2 in waist and 35 in hips. I've turned more into an apple shape and I don't get it. And I haven't lost any weight. Do I just need to workout more? I do cardio for about 40 min at a time.

My cat is 5 1/2 months old. She was spayed when she was 8 or 9 weeks. We adopted her and took her to another vet and the vet said her procedure looked perfect. My cat eats really well but she's skinny and her stomach sags and there seems to be so much flab. Is this normal?

I work in the flavor industry and a few of my collegues and I would like to know more about alcohol. We've found information on brewing technology and wine but none so far on high proof. We'd be willing to travel anywhere in the US, or elsewhere if we had to.

My fiance and I decided we should get married soon (possibly Sept). Our budget is about $6-8K and we want to do something fun and reasonable. We plan on having maybe 60 guests, maybe more. We live in NJ and dont want to have to fly anywhere. I don't care too much about a ceremony. I just want to throw a great party somehow and make sure people have a lot of fun. We will have almost an equal amount of friends:family.

We need one to review our contract on a Condo we're buying in Jersey City. What are the fees like?

We're looking to purchase a one bedroom condo in Jersey City, NJ and are torn between two. One, (we'll call Condo A) is a luxury condo community (500 units) and still under development till about 2010. The other(Condo B) is a new construction in an 8 unit building. Condo B is larger& has low maintenance fees. Condo A has many building amenities(gym, game room, doorman, etc) but with a higher maintenance fee. Features specific to the apartments themselves are comparable. Purchase price is also comparable. Of course, the amenities are great, but my concern is that with 500 units, there might be some risk/competition in selling it 7-10 years from now.