nojam75

Argh. I can't think of the word. It's the word or phrase for belittling a person's complaint or feigning sympathy.

It's used all the time such as when a politician is trying to appease a constituent over an issue the politician doesn't believe is important.

Customer service representatives are also accused of doing this when trying to sound sympathetic to a complaint that is silly.

For the last few days, I've noticed problems with the Yahoo! mail inbox. The inbox list does not update quickly or even freezes and becomes unresponsive. I mark and delete a few messages, but nothing happens or it continues to incorrectly lists previously deleted messages. I've even reloaded the page, but continue to have the problem.

I've experienced the same problem using Google Chrome on both my home computer (Windows Vista) and work computer (Windows XP Pro).

We have a seven-foot brick wall that is regularly tagged with graffiti. Instead of wasting more money on graffiti removal or investing in barely effective anti-graffiti coating, I've been pondering whether we could cover the wall with some kind of plant. My thought is that we would mount planters on top of the interior side of the wall and somehow encourage the plant to grow over the top of the wall and hang down on the wall's exterior side. Is that even possible? What type of plants do that?

I know nothing about gardening and the one gardener I know seemed stumped. The exterior side of the wall faces south and would have plenty of sun. We're in USDA Hardiness Zone 8b and PlantMaps Hardiness Zone 9a if that helps.

I've searched online and found a lot of information about covering walls with climbing plants from the bottom-up. However, this isn't possible in our situation because the wall borders the public sidewalk so we can't place planters in the sidewalk. Also, I'm sure the building's owner does not want any plant attaching itself to the wall or something that will become a nuisance.

We just bought our first home knowing we had to replace the oil furnace with a gas furnace. We received five quotes - two from Carrier installers and three from Amana/Goodman installers. We went with a high efficiency, variable speed Amana because it was $1000 less and had the same ten-year warranty (as far we could tell). I've read complaints about all the furnace brands, but Goodman seems to have a particularly bad reputation. Did we screw-up or does it matter?

(Not sure why I'm asking because it's basically too late. The installers are already working.)

We bought our first house this month and filed our Form 1040X 2008 Amendments with Form 5405 to claim the $8,000 First Time Homeowner Credit. Any idea how long it takes the IRS to process the refund?

We've heard everything from one to 12 weeks, but I can't find a specific estimate from the IRS.gov. Has anyone else filed or heard what the processing time for this simulus is? Our home improvements are basically on hold until we receive this funding.

As a landlord, I know I can charge a late fee (<=5%) for late rent payments. However, North Carolina landlord tenant law has a provision that I'm apparently too stupid to understand:

"A late fee under this section may be imposed only one time for each late rental payment. A late fee for a specific late rental payment may not be deducted from a subsequent rental payment so as to cause the subsequent rental payment to be in default." (NC GS § 42‑46(b))

As I understant it, if a tenant incurs a February late fee, I can't deduct the late fee from their March payment if it causes their March payment to be short. However, if the tenant's March payment is short any ways, can I still deduct February's late fee? Or do I deduct the late fee from the tenant's February rent payment -- even it if causes the February rent payment to be short?

I mainly ask, because the last time I took a tenant to court for non-payment, I did not deduct late fees from the tenant's payments. Instead, I included the late fees in the listing that brokedown the tenant's balance owed (rent, late fees, damages, etc.). The (nasty, Judge-Judy-wannabe) magistrate made the snippy comment, "Well, if you didn't collect it back then, then you can't collect it now." Er, I wasn't sure how to take that and since NC is practically a third world country, I decided against arguing with her.

I need to replace my bike's stolen front wheel. The last time I went to a bike shop, they charged me $60 for a wheel. So, I would like to shop around for something cheap this time. My bike is old and the wheel will likely be stolen again.

I wrote down the numbers from my rear wheel (rim): "26x1 50 MR RX-7" Do these numbers make sense? I searched online and craigslist, but didn't find any matches and most of the online shops seem to only sell high-end bicycle wheels or font & rear wheel sets.

I'm surprised no one online specializes in cheap bike wheels since it seems it would be a very common problem.

Are there any good breakfast or brunch restaurants in Vancouver, WA? Preferable something better than IHOP, Dennys.

I've received the same e-mail notification from Yahoo! Answers over 50 times about the same question ("Yahoo! Answers: Your answer has been chosen as the best answer"). It seems some type of glitch is causing Yahoo! to repeatedly e-mail the same message.

I sent an e-mail to Yahoo! Answers, but have not received a response and I can't find the support contact page.

Occassionally, I smell someone smoking a joint on a particular floor in our apartment building. I really don't care if someone uses marijuana, but we're a no smoking building. It's also just disgusting to have that stank in the hallway.

In Oregon, I can post a warning and then a 10-day termination if the tenant refuses to comply. However, according to ORS 90.396(f), I could immediately terminate with a 24-hour notice due to an act that is "outrageous in the extreme" which includes possession of a controlled substance. Since the tenant is so blantant with their pot use, I doubt they care and will just drag-out the eviction process. Has anyone heard of a 24-hour "outrageous in the extreme" eviction being used for pot use?

I have a sliding pocket door to a bathroom. It seems to be striking something inside the wall as it opens. It is possible to adjust or remove the pocket door?

The door hangs from a rail and appears to be a little crooked. I can see rollers on both sides of the rail, but I don't see any screws to loosen or tighten. Is there a trick to removing or adjusting a pocket door?

The home is ten years old, so it's a relatively new door.

We have a couple of carpet roll remnants in a storage unit and need to recarpet some rooms. I need to know if the remnants are large enough. It seems silly to unroll each roll of carpet just to measure. Is there an easy way to estimate the area of carpet remaining on each roll?

Digging out my long forgotten 6th grade geometry, I know I could estimate each carpet ring using (pi)x(diameter)x(length), but I never see our carpet guys using calculators. Do flooring folks have some easy method of estimate rolls of flooring?

Here's the short version:

- We contacted an out-of-state IT company about a program they advertised.

- IT company proposed a service contract, but we refused to sign because we were not convinced their program would work.

- IT company offered to set-up a demo website showing they could customize their program. However, their demo never worked, so we chose another company.

- Now IT company's local salesperson is using his local business entity to sue us in small claims for work (the demo website) he claims we authorized.

Oddly, the IT company has never billed or even contacted us after we walked-away nor is it registered in the state. So it seems the local rep is suing on his own behalf. (We suspect he promised us as a client to the IT co. so they would set-up the demo).

Should we settle or even recognize the local sales rep's standing? Couldn't the out-of-state co. use the settlement to sue us?

We would contact a lawyer, but the cost would exceed settlement.

I created a form agreement from scratch but used several sources (some copyright and a free form suggested by the state). I do not want to be accused of violating someone's copyright, so I was very conscious about designing my own form and changing the language for my own specific usage. However, I noticed that several of the copyrighted and non-copyrighted forms used similar or the exact same language. I doubt anyone could identify which form(s) I stole the language from. However, how worried should be I about being sued for copyright violation? Is it very common? Could combining a form from various copyrighted and non-copyrighted sources be considered an original work?

I have a GE Hotpoint dishwasher (HDA2030). The dishwasher runs and the dial turns by hand, but the timer does not advance through the cycles by itself. I explained the problem to a service technician and he was confident that the timer was faulty. Of course, he said his charge for labor would exceed the cost of replacing the dishwasher.

I found a new timer part online inexpensively and planned on installing it myself. However, I haven't found any manuals specifically for this model. I have seen repair manuals for replacing timers in non-GE and older Hotpoint dishwashers and it looks relatively easy to do, but I'm still searching for a repair manual for my model.

So, has anyone had experience replacing a dishwasher timer? I've replaced the dishwasher drain solenoid and other minor appliance repairs, so I'm somewhat confident in my abilities.