Stacy

My friend and I are going to San Francisco this weekend (July 3-5), and I'm looking for suggestions of good nightclubs to check out? Our hotel is in the marina district, but we can take the bus or a cab to wherever. I'm looking for places that aren't dirty/shady, or too expensive, and where we can just dance and have a couple drinks without being surrounded by creeps or picking up hepatitis. :)

Is there a particular area of the city with several good clubs in walking distance, so we could bounce around between a few? Also keep in mind we'll be there Sunday and Monday night (but on a holiday) so I want somewhere that won't be dead. It will be just us two girls, so somewhere relatively safe is also important.

Thanks for suggestions!!

I am planning to go to Guatemala on a mission trip with my church in August. We will be in the Zacapa area. I have been researching the crime in Guatemala and I am pretty concerned for my safety (I am a female). Has anyone been to this area and can you tell me whether it is any safer than Guatemala City or other large cities? Or is it more dangerous?

Also, what am I allowed to have to defend myself? I plan to carry my passport, etc. in a body strap and I will give up my valuables if they're demanded of me, but I obviously will not consent to being raped/kidnapped, etc. Ideally I would like to carry a knife, and maybe mace or a taser. I don't know what is allowed in Guatemala.

Thanks for your help!

I am looking for a concealed carry holster for my Smith & Wesson M442 Airweight .38 revolver. I prefer to carry inside the waistband, in the small of my back (right-handed). I am a very petite female, and don't want to add much bulk to this little gun. Something within a reasonable budget (under $40) would be great, as I don't carry concealed very often.

Any recommendations? Thanks for your help!

Here's my situation: we have 14 people in my office, and last year I got them each a caramel apple (nothing big really, but they seemed to love it). Two of them, the two that sit in my area and are somewhat separate from the rest of the team, chipped in together and bought me a whole bag of gifts - candles, earrings, lotion, etc. One of my supervisors also gave us all movie gift certificates.

This year I'm giving out the apples to everyone again, but I feel like should get something additional for the people who bought me gifts last year. I was thinking of mugs filled with candy and maybe a $5 Starbucks card, for the 2 guys who bought me gifts and my 2 supervisors. Is that appropriate? I've been reading on here and some people seem to think you should never give a gift to your superior. Can I give the mugs just to those two co-workers then, and not my boss, even though he also got me a gift last year? Or should everyone just get the same apple and card, regardless of who gave me Christmas gifts before?

I'm stuck here, so I really appreciate your help!!

I baked fresh pumpkin pies last night, and once I let them cool I covered them with foil. For some reason (a lot on my mind last night), I forgot to refrigerate them. They sat out on the kitchen counter for 11 hours overnight, and this morning as soon as I realized the mistake I put them in the fridge.

I've been reading online and I see that these pies do have to be refrigerated -- my question is, have my pies spoiled already? Are they still safe to eat?

I am having all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed on Thursday. They are all impacted, so I'll be sedated for the procedure. The oral surgeon told me that since I'm petite (5'1", 102 lbs) I will have "quite a bit" of swelling, and told me to plan on roughly 4 days at home. I am 23 years old.

Any ideas on how long I should expect before the pain and swelling will be gone? I don't have to be back at work until Tuesday, so I'll have 4 1/2 days at home to recover. Should I expect to be able to work on Tuesday? I have to run a couple meetings that day, so I'll need to either be functional and lucid (i.e. off the pain meds), or I'll have to cancel the meetings. Any advice from dentists/oral surgeons would be greatly appreciated!!

*Side note: last time I was given IV sedation I was nauseous for the next several days - should I expect the same here? Will that slow my recovery a lot?

Also, any tips on how to speed the recovery and avoid complications would be great! Thanks!

Tonight I am making my boyfriend dinner for his birthday. I've gotten him a great ribeye steak, and I'm going to grill it on my George Foreman. I need to know exactly how long to grill it, because I'd like to avoid having to cut up his steak before serving it to him to figure out when it's done. He likes it medium rare, and I've researched and found grilling times varying from 4 to 8 minutes.

Has anyone grilled a ribeye on the George Foreman? How long do I grill it to medium rare? On the highest heat setting? I have the new GF grill, the "G5" I think it's called. Thanks for your help!

I'm buying my boyfriend a new phone for our anniversary, and I can't decide between these three. I've never owned any of them, so I appreciate any thoughts on which you would recommend, and why. Thanks so much!!

I am planning on buying my boyfriend a new phone for our anniversary. He has T-Mobile, and I think I've narrowed it down to these two (although I think Blackberrys look pretty cool too). Have you owned one, of both, of them? Which do you recommend and why? Thanks!

I just transferred all of my iTunes music from my old computer to my new one, using my iPod. I followed these instructions to do it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

Everything worked fine, except that in the new iTunes it doesn't have any of my playlists. All of my songs are just in one folder in the library. Does anyone know why this happened, and how I can fix it? I don't want to have to do the whole transfer again if I don't have to. Thanks!

My old laptop has crashed, and will only boot up in safe mode. I need to transfer my files - pictures, documents, iTunes library - onto my new laptop. I asked how to do this, and the suggestion I got was to use a Linux CD like Knoppix.

Problem is, I have no idea how this works. What is alive linux CD, how does it work, and what exactly do I do? Download it and burn the CD, and then insert it into the broken PC, or what? Also, will this work for all of my songs, including those I purchased from iTunes? Thanks for your help!

My old laptop has crashed once again, and this time I have finally replaced it with a new one. What's going on with the old computer is that it will only allow me to boot up in safe mode. The window comes up asking me how I want to boot up (normally, last known configuration, etc.), but if I click on anything other than safe mode, it just cycles back to that same screen again. The only way to boot up at all is safe mode, no networking.

I just want to know how to get all of my photos, documents and music files off the old computer and transfer them over to the new one. I'd like to do it using my iPod, as my flash drive won't hold it all and I don't want to have to purchase a new external hard drive. Is this going to be possible in safe mode? How do I do it?

Thanks!!

I have a one year old dachshund, Penny. She always used to love going on a walk, to the park, etc. When the weather got cold, I stopped taking her on walks as often. For the past couple of weeks as it's warmed up, I have started trying to take her out again, but now she is terrified! As soon as she realizes we are leaving the house, she crouches down, tail between her legs, trembling and crying. She just does NOT want to leave the house. She'll even sit facing the house, just so she can always see it.

If I carry her for the first bit, until we are out of sight of our house, then I can put her down and she will walk just fine. It's just when we are near home that she is very fearful and will not go. If I try to just pull her along, she'll wiggle out of her leash/harness and run back home.

I don't know what could have scared her so much - any ideas on how I can help her overcome her fear and enjoy her walks again? Thanks!

My sister lives in Japan, and I would like to buy her a gift certificate for a spa where she can get a massage or facial. Has anyone gotten these services anywhere in Japan? Is the cost comparable to the U.S.? Is there anything I need to know about which types of places to avoid, etc? If you happen to be familiar with Japan, she lives in Misawa, so a suggestion of a good spa near there would also be fantastic. Thanks!

My dachshund is about 10 months old, and she's the only dog I have. She has been spayed. To my knowledge, she has never seen a male dog humping anyone/anything, and yet, she does it to me sometimes. She'll get on a kick, and for at least 1/2 an hour she's just fixated on it and no matter how many times I move her off me, she comes back to my legs and wants to go at it again.

Any idea where she learned this, and why she would be doing it? Will she grow out of it? Thanks.

I am baking this pumpkin pie: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/favorite-pumpk... for Thanksgiving tonight. I made one on Monday as a practice run (this is my first pie), and the crust on the sides was great, but in the middle of the pie it was soggy and uncooked. The only differences between mine and the recipe were that I used a metal pan, because I don't have a glass one, and that I didn't put the pie pan on a baking sheet, I just put it on the oven rack. That seemed unnecessary to me, but could it have made a difference? I'm also at a higher elevation, if that matters.

I used the Pillsbury pie crust, and made sure it was cool and fresh out of the refrigerator when I put it in the pan. I'll be making the "final draft" pie tonight, so what can I do to make sure the center of my pie crust is fully cooked this time? Should I move the pie to the lower rack? Cook at a higher temperature? Cook for longer? Thanks!

A good friend of mine in the Marine Corps is deployed right now on the USS Iwo Jima. I want to send him a small care package, but I don't know what kinds of things are good for a deployment on a ship. Any good ideas of things the guys need and want in this type of situation? I know what things he'd like while he's in the desert, but as far as while he's at sea, I need some help. Thanks!