phoenix_sfo

My gf and I are engaged and are saving money for the wedding. We agreed that for Valentines Day we would not go out and buy expensive presents or have an expensive dinner. She suggested that we both do something romantic for each other.

OK....so now I'm at a loss. Any suggestions? Would really like some honest feedback. Thanks. :)

Any suggestions for a high school graduation gift for my daughter?

A little background info on her.

She's not a girly-girl. She's into softball and marching band. But she cleans up nice in her senior prom dress, and she wears a little (not a lot) of make-up. She wears jeans instead of skirts and runs around with a small purse. Ipod's are out as she already has two full size and a small little one (about the size of a quarter-I forget what that one's called).

She will be going away to a well known college in September and already has a laptop.

I was thinking something for college, but would like other suggestions.

She already has a decent cell phone. I was thinking about a Black Jack or iphone, but since she's going to carry her laptop and the campus is Wifi'ed already a internet phone is pretty useless.

Anyone have any suggestions?

First of all, I know a heck of a lot about 4x4's so I'm no dummy. Secondly I'm not interested in 4x4 vs AWD for this discussion. I know the difference. I'm interested in power to four wheels versus two wheels.

My ex-wife bought a 2006 Ford Escape. She claims it's a 4x4. I looked at the rear end to see the drive train and found no rear drive axle and no rear end. Where the rear end is suppose to be is a big hole in the frame. I've seen 4x4 Escapes and they all have the rear diff. So I'm confused.

My daughter says there is a switch on the dash that says something like "auto" or "manual". She was vague as she is too young to observe much.

Normally I don't care as the vehicle isn't mine. However they are going up into the Sierra Nevada's this weekend and the weather is extremely bad. I anticipate chain controls and potentially a shut down of the freeways. They have to go, it's an emergency.

Can someone clarify the confusion? Thanks.

I’ll try and make this short. I’m a single father of a 17 year old daughter that lives with her mom. They live about 20 miles from me.

Because of her busy schedule (and the fact that she’s 17 and has friends), I don’t get to see her much.

Example: For the first three months of the school year, I only see her when she’s practicing for a school event. I observe her from a great distance as she practices. After practice she has to rush home and do homework. Thus I only see her for about 5 minute twice a week. Again this happens for three months. This is the extent of my interaction with her.

I see her on our birthdays and sometimes for the holidays. I didn’t see her over Thanksgiving weekend as she was sick.

For the Christmas vacation I saw her for a total of 4 days. About 6 hours each time.

There might be an opportunity to see my daughter another 4 times during the year for high school activities but that’s about it.

There’s almost no interactions between us as she is busy with the event. But nonetheless for these activities at least I get to see her from a distance.

As you can see, I don’t get to see her very often. So when we have the opportunity, I always jump at the chance.

My problem is my girlfriend of two years. She doesn’t seem to understand that a lot of our plans are very tentative because I don’t get to see my daughter too often. I know that we can’t plan a lot of things to do over the holidays because I want the chance to see my daughter. My girlfriend feels like she is a low priority because I can’t commit to something if I think there’s a chance for me to see my daughter.

I don’t understand this type of thinking. I’m with her 6-7 days out of the week. The only time I’m NOT with her is when I’m with my daughter (which is very seldom). So what’s the problem? I see my daughter about 12-15 days maximum out of the year. I see my girlfriend about 340 days out of the year.

Please don’t tell me to have my daughter and girlfriend interact. They know each other, but my daughter is selfish of our time together. It’s father-daughter-quality time which I too value quite a bit. Yes, the three of us have done several things together, but I still value my time with my daughter.

Am I being a total mother-f******? Does anyone else have this problem? I want to hear from BOTH sides, so if you have this problem, I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you!!

Every year each department in our company dresses up with a theme.

We try to keep the theme inexpensive (costumes under $20 which makes it very hard) yet we also want to win the prize for the most unique theme.

Any ideas?

For instance in the past years we went as tourist to Hawaii and we all dressed up in Hawaiin shirts, shorts, sandels. Some came with snorkeling equipment and surf boards.

Another year we came up with sheets (like bed sheets) with prints on them. Like dogs, horses, bulls(for dog sheet, horse sheet, bull sheet, some sheets had holes in them (holy sheet)...well you get the picture about the sheets.

We also dressed up in very large brown garbage bags which made us look like raisins.

Well....we're out of ideas. Can anyone give us some more ideas to work with?

Thanks!!!!!

I'd like some input from the young people here. I'm a divorce dad with a 17 year old daughter. I don't see her too often (about once/twice a month). We do get along pretty good. She's almost like a friend rather than a daughter to me.

We go out to see movies, but there has to be some other activities that young people enjoy can share with their dad.

I've taken her to (baseball) batting cages, go-kart racing and video games (which she beats me everytime!!), but I'm also running out of ideas.

Any fresh ideas that you guys can come up with would be great!!

Thanks!!

I've heard at least two versions of the song. One with Busta Rhymes. There is at least one or two other versions.

The one with Busta Rhymes is on their album "PCD".

Can anyone tell me where I can get the other two versions of the song?

Thanks!!!

I just installed 12" marble tile (it's a high gloss marble called creama marfil) on the kitchen and bathroom floors.

I know the grout lines are supposed to be sealed, but is the high gloss marble suppose to be sealed too? I used some expensive stuff from Lowe's to seal the grout and marble tile, but it doesn't seem like it's doing a good job on the tile. In fact it came out a little dull on the tile. Before the tile was nice and smooth with a high shine to it. Now it's a little dull and not as smooth.

Is there a trick to sealing high gloss marble floor tile? Or does it need to be sealed at all? I'm thinking that maybe I should just seal the grout lines and leave the tile unsealed?

Thanks.

My gf is very slim. Not skinny but slim. She works out and is in pretty good shape. In her opinion she believes that she was "shorted" on top. I admit that her size is a 34A (and that's on a good day). But I pretty much figured that out before we started dating (clothes only hide so much) and it never bothered me.

I've always told her (and meant it) that she's fine as she is and I think she's very sexy just the way God made her. But I know it bothers her and she has talked many times about breast enhancements. I also know there is always a risk with surgery.

I need the opinion of the ladies. Do I encourage her to seek out breast augmentation options, or do I try to discourage her, or do I continue to let her know that she's just as beautiful and sexy as she is right now?

When you respond, IF you don't mind, plz let me know if UR "small" or large and if U had enhancements. (I'll know where you're coming from.)

Many thx from a guy who thinks his GF is already a perfect 10!

My daughter is going to her junior prom. She was asked by a shy boy (I got the impression that he's very nice..he gave her a dozen roses when he asked her. Took a lot of nerve if he's shy, so I give him a lot of credit.) She's a relatively outgoing person with a good head on her shoulders and a lot of common sense.

Since her mother and I are divorced, I'm not up on a lot of her social activities, but I believe this is might be her first real date. Her date's family doesn't have a lot of money (that's not an issue) and it doesn't matter since the dinner and dance are held in one place.

My questions: #1) I want to meet this young man just to say "hello" and to see my daughter all dressed up. If I asked her if it was OK to just drop by for 2 minutes, do you think that would be too much to ask?

And #2) since her date's funds might be limited, is there anything that I could do or get the two of them to make it even more special than it will already be?

I'm beginning a kitchen remodeling project and have already taken the tile backsplash (about 10" high) off the sheetrock. The sheetrock was previously textured (common in new houses) and then the tile was glued onto it.

When taking the tile off, the paper portion of the sheet rock has ripped off with some of the tile exposing the plaster center portion of the sheet rock. In some other places the plaster is cracked. It isn't too bad. Some areas of damage are about half the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.

I want to retile with a full backspash and was wondering how to go about this over the damaged portions. Do I simply retile over the exposed plaster areas? How do I go about tiling over the cracked plaster portions?

Thank you for your input and suggestions.

I'm the divorced father of a 16-year old girl that lives with her mother and mom's BF.

I used to have a close relationship with my daughter until a couple of months ago when we got into a stupid (at least by my standards, but obviously not hers) argument. She hasn't spoke to me since October. :(

I tried several times to talk to her, but got the rebuttal.

As I said before we were close. I took her to Hawaii for vacation, snowboarding, snowmobiling, road trips and we always had a great time.

I don't know how to solve this. Do I keep calling her? With each rebuttal, it get harder. Do I write her a letter? (I've already done that.) Do I text her? (I've done that too.)

Also, do you think her mother is "passively" encouraging her to stay away? After our divorce, our lives took radically different turns. I'm doing pretty good, and she's pretty much dependent on her BF. I think it might be her way of getting even.

I really need the advice of young people. Please help!