Karl B

I bought a new house in October and they seeded the yard and put straw down. I stupidly messed with it without having any clue what I was doing. I should have asked questions first, but I didn't. Anyway, I think I put way too much straw down so that it was smothering the lawn. They left 3-4 bails of extra straw and I just figured I should use some of it. I used all but 1 bail on a 0.15 acre lot. I'm now pretty sure that was way too much.

Some grass was poking through but only in a few spots. So I decided to rake all the straw off this past week, then I read online that you generally should leave it. =/ I used a hard rake and probably was a little rough with it, which I also read was bad. =/

So is my yard ruined? I really hope not. Do I just need to be patient or is there something I should do? Should I overseed? If I do that, do I have to mess with straw again?

So far, there's quite a bit of green, but it's very thin throughout most of the yard. It's about 3 inches tall in most places, but up to 8 inches in some places. I guess I'll mow it this weekend.

I bought a Flexsteel Brandon leather sofa and loveseat (from the Latitudes collection) and will be picking it up tomorrow. I have been researching this furniture since I placed the order on Friday. I know I should research before buying, but it was a one-day only sale and I still have up to 7 days to return it for a 100% refund if I want to.

I am concerned about the quality of this line of furniture. Most Flexsteel products are made in America but I found out the Latitudes collection is 100% made in China. I have heard some other people say that it is of a lesser quality and will probably not last a long time. There have been some reports of the leather flaking, fading or becoming discolored.

Most of the parts are covered with a lifetime warranty, but the warranty on the leather is only 1 year.

Does anyone have any experience with this furniture line?

Thanks!

My car started grinding the other day. I avoided applying the brakes, but when I did have to, I did it as gently as I could and drove straight home. The next day I replaced the front brake pads. It looked like the inner pad on the passenger side just completely fell off the piece that holds it up. I say this because the outer pad and both pads on the driver side still had about half the pad left.

Anyway, I did notice that there are some fairly deep grooves in the rotor where the pad was worn through. I was hoping I could get away without replacing the rotors, but now it's looking like I will have to replace them.

After replacing the pads, I am hearing a slight grinding noise even without applying the brakes. When I do apply the brakes, the noise does NOT get louder or stronger - it stays consistent. I have only driven it down the street to test it.

I took another look at the brakes and I don't see anything wrong. Is it possible that the spacing between the inner pad and the rotor is too small or does the car already adjust that? How likely is it that the grinding I am hearing is because I need to replace the rotors as well? This is what I'm thinking, but then why is it still grinding even when I am not applying the brakes?

Thanks in advance!

My brother is staying with my wife and I temporarily. He just started working construction a few weeks ago. He used our washer and now we have concrete smears on all of our laundry!

What can we do to clean out the washer????

Thanks!!!

I have never had a house with a basement, so these might sound like stupid questions...

1. Will it cause any problems to build a cabinet that hides the sump pump, as long as it has a door you can open to get to the pump when necessary?

2. Would there be electrical safety issues if I setup a computer on a desk right next to the sump pump?

3. Would the sump pump get loud enough to become more than a minor annoyance while using that PC? If so, is there anything I can do to minimize the noise, such as insulating the cabinet?

The Senate just passed a bill granting tax breaks on new car purchases. If I understand it correctly, the bill eliminates sales tax on new cars and allows you to deduct car loan interest payments from your taxable income.

If I bought a new car in February 2008, am I eligible for any of these breaks?

I thought one of the problems with cramming more transistors on smaller processors was that it created more heat. If that's the case, then why is it that I always hear about systems using smaller fabrications using much less power and generating much less heat?

For example, the original 20/60GB PS3 systems used the 90nm Cell processor and the 90nm RSX graphics processor. Newer models use 65nm chips and consume much less power and run cooler.

What is the proper way to use XML columns in ADO.NET? Every search hit I get just talks about converting datasets to xml. That's not what I want.

I wish that I had the money to buy a house within the next year with the prices plummeting, but I do not. I might be ready to buy a house in 2-3 years at the earliest. I want to take advantage of the market but I also don't want to rush into it.

Do you think that if I wait 4-5 years, I will miss an opportunity to get a great house at a great price or will prices take longer to rise?

I get a 50% match on my 401(k) up to 6% plus 1% discretionary, so if I contribute 6%, my company contributes 4% (6% * 50% + 1%) for a total of 10% which is a very nice 167% return on investment. However, I have $16,600 in CC debt and I can barely make the minimum payments. Should I stop my 401(k) contributions to pay off as much debt as possible? (I will still get a 1% contribution no matter what) Balance transfers aren’t an option because I don’t have good enough credit to get a substantial balance transferred at a decent rate.

Here are the balances and interest rates on my credit cards:

Card 1 - $9,600 @ 30% (this will go down to 13% in August)

Card 2 - $4,200 @ 12%

Card 3 - $2,600 @ 24% (these are actually a couple of store credit cards and will never lower the interest rate)

I understand the concept of a singularity: an infinitesimally small and dense piece of matter with zero dimension.

Let's use an example of a black hole that started as a star, then collapsed into a black hole upon burning all of its hydrogen/helium. Obviously, this object contained a large number of particles to begin with. My question is, what becomes of all the particles after it has collapsed (and theoretically continues to collapse into a smaller and smaller space forever)? Do the particles themselves continue to shrink, or does the black hole transform into pure energy?

I thought that the consensus was that nothing could be smaller than the Planck length. If this is true, then how could the black hole continue to shrink forever?

Thanks.

I have an 89 Camry that is overheating. I drove it about 35-45 mph for 15 min to a store. After 15 minutes in the store, I got in my car but it wouldn't start. I noticed the temp gauge was all the way up to Hot. I popped the hood and filled the coolant level because it was a little low. Then I let the fan run for a while and the temp gauge eventually came back down below the mid-way point. I started the car and drove away. As I was driving, the temp gauge slowly rose to a little past the half-way mark, then all of a sudden shot straight up to Hot again after just 2-3 miles. I pulled over and repeated the process one more time until I got home.

- I have checked the thermostat by feeling the coolant return hose with the car running and it did get hot after 10-15 min

- The car does not have a muffler attached

- The car seems to be using a lot of coolant but I haven't found any leaks.

- The fan comes on when the temp reaches the midway point

- The oil looks clean

Any ideas?

I will be getting a $5,000 tuition refund next month. My wife and I have $14,000 in high-interest credit card debt. We need another car that will last us at least 30,000 miles. Should we use the $5000 to pay towards the credit cards, or use some of it for a down payment towards a used car. Or should we try to find a car under $5000 and pay cash? Keep in mind that if we choose to finance a car, our credit card debt is probably hurting our credit score which will cause the car loan interest rate to be higher. We are using 71% of our available credit. Because I have not finished college, my schedule changes frequently, but our debt-to-income ratio on any given month ranges from 30-45%.

Please do not answer this question unless you care to fully explain your reasoning behind your racism/homophobia.

From CNN: "In a 256-153 vote, the GOP-led House approved a nonbinding resolution that praises U.S. troops, labels the Iraq war part of the larger global fight against terrorism and says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of troops is not in the national interest."

Congress passes countless "resolutions" that do absolutely nothing. They are not laws and are not enforced. They are basically just making a public statement to express their views about certain topics. That's what the election campaign is for!

Your thoughts, please.