After having been an apartment maintenance supervisor for more than 20 years i never thought i would ever offer this advice to a tenant, but here goes. Believe it or not, one of the biggest gripes amongst landlords is the fact that the courts usually favor the tenants. The reason most tenants have a hard time is because they don't know their legal rights. Once you have entered into a lease, both parties, landlord and tenant are bound to the provisions of that lease. In effect, you are required to pay your rent on time and live within certain limitations concerning noise, pets, number of people in the dwelling, no alterations to the structure, etc, etc. In turn, the landlord is obligated by law to keep the dwelling up to all applicable building and health code standards and to maintain the dwelling in the condition it was in at the time the lease was instituted. By example, in many cases the need to supply air conditioning is legally determined by the climatic zone where you live. In some northern states AC is an option, whereas on the Gulf Coast it is considered essential. However, even if it is an option in your climatic region, if it was there, and if it was working when you signed the lease, the landlord is legally obligated to maintain it. The question now becomes, how do you bring pressure to bear upon a landlord to fulfill his end of the lease? God knows, the landlord will use all the legal powers at his command to get his money and insure you live up to the lease, now it is your turn, but be real careful here. Legally there is a right and a wrong way to go. We all know that if you withhold the rent he will have an eviction notice on your door in three for four days, right? WRONG. there is a legal way to withhold rent until the services are rendered. Begin by serving the landlord a written work order for the repairs that need to be made, and allow them a reasonable period of time to effect repairs. This is a touchy point, what is reasonable? The court will determine that it is reasonable to expect the landlord to at least contact you and inspect the damage with 3 days. And the landlord should be able to give you an approximate date as to when to expect the work to be done. Usually not more than 7 days. I would make a point of serving the work order request to the landlord by letter, keeping a copy of the letter for your records and also have a witness to confirm you gave the landlord the letter, or better yet, mail it to the landlord by certified mail, return receipt. That would establish in court that your made the request. If the work is not performed by the next time your rent is due, go to your local housing court, file a complaint, and pay your rent to the court. The court will hold the money in escrow and serve the landlord a notice to appear in court. You must also send a note to the landlord stating that the service has not been performed in a timely manner, therefor your have posted your rent on deposit with the court. You may rest assured that you now have the landlords full attention because the last thing most landlords want it to face a judge and explain why they dont do their job. The courts know only too well that landlords dont hesitate to use the powers of the court when it suits them, and it is so seldom that a tenant actually goes through the proper channels the courts generally feel it is payback time. It is within the juridiction of the court to have the dwelling inspected ( something most landlords do not want) and if the inspector were to determine the dwelling untenable, the court can actually direct the tenant into a motel at the landlords expense until the repairs are made. Many tenants are afraid to take these steps for fear that the landlord would take the corrective action, then immediately find other grounds for evicition, but the laws are specific. If it could be shown that the landlord sought eviction in retaliation, the landlord could be held legally responsible for all relocation costs, and if you were to move and had to pay a higher rent, the court could direct you pay the amount on your lease for the remaining portion of the lease period with the first landlord, and the landlord would have to pay the balance each month.

I've had a Kenmore front loader for 15 years that has been a great washing machine. It originally cost about $600 in 2001, and has just kept on chugging. Right at the moment, it is dripping a bit from the bottom from a leaking outer tank, but not enough leakage that it doesn't dry out between uses. Since it's on a slab, not a big issue, but I expect to be replacing it within a year or so, Can't really complain about that length of service for what we originally put into it. I'll be looking for another front loader, this one has gotten our clothes clean without damaging them with minimal water use. No smell, but we leave the door and the soap drawer ajar between uses so that they dry out inside. Yes, it does vibrate, but it doesn't rip out pipes and walls or walk around, just makes some noise on fast spin. I haven't got enough money to buy a washing machine that doesn't make any noise. And yes, there's a certain amount of luck involved with any major appliance purchase, and I'm well aware that we've been lucky with this one. Lemons do happen. But you can take a lot of the doubt out (except the probability of getting a lemon *smile*) by doing your research up front. Good luck!

but prof. nice guy didn't ask about staying or leaving... exactly. He said he wanted to meet a woman who was more fun *& that his therapist encouraged him to do so*. which sounds like a lie. In fact, his initial post reads a little like a singles ad ("my sisters-in-law describe me as 'funny & sweet'", "I want to meet a woman who likes to laugh", etc) His request for 'advice' reads a lot like he's fishing for permission/approval/blessing,("it would be nice to keep my marriage but be emtionally close to someone, too") Snort! & his statement that his wife is willing to have sex without emotional involvement but he wants the involvement sounds really really strange, since it's backwards to what usually happens (woman wants emotional closeness, man willing to have sex without it). like he made it up & he's seeing what response it'll get. One of the worst experiences of my life was many years ago, when I was young & inexperienced & a married man caused me a lot of aggravation, but, as a result, my "married man on the prowl" detector still works pretty well:. I had been dating this guy for several weeks when I learned that he was married. only, as he said, since it didn't have anything to do with what went on between us, he didn't think he needed to mention it. He saw nothing wrong with lying to me, lying to his wife, complicating my life, his wife's life, his children's lives, heck, he wasn't worried about complicating *anybody's* life, as long as he could have dinner/clean house/charming children...& dates. It was degrading to be manipulated & lied to like that, it was mortifying to discover that I was the "other woman", & it was humiliating to extricate myself from the situation & answer the questions my friends asked about the "new guy" I had been so happy about. but the guy sort-of mentally shrugged & decided that I was just as crazy/needy/irrational as his wife, *since I was having a good time*... until I found out about this little bit of (irrelevant & superfluous) information. This is a married man on the prowl, looking for approval/justification, & he posted this to see what kind of objections he'd get, so he can refine his approach to the next "woman who likes to laugh" that he runs into in the real world. betcha.

This may sound crazy but I just got the book The Mood Cure and it is all about diet and mood disorders. I use it for both my sons. One gets depression and the other gets anger outbursts. Thankfully they both seem to react to the same foods (dairy, sugar and gluten) that when these are kept out of their diet they are balanced kids. It is a very interesting read and you can probably get from your local library. My oldest son (12) won't go back to how he used to eat as he has improved in mindset, athletics, focus and his skin cleared up so he is sticking to it. He had a major junk food addiction - well, as much as I would allow but he would always be asking for sweets, dairy and breads. I also follow this way of eating (with a few more restrictions) for my autoimmune conditions and noticed my irritability also went away. Here is a link to the book if you want to get an idea or check out others reviews. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mood-Cure-Program-Emotions--Today/dp/0142003646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364132500&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mood+cure