Mark S

I have an Ibanez GRG121EX guitar (the silver if it matters) that I bought 4ish years ago used after being out of practice in playing for a couple of years. I also had taken lessons for about 3 years and am looking to get back to playing, and aside from taking lessons again and going through my old lesson stuff again I am debating swapping to bass as I had one before and I might still have an amp as well and don't have a guitar amp (it involves a lot of moving and selling stuff).

Is there a rough estimate on how much I can get for the guitar that I have now, its in pretty good condition (no playability flaws, and no real blemishes). I know what I'm looking for in a bass, but I don't want to pull the trigger on anything until i know what I can get for the guitar. Any ideas, i know its roughly what MSRP was but is there a formula for how much trade would be at a Guitar Center or Music Go Round?

I'm a big fan of cooking up a piece of chicken from frozen in the oven by putting it in a loaf style pan (or a cake pan if I'm cooking for more then just me) and then covering it in water and seasoning the water. This cooked at 400ish for about 45 minutes comes out pretty good. I'm also a fan of barbeque sauce and would like to have it in the mix in the cooking. Is there a way to pour it in the water to get it in the water so it imparts some flavor or should I just deal with it not being in there?

Now that we have just one cat we tried an experiment that had failed on prior cats putting a collar on her. Surprisingly it has stuck with her. The key part of this is a little silver bell. The odd thing is that the bell is rarely centered and almost always is about a 45 degree turn from center to the right. Does this indicate her favoring one side over the other?

We had our cat fixed on Tuesday and I picked her up yesterday. We knew eating wouldn't be big but she hasn't been using the litter box and eating is very minimal. How long will this go on for before she resumes her more normal bathrooming?

We understand the eating, we are just worried about the factor of using the bathroom, is this normal or how long will it take before she resumes normal litter usage?

My wife and I are starting the adoption process and while I'm not confused on the process itself I wanted to find a book on adoption and the family process etc. Not the legal process of the home study etc, that's pretty clear to see, but the whole after the move in part. The part after the paperwork. is what I'm concerned about, plus our agency is awesome so far (outside the phone tag)

Unfortunately all the books I'm finding deal with adopting babies and stuff like that. We aren't looking at adopting that young more in the ages of 9+. My opinions aside I just like reading on stuff and this seems like a good thing to read up on. Any title suggestions on ones not focused on babies or better book ideas to look for?

Thank you for the help.

I work for a loan servicing company and I represent several major mortgage companies and make payments on escrowed accounts. I love it in fact. It is also odd that a lot of agencies get mad at me for calling them (along with every other company) and insist that I need to call the carrier. The thing is that most carriers won't release this information to us (and per the business rules we cannot render payment without this information).

What I'm wondering is how much they get because I know once my payment is received they get another residual payment from the policy getting renewed. For 2 minutes of their time (seriously my average phone call is 2.5 minutes) they make money that simple. Just out of curiosity is it that low that these people are balking at providing basic customer service for a couple of minutes for an easy payment into your bank account?

My wife and I are considering adopting a teenager and are starting to look into the process of going through it. I was just wondering how long does it take to adopt a child from foster care?

Any links to some good sites explaining everything? We've been in contact with an agency for about a week or so I'm just looking for more information on the process.

While I've been slowly working on acquiring a small comics collection, but with some difficulty right after I started.

I also find stupid little ways to reward my self in life and a number of those involve going to buy snacks at Dollar Tree, and on my trip for this weekend I saw some comics in 2 packs. Yes 2 comics for $1. I realize that these comics would most likely be garbage, but for $1 it is worth the risk.

The titles I came home with were two Crossgen titles Crux and Way of the Rat, I believe issue one for both. They also had a Daredevil issue and a third pack (the way the packages were laid out you could only tell what one was, they weren't back to back). Even with the trepidation over the title quality Crux isn't too bad. The other volume I haven't touched yet and I just flipped through a few pages on Crux.

I am just wondering is the story line worth investing into by getting the trade paperbacks? I know Crossgen went under, but the larger volumes appeared to be dirt cheap (making my purchase of .53 apiece very expensive looking) when I found them online. I know these might not be the most high end comics, but for that cheap the purchase wasn't a bad choice.

My question is does it become worth investing in the larger story line or does it just become garbage?

Do the drug free school zones mean anything extra from a law enforcement perspective? We have a neighbor issue who is on medical weed and I don't care what people believe even if you have a medical card it is still illegal under federal law. We are also recently moved into this home as a rent to own. These people live behind us, their backyard points to ours.

This woman was crazy and when my wife tried to become friends with her she came over high and made all these screaming threats toward her husband. We even found out they ripped down the fence to hang out with the prior tenants because they were friends. My landlord is now suing them for the fence and thankfully we found out that the tenants prior to the ones to the ones before us put a restraining order in place where come to find out they can't step foot on our property until December 2013. I still don't trust them and it was made clear that when my land lord told the police about the fence they said, oh her.

I frankly don't care what these people do in their own home (even though your kid shouldn't be witnessing it), but we both live inside a "drug free school zone" sign set as we both live inside of a block of an elementary school. Does that mean anything from a legal perspective or not. I know that we can have them tossed if they show up on our property, but given how crazy she was I don't trust that and was wondering if I have extra help against them just in case.

My work is very very kind and supplies us with the Kurig like system by Alterra. We have a massive selection and I have two favorites, one of which is my first coffee of the day the espresso blend and while enjoyable my favorite is Baristas Blend, which is another dark roast but has a nice almost nutty flavor and is still fairly strong, but a little calmer, and good for a break (which is when I drink it). Does anyone know anything close to it in flavor that is regularly available through traditional stores?

My wife is bipolar and unfortunately due to some bad times with us we had been receiving state assistance for her mental health. Don't think of us for some leaches, we weren't receiving food stamps, medicaid, or cash assistance (welfare in my state), just help with 3 medications and my wife seeing a psychiatrist. This is actually state law that certain people get free mental health help so they don't kill themselves. We are actually getting out of the program because of last week I got health insurance because I finally got a good job that gave us insurance (read good job, above minimum wage, and full time with decent insurance).

The issue is that my wife had not been getting the services granted to her because the office was continuously cancelling her appointments. They only had two doctors and due to this there was the issue of the appointments were always canceled and they would not be able to rebook them for some 3-4 months. My wife hasn't seen her doctor since about September or October. Tonight she had to be hospitalized for a few days and most likely getting us a massive bill, because she hasn't seen her doctor for what should be a monthly appointment in almost five or six. She tried to get an emergency appointment earlier this week (the original appointment was last Thursday which got canceled), and they said they didn't have anything until June. Do we have a violation of her rights?

My wife and I just moved into a rental home and the former tenant abandoned a number of possessions in the home and the landlord said what we find is ours. He had given the prior tenant a few weeks to get these, but given partly the fact that our landlord is suing the former tenant for a generous amount of money (more then 10x the value of the left items) he never came back fro them. There were a few weeks between when this guy was evicted and when we moved in.

One of his more unique left possessions was an old Xbox in a see through blue casing (I don't know if it was a special ed or after market I've never looked into it). Thing is it only has a power supply plug, that's it (or what I'm hoping is the power supply).

How hard would it be to get a controller and ac cables for this thing? Is this stuff still readily available for semi cheap? I've seen I can get games for semi cheap. I'm seriously thinking of getting the parts for this and hooking it up as part of a man cave. I'm just wondering if it is still possible. Also am I going to need a memory card for this?

I know it sucks that this guy lost his xbox, but if I can enjoy it why not (we also found a portable DVD player with the goonies in it, and a few sealed boxes of assorted computer parts).

I know I asked a similar question a few days ago but off of some help from some friends and some research/varied online shopping I might have a little more information then before I ended up asking the original question and I am taking the answers I got originally into consideration as well. I've known the names of some more prominent names for a while, and found trade paperbacks of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight returns for about 35 total (sold as a set) or about 11 each. I also found out about another series I was considering that hasn't been reprinted ever and well sells for about 300 a book so that's a no go. Would these three be a good starting point or not? I know I said I'm not a huge super hero fan but from my understanding these are some good mature titles that have some levity to them.

Good point to start or not? Also what is about market price for those books new?

I recently considered getting back into comics, I had a brief younger run for a couple of years where I bought random popular marvel books, and when I was in college I read a lot of the more popular manga which I got out of due to just feeling too cliched in the story lines (and one I had been reading for a long time which I just thought was loosing steam).

Any title suggestions, I'm not a huge super hero fan, but if someone suggests something more adult or even an individual title set (small run) that I can get into it would be considered. Are there any good Science Fiction or fantasy titles that I should be consider? I'm more scifi/fantasy (swords and sorcery stuff can be high or low) the hero stuff. Any suggestions or should I just go to my local shop and talk to them a little?

Also I'm willing to get into a new manga series, but I'm not going back to the stuff I used to read. If you can suggest something published in English (sorry I can't read Japanese), and is not always aimed at a younger crowd I'm game.

My land lord is a restaurant owner who told us we could raid a freezer that is in the garage, and there were a lot of nice roasts in there. I'm not joking we filled up the freezer in the house and we have probably 300 in meat still in the garage freezer. The thing has been running, but some of the roasts are a few years old. How long is meat good for if its been in a deep freezer?

Due to financial difficulties my wife and I are leaving Verizon a little early ( just a few months) and shaving our phone bill in half by swapping to Tmobile. We have had a lot of issues with Verizon, and despite the phone service being good, the actual customer service from them was less then desireable. They really need to work on this big time.

We are going to pay Verizon, but it might be in smaller chunks then all at once. We are hoping to offset this by selling the phones we have to help pay for it. Does Verizon lock the phones from getting a new owner until paid off or not?

Please don't rag on me for having to end my contract by force, we will pay this off, but we just needed to know if we could sell the phones or not.

We have 2 female cats one is about 12 months old, the other is about 8-10 months. The past day or so I've barely seen the younger one and she is acting strange, she keeps hiding under the bed and dresser (thankfully not the couch), and when she has come out she is somewhat lovey, but keeps her tail verticle and very poofed out (it looks vastly thicker). Is she mad, is does this indicate an injury or is she just in a pissy mood? Also she was acting very scared earlier too, so we don't know if we accidentally kicked her off the bed the other night (it has happened if you pounce on feet while people are sleeping).

In my search to find a decent replacement guitar for the one I had to sell per an agreement with my wife, I can get a used one for about 100 or so. I know this isn't the most ideal guitar price, but it beats not being able to play at all, and if you go used you can get a very nice guitar for 150 or so, I've gotten some nice ones in that range from a local store that only sells used. Their prices are usually decent and a little below market in all actuality (less then half of new price).

I have it down to two guitars which is an Ibanez Gio that uses and RG body, an Artcore Gio that I assume is physically very similar to the other one (I prefer the rg with its covered pick ups just taste preference).

The other big find for me was a Epiphone V that I found quite odd because it didn't look like a Gibson V, it looked like a Jackson. Rather then being like a typical symmetrical design it was more copy of a Rhodes V. It was asymmetrical like a Rhodes with the cut away and an Explorer's head stock (It had the Epi logo on it so it wasn't a Jackson).

Can anyone tell me where to find information on this thing like the year or any other information on it? I am very interested in it and am highly considering it so I just want a little more information. It seems like it was a deliberate attack on Jackson's market share and they wanted to take over what they couldn't get which was their players.

Anything on this clearly designed to look like something else?

Sadly due to my wife loosing her job (although I finally got a good one) I had to go sell our guitars this weekend so we could pay some bills . That aside the selling of mine came with a stipulation of being able to get something so I can continue to play without spending a ton, and have something as a hold over.

The stipulation as far as today was concerned was that I was able to get something used for about 100 for selling a guitar for a bit more (still more money then initially in our pockets). My wife talked me into waiting a little while and maybe spending a little more, and it is a budget of about $200 US. I'm looking to go used most likely unless I do rent to own, but I priced that out before and that was a horrid profit margin for them (30 down plus 30 a month for a year for a 250 guitar, if I were to save the money in that time I could get an almost 400 one). That economic issue aside I do have a few leads already:

An ibby gio 90 used.

Various other similar Ibby lower end models for about 200ish

A few lower end LTD models, which usually hold up well for the price

Schecter running used I've had good luck finding well priced models that were beyond bang for their buck (I got a 400 one used for 150).

Any other suggestions, rondo for 150ish?

A dean vendetta?

I know I'm looking at mediocre guitars at best, but we also sold our amps and I'm looking to be able to play, not have the world's greatest guitar. I'm not looking for an LTD 1000 or American Deluxe Fender, I'm looking for playable and plays well.

Is the Gio style rg worthwhile with an super thin neck?

Would I be better off hunting for a used on craigslist or a store with limited selection?

Is rondo a good idea for non-agile?

Are low end deans that horrible ( I know a place that doesn't sell a ton of guitars quick that might have an ml for 120)

Any other suggestions?

Please don't say save up more I'm looking to be able to play and want to be able to otherwise I won't be able to until march when I get my tax refund. I will upgrade when I can and my wife did get a job, and this was to pay the rent until she gets paid. Also hard tails only I don't like floyds and I really don't trust them on that low end of a guitar.