julietherealjules

I've decided after years of trouble that acrylic and gel nails are not for me because too much damage is done to my nail bed by the automatic grinder. I've tried finding a local salon which chooses to grind by hand, but there aren't any, and I have no skill for doing this myself.

So, on the CND and OPI Axxium systems, is use by the automatic grinder required at all? Or does a light hand buffing on the surface of your real nail suffice?

After the gel is soaked off, how do the nail beds look naked at that point? Can you choose not to have another application, or are you STUCK with damaged nails til they grow out again?

I would love to hear from nail techs who have used either or both of these products, or from someone who has used THESE brands only...thanks for looking!

I know the tree at Rockefeller center won't be lit until 12/2/09, so we won't bother with that. Do any of you New Yorkers know if the stores on 5th ave and 34th street will have their holiday displays up yet? I can find lots of info about seasons past, but not this year.

I have a couple of miniature dashschunds that love to put their necks across my lips. If I move my head to one side so that I can breathe, they re-position their necks so that I HAVE to have my mouth in the soft part of their neck. Has ANYONE ever seen this or experienced it? Any theories as to why? Is it only this particular breed?

Don't laugh at me, I can't help it!

Okay, here's my timetable:

We leave for a 2 week vacation to Key West on the 18th of July, which is 11 days away.

I have a DEEP tan, currently, with 7 more tanning sessions left on my unlimited month, [I'm too old to hear lectures, really, please don't bother.] although my shins and calves are the lightest spot on my body. Go figure.

I have 1/4" long hair growth on my legs.

Okay, so here's my question: If I wax just before we leave, say, on the 16th, this will give me a nice length of time to be hair-free, which will keep me from having to pack a razor and shaving gel etc. But, in theory, won't I pull off a layer of tanned skin? And if I wait until the 16th, I won't have time to re-tan that part of my body.

Or, I could wax today, which would give me plenty of time to re-tan my legs, but, wouldn't I end up with hairy legs by the end of my vacation which is on August 2nd?

I realize that there are WAY more pressing issues that I could be concerned about...people are terminally sick, there are kids who can't read etc, so I do have a slight amount of guilt for even ASKING this question.

But for those of you with experience, I would really love to hear what you have to say. Other than, "don't tan" or, "don't wax" I mean.

My husband and I used a Sally Hansen body waxing product that you heat in the microwave, and this effectively removed the hair for the most part. Since then we've done a little research, and the impression we have is that the products made by Gigi are the way to go. Can anyone confirm that?

And the other question I have is about how big of a patch should we wax and pull for each strip...Is it less painful to do a lot of small areas, say quarter-sized, or, is it less painful to do fewer, larger, patches?

Either way, does the pain EVER lessen when waxing in the future?

We're vacationing in Key West for a week or so in July, but would also enjoy a few days prowling the beach for seashells in the Sanibel/Captiva Islands area. We know that mid-summer isn't optimal vacation time in Florida, but we're not afraid of heat or the threat of hurricanes in July [we live in Northeastern North Carolina and we've been through plenty of tropical storms], and our schedule won't permit a vacation in the fall.

So....which island are we more likely to find a good variety of seashells at this time of year: Sanibel or Captiva?

This is a terribly long story, and I'm exhausted so I'll try to hit the important points.

My mother-in-law is dying of stage IV lung cancer. She's at the stage now where she isn't lucid, however, she continues to labor to breathe.

Three years ago when my father-in-law was dying of mesotheloma, the hospice nurses very kindly advised my mother-in-law that if he were to labor to breathe but had pretty much shut down the rest of his systems, that a family member might consider lowering the head of his hospital bed to a flattened position.

That's what my mother-in-law did, finally, when it was clear he wasn't going to speak any more words or be aware of his surroundings. He died just a few minutes later.

I did hear my mother-in-law later express some pretty heavy regrets for doing that, saying that she should have treasured EVERY minute with him that he had left.

I totally disagreed with that, but I held my tongue because this was an issue that only she could resolve for herself.

Now the tables have turned somewaht in that she is now at the non-lucid stage. I chose NOT to remind my husband and his aunt of what that hospice nurse had said a few years ago. I guess, remembering her eventual guilt was the reason that I can't bring myself to remind them how to assist her....it's almost as if I want to save them from their own possible guilt. In a terrible twist of irony, my mother-in-law's own mother died of pneumonia YESTERDAY, and, today is my birthday. They already have enough on their guilt plates.

Meanwhile, my mother-in-law is dying by inches through this long night while my husband and her sister keep vigil. It's terrible enough to see her suffering; what makes it just a little worse is to see how my husband and his aunt are suffering.

Did I do the right thing?

For those of you who have traveled to Atlanta and have had the pleasure of visiting the Dekalb Farmer's Market in Decatur [http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/], is anyone aware of a market similar to this in either the Washington D.C./Richmond VA/Hampton Roads VA/Eastern NC areas?

We're looking for something that is more permanent than a weekend flea market/farmer's market during the summer.

I would like anecdotal evidence about Bioplast body jewelry for initial piercings. I'm not interested in your opinion if you've only HEARD about Bioplast jewelry; I want to know what YOUR actual experience is with it.

This would be for the initial piercing only; I don't need stories about how Bioplast works for healed piercings.

Thank you for taking the time to give me your opinion.

For all the naysayers that say the instruments are not compatible, I am here to inform you that they actually ARE compatible. We purchased Rock Band 2 for xbox 360 a few weeks ago, and RENTED the Guitar Hero World Tour game, and the instruments play just fine.

However, we noticed that the guitars and even the mic fell out of calibration much more quickly while playing Guitar Hero.

This leads me to a question: Has anyone noticed that the calibration settings for both games seem to need adjusting pretty often, or is it just our set up?

We have an LCD tv with an HDMI cable going to the xbox 360. We're all sitting equally distantly from the tv, which is mounted above the fireplace.

What factors may be influencing this loss of calibration so easily?

See the screenshot:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//081...

See the scrollwork on the sides of each "highway" in gold? What does that indicate? I'm thinking that means that the player is currently in overdrive, but because we're newbies and still learning, I haven't figured that part out yet.

Recently, at a 7 Eleven near where I work, an undercover policeman was conducting a drug sting, when he was shot and killed by the friend of the drug dealer who intended to rob the person who was buying the weed.

There's an impromptu memorial set up at the side of the 7 Eleven, in the manner of the flowers left for John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, etc.

There are a few candles that someone had lit, and one of them had melted from the sun while still burning, so that there was a little flame licking at some of the objects that surrounded the candle. Not far from the little flame were things like cards and teddy bears etc.

I apologized to the clerk inside the 7 Eleven for not knowing memorial protocol, but, "You might want to put that little fire out before the building goes up."

The clerk said she was by herself, and besides, she didn't care. If the building goes up, she said, "I'd get to go home early."

Can you believe that??

Meanwhile, should I alert someone higher up in the chain at 7 Eleven, which would probably get this girl in trouble, which I'm not about, or....what? That little fire MIGHT go out by itself.

Not only am I not familiar with memorial protocol, but I don't have experience with small flames.

Thinking of the super group Boston, who just recently hired a lead singer who had only sung Boston songs for his own pleasure, that led me to think that there are probably LOTS of singers out there who will never be on American Idol, but are just as talented.

That made me curious: Which songs are the ones you can nail? Which songs do you find to be your biggest challenge? Do you have any guilty pleasure songs that you'd just as soon nobody hear you sing?

The song I can nail, with memorized lyrics and pitches matched perfectly: "Ghost" by the Indigo Girls

The song I find the most challenging: anything by Evanescence. Amy Lee is way too soprano for me to sing well.

My guilty pleasure song: "Lady Marmalade" from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. I actually can sing this halfway decently, but you'll never ever get to hear it! lol

Is that considered kidnapping? This is in San Mateo County, CA, more specifically, the city of San Bruno.

The father lives in Virginia Beach VA.

Shoud we wait until fall to purchase the Guitar Hero World Tour? In your opinion, will it be better than the current Rock Band?

I'm 46. I think of myself as impatient, however, I try my very hardest to not BEHAVE impatiently and to be as unselfish as possible. I'm not always successful, of course.

My husband who is 41 and my two teenage kids and I live with my 76 year old mom who is supremely uncool and gets on my nerves HARD.

I like my own kids [I can't imagine life without them!], but really could live happily without ever meeting another human child in my lifetime.

Why is it okay to dislike children, but not to dislike old people?

I could rattle on for another 54,092 characters about the discord between my mom and I, but it's pointless...she's never going to change.

Why isn't it okay for me just to be able to say, "well, I don't really like old people, so there you go."??

And the male [who is due to be neutered in July] is starting to aggressively play with her, and she with him, similar to a heat cycle. Additionally, he is whining and sniffing her vulva, another indicator of a heat cycle getting ready to start.

The puppies were born April 17, 2008, and she has just finished weaning.

She still has a little bit of lochia, which the vet has seen her for and pronounced to be ok.

Is there any chance she is starting ANOTHER heat cycle so soon after whelping? And if so, how early can I get her spayed? Her nipples and milk glands are still going down, although she's fully finished with nursing the one puppy we decided to keep.

Has anyone ever used a night guard made by a dentist with a bleaching gel in it?

All of our dachshunds bark at all of our visitors when they first arrive; in fact they even bark when WE get home.

We have a nursing female, though, who particularly doesn't like a friend of ours that comes over to visit now and then, and yesterday before I could grab her, she bit him in the man parts as he was leaving through the gate. This friend of ours has never mistreated us or our dogs in any kind of way.

This is embarrassing!

Does anybody else have a dog that just doesn't seem to like one person in particular?

I've been warned about forty eleven times not to wear a pearl ring on a continual basis, so I don't need to be warned again.

I have a pearl/diamond ring that I have a lot more trouble with the diamond settings than any possible problem with the pearl.

Anyway, my question is this: has anyone worn a pearl ring on a continual basis and didn't have much trouble?