Alexis

I am under contract to buy my first home. The stove is natural gas, the hot water is electric, and the heat is oil. I want to convert the heat to gas asap and I am wondering if someone can provide a (very rough) ballpark of how much it might cost.

Factors:

The home is in Massachusetts.

The stove is gas, so there is already a feed

Converting heat only

It is forced air ductwork

It is a ranch home, with the furnace in a closet

The small partial basement holds the old oil tank

It is difficult for a full sized adult to get down the basement steps

The basement can be stood up in/ walked around in once down the tiny steps

There is no alternate route into the basement

Last night my lip was "tingly" and today I have a very small red sore on my upper lip. It is not on the edge of the lip, where it meets the skin, but is instead on the "colored" part of my lip. My lips are not dry, no recent injuries, and it is not raised like a pimple.

I do have rosacea (recently diagnosed). I am also in my 30's and have been married for years, it is not an STD.

What could it be?

I work in tech support in an office that is becoming more cramped every day. The company is growing and while they are looking for larger facilities I have been tasked to make the biggest issue better immediately. We use USB headsets to communicate with customers and are currently using logitech sets that are supposed to have noise cancelling microphones. Unfortunately they do little to cut down on the noise in the department, especially some of the louder talkers.

I have a budget of $50 max per headset and I am looking for recommendations for the best headsets possible - with a focus on a noise cancelling microphone. Gaming or office style - whichever works best! I appreciate the recommendations.

I am struggling on factoring equations.

Ex: 3y^2 + 13y - 10

I can't seem to grasp the concept. Can anyone help? I have done well in Algebra so far but this is turning into my achilles heel

I am a manager at a company, my employees are hourly. Since I am salary my superiors keep cancelling my day off, which is supposed to be Wednesday. Thier reasoning is that we did not hit all of our parameters last week so I need to be there. However, once we hit x parameter then they demand to know why z parameter was not hit as well. The normal work week for hourly employees is 50 hours. I know that managers often pull more hours then the employees, but I am working from 8 in the morning until 8 (or later) 6 days a week. We are closed on Sundays, but I have to accomplish every errand I could not do during that short time. I have not had a day to rest in months and I'm exhausted. I am also in college and maintaining a 4.0, I do my homework after work, so I just don't sleep. If I could have my Wednesday's off as I'm supposed to I would be able to get everything done, and still sleep. Is cancelling my day off every single week legal?

I am trying to fix a sony Vaio VGN-NR140E running windows Vista 32bit for a friend's daughter. I do not know what she did to it. The auto restore files are long gone and the cd/dvd is not working. The system can not load any software or stay running for more than a few minutes in standard mode, and will quickly blue screen out with a kernel dump. it works fine in safe mode. There is a known problem with Vaio and the cd drive, I have the program "fix it portable" but it won't fully load in safe mode (and of course crashes in normal mode). Resources I have available: my own system (works fine), 2 thumb drives (1 gb + 2gb), plenty of blank DVDs, access to demonoid, a complete vista .iso, and online access on the vaio in safe mode only. Please, I'm out of ideas!

I want to take a very special someone out for a very nice celebratory dinner. Something we would have to dress up for. I am looking for something along the lines of a steakhouse, but high end (and definitely not the outback). I am new to the area so I don't know a lot of places. Can anyone help me with suggestions? Anything in Andover, Billerica, Chelmsford, Nashua etc. would be great. Thank you.

I just bought a 1994 Toyota Paseo, 4cyl, manual, with 200k miles. It needs oil and the cap has been replaced with an aftermarket so it's not labeled. The "owner's manual" is long gone. What grade of oil should I put in? (ie 5w-30, 10w-40)

I bought an old '89 Wrangler YJ with extra large tires, I would like to take them back down to stock to match the Tachometer temporarily while I customize it. What size tires came stock on the '89 YJ?

our heat and hot water are out, and will be out for a while.

heat is fine, it's warming up and we have space heaters

we use cold water for our landry already, and the dishwasher has a heater built in.

our only problem is bathing.

We are desperate for ideas to heat a tub of water.

We have already tried boiling water on the stove (takes forever and is labor intensive)

We have also tried a large fish tank heater (takes 24 hours!)

Please - Ideas...

Links would be helpful

My whole family thanks you

(taking a shower elsewhere is not an option)

I'm 28, and have been dying my hair a deep red for the last 10 years. Since I'm full blood Irish it has always looked natural on me and most people were shocked when they found it was not my real hair color.

How did they find out? I went blonde! I felt I needed a change.

My problem? Since I only wear makeup for special occasions I just realized that every bit of purple makeup that I have, which looked so good before, no longer works for me.

I am going to my spouses' office holiday party this weekend, and went and made a really beautiful bright red cocktail dress. This is a change for me too, since I normally wear "cool" shades like blue, green, purple, etc.

I am going for a "classic beauty" look, nothing to trendy. The 80's were wrong the first time - I refused to wear blue eye liner then, and I am certainly not going to wear it now.

Can anyone please advise what eye and lip colors would work best? My hair is now a very very light blond, with some strawberry blonde highlights - I couldn't get quite all the red out, I have blue eyes, and very fair skin.

I already have my proper foundation/powder, as well as black eye liner and mascara.

Thank you

My mom joined my dad in heaven about 3 weeks ago. Growing up she made huge thanksgiving dinners with all the family. When she had a stroke a few years back I took over the cooking. Now that she is gone my brother is moving in with his fiance and everyone else (long moved out of state) no longer sees "the point" of coming. We have no children of our own so now Thanksgiving is just my spouse and I. How do I scale back all the food for just two? Especially what size bird? I've tried cornish game hens and I don't like them, but my spouse won't be happy without my "turkey day goodies". Even my downstairs neighbor just moved out so there is no one to share with.

oh, and shelters and soup kitchens are also a regular part of the day for us, but they won't take homemade food around here - just the ingredients.

Thanks for any tips! :-)

My spouse and I want to become parents and are considering insemination vs adoption. Does anyone have any advice?

Backround: My grandmother adopted her husband's son -my father- when they got married, and when she could not concieve they adopted two biological sisters out of DSS (aka CPS) who became my aunts. My siblings and I were severely abused as small children and were adopted by my grandparents - ages 3, 5, and 7. For me adopting would be continuing a psuedo family tradition. Our family has never been defined by blood ties.

My spouse's family is all biological. She says she does not care either way - but whichever happens she only wants a baby.

If we were to give birth to a child it would be me that would carry it.

Does anyone have any advice on any level? Especially adoptive parents.

We are in Massachusetts and legally married if that helps.

My spouse is FTM and is well past the point of passing. The problem? He has no guy friends to hang out with. He lost some friends when he came out as a lesbian, and some more when he came out again as trans. His closest friend moved to another state recently, and his only FTM buddy tried to attack me one night....so he went out. His firends have always been female. I brought a lot of lesbian and gay male friends into our relationship, and he is now friends with them. He is really longing to be "one of the guys" though. Since he spent his life until now as a female he only knows how to build friendships as a female. Females build friendships primarily on an emotional level, can anyone give him some tips on how straight guys make friends? He works with all guys, but they are coworker relationships and those guys are all 10-20 years older. Basically: how do guys make friends? I want to complain that he spends to much time with his buddies...he needs buddies....

let's break it down - I have really big boobs. Triple D. I get really supportive bras at Lane Bryant, the only store that makes a pretty and supportive bra for someone my size, and the work very well for most situations. My problem is - I just got a job moving furniture. I have the strength but when I lift my straps dig into my shoulders and my chest actually will get caught on what I am moving...they get in the way! I have tried sport bras in the past - but either they don't provide enough support, or they are so tight that my circulation actually gets cut off. I am looking for suggestions for a bra from any "well endowed" woman that can share my pain. Eventually I plan on getting a reduction but I do need to do my job in the meantime! Thank you for any help.

Last Monday I was joking around with my husband about how we were going to get rid of our pain in the butt cat, get a new kitten, a start over. We were not serious but I even jokingly asked a friend who adores him if she wanted him.

I repeat we are NOT actually getting rid of him, we were just mad at him for shredding the thermal plastic on the windows and climbing our cat proofed tree (wried to the ceiling, plastic ornaments wired on, cat safe fake tree).

On tuesday we decided to fight fire with fire and went to get soft claws at petco, which we put on both cats. They work great and they don't interfere with thier daily activities at all...they even still use the scratching post.

Now the question: The pain in the butt kitty's personality has radically changed, the other kitty was always a cuddle bug, but now he is too! He seems to be physically fine but all he wants to do is cuddle or be on my lap! Is this strange? Did we hurt his feelings with our joking? Should I be worried?

I am throwing a holiday party for all of my friends with a gift exchange. It’s not going to be “Secret Santa” style but more “everyone put your gift in and take one you didn’t bring”. It should be fun but doesn’t really lend to buying for a specific person. I need ideas of what to get.

The guests:

5 femmes

4 butches

4 FTM’s

1 drag queen

1 Bi girl

3 straight girls

1 straight guy

The straight guy is married to one of the straight girls, the other two are large and single. Both are dieting and one is going in for gastric bypass right after Christmas. The four FTM’s are all coupled up, two are married to each other and the other two each has a femme, with one married couple and one just living together. The drag queen has a boyfriend but it’s doubtful he is coming. There is also one butch + femme couple, and the Bi girl is my cousin who will be on leave from the National Guard (don’t ask, don’t tell). The rest are single.

Over half of these people still live with family, including some of the couples, which eliminates most home décor items.

The religious breakdown is: 2 witches, 2 druids, 1 Celt, 1 pagan (unknown distinction), 1 Buddhist, 1 Taoist, 2 Catholics, 2 Protestants, 3 Agnostics, and the rest unknown. All of these people practice religious tolerance and communication - religious clashes are not an issue.

Only 3 of these people like rainbows or symbols, the rest don’t bother.

I have thrown this party before and it was a blast, but before we all had enough money to buy everyone gifts. Things have taken a severe downturn for all of us financially this year so we all like this idea instead. We also have a $20 limit for the gifts.

Anyone have an idea of what I could get? Any help is appreciated.

I need a dentist. My husband and I live in MA and we struggle from paycheck to paycheck to just keep the bills paid and food on the table. MA is very expensive so, even with our meager existence, we make "too much money" to get any sort of assistance for rent or food. We have medical insurance through my work, but we don't have dental insurance.

I lost a filling and my tooth really hurts, but we cant afford a dentist. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to help?

(we have no children, if it matters)

I need a dentist. My husband and I live in MA and we struggle from paycheck to paycheck to just keep the bills paid and food on the table. MA is very expensive so, even with our meager existence, we make "too much money" to get any sort of assistance for rent or food. We have medical insurance through my work, but we don't have dental insurance.

I lost a filling and my tooth really hurts, but we cant afford a dentist. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to help?

(we have no children, if it matters)

My husband has an excessive sweating problem. We are dealing with the medical cause but need to deal with the symptoms, and quickly. He gets pretty bad BO during the day and has been “spoken to” at work about it. He is very clean: clean clothes, buzzed hair, daily showers, etc. He does not want to loose a good job because he stinks.

We have switched to a clinical strength deodorant which is helping the pits.

He wears a medical support undergarment under his shirts that is fairly snug which I think is part of the problem. He sweats so much that he sweats through both the support garment and his boxers daily. How do I help him? I don’t know how to treat excessive sweat “down there” with boxers - I only know the female way of taking care of it. Any suggestions would be helpful.

His work requires him to wear kakis and a polo T everyday , so his work clothes cannot change.