Lee

Tuesday evening I noticed a winged carpenter ant (at least that's what it looked like) on my passenger's seat. Before I could get it out, it crawled into a tight space under the seat. This morning (Thursday) it was crawling around on the same seat again. Or maybe it was another one, I can't tell. I suspect it got in when I parked under a tree with my sunroof open.

I've only seen two (or one twice). I couldn't hear any insect movement in the car, I have no trash in there, and the only wood is on the canvases of a couple paintings in the back seat, untouched by bugs. Does it sound like I'm in the clear, or should I look harder for a nest? Call me a wuss, but I'm extremely phobic of bugs! :(

My credentials are:

- B.A. Linguistics

- 3 years retail (during college)

- 4 years writing hardware documentation (with degree qualification)

I've been looking mostly for writing jobs, but am not having much luck, as there isn't much out there. I've even sent my resume for consideration in administrative positions, but most of which I'm overqualified for. In what other areas could I be looking?

Also, if it matters, I'm looking around Seattle.

I workout regularly, but not strenuously. Yesterday a friend convinced me to attend a continuous body-pump class, meaning everyone else had been going for months. And stupid me, used to strength training and not endurance training, used too much weight. I tried to keep up with everyone so I didn't look like a weakling newbster, but I felt like my muscles were gonna snap right off my bones! I had trouble walking immediately after.

Today, I have even more trouble walking. Needless to say, I learned my lesson, but hindsight won't help me right now. Today is also a regular gym day. I'm wondering if I should even go, or whether a few minutes on a treadmill might loosen up my muscles, or if I should just spend it stretching or doing yoga or what.

What's the best course of action at this point?

This might sound like a really stupid question, but bear with me.

I have a bag of ice that I bought weeks ago, and only occasionally do I use it. It occurred to me that this ice has been exposed to the open air before being frozen again. Is it unheard of for bacteria to grow on ice? And I don't mean the extremophiles of the Arctic/Anarctic. I mean bacteria I am likely to find in the household. I haven't touched the ice in awhile because now I'm a little grossed out at the idea of harboring entire colonies in my freezer. Intuition says no, but my brain prefers that I overthink this.

Six years ago I had my first beer on tap at a bar in Canada. It was very dark, surprisingly not bitter in the least, and I never found out what it was. I don't know if it was necessarily Canadian, either. Can anyone identify this beer?

When I turn on my netbook, it takes several minutes to a half hour for the Windows XP loading screen to the Acer background, at which point an error message pops up: "Lsass.exe - Unable to locate component. Application failed to start because WLDAP32.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix the problem." I would gladly re-install whatever I needed to, except this is a netbook with no CD drive. I tried booting it in Safe Mode but I just get to the black screen with "safe mode" in each corner, and nothing happens, nor can I do anything more.

There's nothing on this computer that I need. I've only had it a week. I would prefer to keep what I installed, but it's not necessary. Is there a way to reset this netbook even if it will not boot up?

My brother, 14 and a freshman in high school, does his homework every day, has it checked by our parents, but when he gets to school, he never turns it in! He has 20 F's in school already, and it's only been three weeks! He goes through the trouble of completing each assignment correctly, but fails to hand it in, even when asked for it! What on EARTH is he doing???

For two days ongoing I've had a sharp pain that is absent in the morning, then gradually gets worse as the day goes on. Rest helps, but I'm a working woman and can't just sit around all day. It's not severe and unbearable as reports of appendicitis say, so if you suggest that, I'll know you didn't really read the question.

It also can't be an ovarian cyst, as I don't ovulate (patients are often prescribed contraceptives that prevent ovulation, which prevents cysts). Although, my mom did get a cyst when she wasn't on BC.

The odd thing about this pain is that it started in the back, sorta where the kidney is, but now it's more so in the front (and still a little in the back). It feels like there's a knife going through my abdomen and out the back, around the area of my appendix and right ovary. It's not tender, not even rebound tenderness... It's deep, sharp pain.

Anyone else have any ideas? I don't want to go to a doctor yet, unless someone thinks it could be serious.

Here's my ideal scenario: After grocery shopping, I pull a collapsible shopping cart out of the trunk of my car, load it up with everything I bought, and take it onto the elevator and up to my studio in one trip.

Instead, I'm making several trips on the elevator, up and down NINE FLOORS, carrying whatever I can bear on my arms (which is just as much as those lame little carts can carry, about 4 heavy bags). I don't know about most people, but I do a monthly shopping trip, sometimes bi-weekly.

Do you know of anything I can use that:

- is collapsible and will fit in the trunk of a sedan

- can hold the weight of about 20 bags of groceries

- can roll over the jagged gravel surrounding my building (not a must, but a plus)?

While it's no question that an 18-year-old girl and a 22-year-old guy would easily click.

But suppose it was a matter of an 18-year-old guy and a 22-year-old girl? Naturally, I'm generalizing. But we know why there's less of a chance of that same "click".

Do you think an older girl can just shake off those immature quirks a younger guy might have? I feel almost arrogant for even asking. But I AM aware I'm making a very general statement!

I see a ton of questions every day that are phrased as "what does xxxxxx mean?" or "What's the atomic weight of xx?", questions for which there is a single straightforward answer. On occasion, I'll google it, and leave my answer.

I'm not here to knock people for asking those questions, but I'll offer the advice. Do a quick web search first, and you'll find not only the info you're looking for in a heartbeat (and not have to wait for someone to answer), as well as see for yourself the sources. If you don't care about sources, wikipedia USUALLY has accurate info (or close).

If you'd rather not, and would rather ask us here, I guess I'm just wondering why. And don't say "I'm lazy", because I think it's less work typing it into Google. Or... maybe it is laziness...

And if you tell me to google search for an answer, I'm gonna laugh.

Hmm... I left a package of baby carrots on the counter in a ziplock baggie overnight... By accident of course...

They're the cut and washed pre-packaged kind.

Think they're okay to eat still? They look okay.. smell okay... but the last thing I need is food poisoning.

I want your opinion (not some website that thinks I'm remodelling). I'm moving into a brand new, modern studio apartment that has pale brown walls with white trim. The brown swatch is here:

http://www.bgpayne.com/cardandpaper/ka008c.jpg

but I don't have pictures of the place.

My question to you is this: What kind of decorative color scheme do you think would be cool in this room?

I was thinking:

cream, dark brown, sage green, accents of either grayish-pink or slate blue.

I'm pretty set on sage green... I think... maybe...

What do you think would be cool?

I just barely started using Wifi for DS. Can more than one player visit your town at a time?

So, I went and bought Harvest Moon for the DS, and I've been playing it for two days. I've planted turnips and cleared fields, but it seems like that's all I do. And the time elapses in such a way that within minutes of trying to clear a large field or plant and water seeds, my little man gets dizzy and passes out, and wakes up at home the next morning. Then I have to walk all the way back out there and do it again. What is this?

I feel like I'm missing something huge. This game got great reviews, didn't it? I think my money is only up to 4885 right now, and I'm wondering if I'm supposed to buy something now, or what. Even a single animal costs at least 5000.

I haven't used any walkthroughs, and I'd really rather not need to. But I feel like there's something key I'm missing at this point in the game.

For those of you that have played this game, is this typically how it goes?

Mine does. The hair, the glasses, the jawline, the eye-shape.

If someone made a cartoon about me... well, it would get bad ratings because it would be so boring, but that's what I would look like if they drew me.

How about yours? And if you use a photo instead of an avatar, well... okay, you can answer if you want, get your 2 points! :P

I love my kitty, a pure white fluffy ball of purring. I've had her since 1998.

The only problem is, I'm always wearing dark colors. I wear black slacks to work almost every day, dark green and purple sweaters. Of course, when I got her, I was 13 and didn't wear dark colors all the time.

So, naturally I get white fur all over EVERYTHING! I've used those tape-roll lint removers, as well as felt/velvet lint removers. But I still take white fur with me wherever I go, and it's embarrassing! What's the best way to eliminate this problem?

The following are options I won't consider:

1. Getting rid of the cat, or shaving her, or using hair remover on her.

2. Eliminating dark colors from my wardrobe. It's what I wear to work.

3. Trying to keep the cat from getting on the couch or bed or tables, or all those other surfaces she loves. Her fur still floats through the air anyway.

I need a solution to get rid of the fur that's already made it to the clothing. Thanks!!!

I just bought MySims last week, am already on the fifth star and have unlocked all the minigames. But I'm already bored with it.

Animal Crossing is fun, too, but it's just the same stuff every day. Gotta do my digging, my watering, and talk to everyone. And I never see any new furniture anymore. Even the spotlight products and Redd's junk are repeats.

I beat the Phantom hourglass in about a week. I suppose I can keep trying to go back and find the rest of my hearts.

I also have Super Mario, Brain age, Nintendogs, and Final Fantasy 6 for GBA. But I'm so bored with all of them.

I've heard Harvest Moon was a good one, kinda like Animal Crossing and MySims, but with more to it. Or is it just repetitive like those two?

Also, I really loved Phantom Hourglass, but it went by too fast. And it was too easy to beat without doing everything (I'm missing five hearts, and haven't caught any fish, and I still beat it). Are there any similar adventure games out there?

It was a gmail attachment that I modified (a Word document) after opening it directly. I opted to save the changes I made just by Ctrl+S. This was stupid of me, because I didn't save it to my computer, but obviously the changes did save somewhere on my computer. However, when I perform a search, the search comes up dry. Even when I search for all Word docs modified in the last week.

I checked my C:/Temp folder and my Temporary Internet Files and came up with nothing! I made major changes, and I need to find that file!

I did have to restart my computer this morning. I hope that didn't blow it for me. Am I SOL???