Rose

I'm moving into a small,semi-furnished apartment. One of the few pieces of furniture in the apartment is a large glass dining room table with 6 chairs, which take up the entire dining/living room area. I plan on putting at least half the chairs in storage (as I don't plan on entertaining much), but the table is too big. I want to push it against the far wall to open up the room.

However, I'm really not a fan of the table, especially the glass. The corners are also very sharp. I'd like to put some kind of table cloth or something over it. Any other suggestions?

My timing belt broke and I need to totally replace my engine. I'm trying to decide whether I should just sell my car as-is, maimed engine and all, to the salvage guys and buy another used car, or if I should buy a new (or used) engine and have mine replaced. The car has 4 brand-new tires (1 week old) and my car dealer told me I could likely get anywhere from $750 - $1200 for the car as-is. The re-sale value for my car if it were in good condition could be anywhere from $1500 - $4000. It has 95,000 miles.

I'm reading "The Rules", the iconic how-to-get-a-man book, just out of curiosity. I don't really think it's very applicable to today's fast-paced, technology-obsessed, social media-ruled world.

Have you every actually used The Rules? What were your impressions?

My brother an I used to play a game on our PC about 15, maybe 17 or 18, years ago. It involved a guy who lived in a village, and you guided him around the village on little quests. There were little games in each house/shop he visited. There was also a forest with a lake, maybe a well, and little activities there as well. I believe the main character's name was Anthony.

Anyone remember this?

I have a coworker that has been with my company a few years longer than I have, and she is one rung up the corporate totem pole from me. When she was new and in my position, she was a "loose cannon" (as another coworker describes) and struggled to learn the ropes and get stuff right. I'm not having nearly as much trouble as she did, and I am well-liked and respected in my company. I am gaining a good reputation among my colleagues and I am increasingly asked to help out on tasks. However, this particular coworker tries to teach me "the hard way". Whenever she corrects me, or even reprimands me, she does so via email and CC's other colleagues. She also nit-picks everything I produce, to the point where she'll find new "errors" every time she looks at one of my documents. We usually have to go through 6 drafts when she reviews my work, because each time she finds something else she's unhappy with. I don't have this problem with any other coworker. She also insists on reviewing everything I produce, sometimes right down to internal emails.

I've been working with this company for almost a year now. With every other colleague, I've gained a good reputation. I know that this particular coworker will be contributing for my annual review. I'm a candidate for early promotion and I'm worried that her input and feedback to my review may hold me back.

I've talked to another coworker about this once, and she was very surprised to hear about the issue and frustrated about what I was experiencing. She was especially frustrated because she thinks very highly of me and wants to support my early promotion, and believes I deserve it.

What is a tactful way of dealing with this situation??

My coworker is having a baby and I've been invited to her baby shower. She and her husband have opted not to know the gender of the baby. They have requested cash gifts over clothes, toys, etc.

She makes more money than me. What would be an appropriate amount for me to give her? I don't want to be cheap, but like I said, she's married and makes more than me.

I'm using vlookup to compare data across two Excel sheets. When I run the vlookup, I get incorrect and nonsensical data returned. When my colleague runs the same vlookup in the same file on her computer, she gets correct results. It's causing a lot of problems with my current project at work.

Could there be something with my settings that is causing Excel to populate incorrect data when I run a vlookup?

I have a really bad cold, and I look like... well... crap. I have a first date in a little over 24 hours. What can I do to salvage my tired-looking skin and chapped lips and nose??

There are two people in particular with whom I used to have great relationships that inexplicably and suddenly fell apart. In both cases, I'm not entirely sure what happened, but the split was sudden and unexpected. I care a lot about both of these people, but I'm not sure how best to go about getting back in touch. I don't know how they feel about me, and I don't want to open any old wounds or put myself in a position where I'll get hurt.

Thanks!

Hi guys,

My ex is in his late 20s, an alcoholic, and severely depressed. Not only did he dump me a few months back, but he cut off contact with his friends, alienated his co-workers, and spends most of his time away from work playing video games while drinking. I've been clinically depressed before, too, so I know how it feels to go through it. I got the help I needed and through it was a long road, I've recovered (I was never a substance abuser, though).

However, women and men deal with problems differently. Since he dumped me, he shut me out of his life completely, and I have no idea how he's feeling, if he's dealing with his issues, etc. It's starting to eat me up inside, because I love him so much but he severed our connection. As a man, how did depression affect you? How did you deal with it? What was it that finally made you realize that you were in fact depressed and needed to get help and make changes in your life?

Thanks!

I'm looking for a place to live, and my friends, who happen to be a couple, are looking for a roommate. They've asked if I'm interested in living with them. They're both really great friends of mine and I think it would be a blast. It probably wouldn't be for more than a year. But... I'm single and they're a couple! I'm worried it might be awkward!

Anyone ever been single and lived with a couple? Or been in a relationship and had a single friend living with you? What's it like? Did it work?

I've been dating a while after my boyfriend ended things with me and broke my heart. My friend HATED my boyfriend. I went out on a date last week with a guy that I'd been talking to for about three weeks before we went out. But I had to drive an hour and a half to meet him in his hometown. We had a great date, and I gushed to my friend that I actually wanted a second date with this guy (the ones I had gone on dates with before him... total duds). My friend suggested that if we do go out again, and it seemed likely at the time, then I suggest he either meet halfway or we go somewhere closer to me. She said that it would prove that he would make the effort for me.

After a few days, I thought more and more about him, and I realized he reminded me too much of my ex. Also, I hadn't heard a peep from him. By the start of the week, I had written him off as another lost cause (thanks, Y! Answers community!). Clearly, if he did a hard-stop with the communicating, it was unlikely he'd ask me out again OR come down my way for a date. And by that time, I had gotten over the rush of a great first date and realized that maybe he wasn't someone I'd want to date after all.

I told this to my friend, and she got really mad at me!! She's a very good friend and dispenses a lot of advice and give me a ton of support, but sometimes she's too harsh. In this instance, she told me that I should never have dated or been with my ex, and it'd be nice too see me give a guy another chance for once! Just a few days earlier she told me that he would need to show a little inclination to make the effort! Instead of saying, "Yeah, if he reminds you of your ex, whom I hate, maybe it's not a good idea," she said that my ex messed with my head but I should give this guy who went AWOL a chance! She was genuinly pissed at me.

Now I haven't heard from her in four days! Is she giving me the cold shoulder? Is she mad about the decisions that I make in my dating life? I go to her for advice often about dating and men; do you think she's mad that I'm not taking her advice this time?

I've been out dating since a heartbreaking dumping by my ex about four months ago. I've been on five dates so far. Three of the five guys I went on a date with dropped the f-bomb on our date! I think that's pretty rude! While I appreciate a guy being himself on a date, I think you should be on your best behavior, especially on a FIRST date!

What's the deal with this?

What do you think?

I'm out dating again after a heart-breaking dumping of me by my ex three and a half months ago. I never really dated much in college, and my ex and I didn't really date before we started our ill-fated relationship (more like a really long fling), so at 23, I'm really out dating for the first time, and I have NO IDEA what I'm doing!

I went out with this guy on Friday night. I'm trying the online thing, as I'm a very busy young woman, and I've been pretty successful, and this guy was by far the best I've met/went out with so far. We were texting for two weeks before we decided to meet up for a date. He would text me every morning to say Good Morning, and we would text now and then throughout the day. Texting-wise, we had great chemistry. As the date grew closer, we talked/texted more and more. We finally went on the date, and it was really fun! We talked the entire time and it felt easy, like we already knew each other (which we kind of did). By far the best date I've had!

Then he dropped of the face of the Earth. He texted me once Friday night to tell me he had a good time and to have a great weekend, and I haven't heard from him since. Went from every morning and every night and sporatically throughout the day to a hard stop. I actually saw this potentially going somewhere.

My few boyfriends have been lazy sacks of crap that didn't put in any effort to really get to know me or meet my needs, or even return my damn phone calls. I'd like a guy that puts in the effort for me and to communicate with me. I'm not looking to move fast or to be treated like a total princess, but I would like a guy that will take the initiative. This guy has been very confident and really taking the initiative to contact me, until again, hard stop after the date.

So when do I say, "He's just not that into me!" ? I suppose I could text him and see what happens, I'm just really really done with chasing guys, and I'd like to find someone that wants to chase me for once.

Against my better judgment, I went out on a date with a guy that I knew would be a total dud. He wanted me to drive an hour away from my house and meet him at a "blah" chain restaurant because he had a gift certificate. I was hoping I'd be pleasantly surprised. Boy was I wrong. He showed up late (even though he called to tell me he was there while I was still on the road), he ordered a huge meal of pasta with seafood and two craft beers (I got a salad sans meat and two cheap-o American beers), dropped the F-bomb at one point, and at the end of it all, when the bill came to greater than the gift card amount, pushed the check towards me and asked me to take care of the rest and the tip. I wish I could have had the guts to have walked out on him, but decided to grin and bear it. He emailed me a few days after the "date" to tell me he had a nice time, and I replied with a quick, "Nice meeting you," and I haven't heard from him since. No skin off my bones.

Cut to three weeks later. My mother is playing with my phone, and somehow scrolls through a month's worth of call logs and "accidentally" calls him (she really wanted me to pursue something with him, convinced that he was "testing me" to see if I only cared about money). She knows nothing about phones, or technology in general; how she managed to scroll through my Blackberry and call his number is beyond me. I never even saved him to my contacts! The only reason I knew (to my horror) that it was him was by the area code. I thought I had hung up on time before the call connected. Crisis averted.

Or not. He called me the next morning. I ignored it. He called me later that night. I ignored it again. This time he left a voicemail saying, "Hey, haven't heard from you in a while, call me back." THREE MINUTES later he emailed me to say the same thing: call me.

I figured since he didn't make any effort beyond a quick email a few days after the "date", he wasn't interested in pursuing anything else. I'm clearly not either. Now he thinks that I called him and all of a sudden he's calling me and emailing me and telling me to call him.

Do I ignore him? Do I explain the mistake (oops, my mom called)? Do I be honest and tell him I'm not interested?

I used to work for a family-owned franchise of a major cleaning and restoration company that did a lot of marketing. Besides the usual insurance industry-based marketing, they did a lot of outreach to fire and police departments. My boss liked to cook, so she came up with the idea to give out Crock Pots full of chili to the fire departments. My boss gave me some bullet point notes and asked me to draft a letter to go along with the Crock Pot. The major theme she wanted me to really hammer home was "for every clean-up job that you refer to us, we'll give you a new recipe for your Crock Pot". I raised concern to her that maybe this wasn't a good business practice, and sounded "shady" to me. She shot me a dirty look and told me to do it, because she wanted to be clear to the fire departments that they wouldn't get new recipes for unless they referred jobs to us.

I went against my boss' orders and changed the wording to make it sound less "quid pro quo", It went unnoticed as she never bothered to read the letter.

Is what she wanted me to do legal?

I'm suppose to go on a date with someone I met online tomorrow. He wants to go to a chain restaurant and use a gift certificate. I think it's tacky.

Thoughts?

Also, he wants to meet me halfway (we live maybe 45 minutes apart... I live in a city with lots to do and he lives in the suburbs and he doesn't want to come to the city) and flat-out said he didn't want to do what I suggested (ball game) because he doesn't like sports.

Again, thoughts?

I have a mouse in my house that I haven't yet caught. He's hanging out behind my refrigerator. He's been doing quite a bit of peeing, and it stinks by my fridge. It almost smells like cat pee, but it's coming from behind the fridge, so I know my cat didn't do it! Until I catch the mouse and get a chance to lug the fridge out of it's spot so I can properly clean, is there any way I can neutralize the odor?

I think my friend is suffering from depression. We were sexually involved before backing off and starting a friendship, maybe moving to a relationship. He recently had a death in the family, but I think that he's clinically depressed, and it started before the passing. He doesn't like to show emotion, but I have a long history of depression myself and I know the signs and symptoms. I also know that the hardest thing to do is to get help, and that it's very hard to be approached about depression. However, I think he needs help, and I just don't know what to do!

I got involved with a man about two months ago. It was mostly physical. I wanted to take things further, and we started to beat around the bush on the subject when his uncle, to whom he was very close, got very sick. This man called on me for support when his uncle was sick. He didn't want to be with anyone but me. I stayed with him that night. A few days later (this past weekend), his uncle passed away, and again this man called me for company. I stayed with him again that night (nothing physical either time).

I know we need to have a very serious discussion about where "we" are going. There was rumor he was seeing someone else and we started to fight about it when his uncle got sick. This man and I clearly care about each other, and the rumor turned out to be just that. I don't want to give up on this before it's even begun. When would it be appropriate to bring up the words "us" and "we" again after this tragic loss?