We signed a simple contract (no fancy company form) with a plumber. They did not show up, nor called until I called them. They said they will show up some other day, not sure when. A long story short - they rescheduled, but seemed uncooperative after I wanted a county inspector to inspect their work (after they would be done in the future) and after I asked them to pull a work permit. They seem not to be licensed with Residential Builder's Commission. Now they told me I must wait nearly 2 months to get my money back as they say they already bought the materials for the advance payment that I paid them. I said it's ok to refund part money and part materials for the job, but they still unhappy and they now told me the plumber went to a hospital for 1 month. I think they are liars and they just trying to keep my oney, but they don't realize how big of the trouble they got themselves into since I'm gonna file a complaint of unlicensed contractor to the State Investigations and Enforcement commission etc. I guess I hit the scammers yet again... but I know what to do: report them, they get fined, cease and desist and prison time, then sue them in Small Claims Court and go to the end until their property gets sold and I get compensated. The money they got from me is over $1000 (for buying materials). I also will write and post my story in the forums and on a blog, so their plumbing company gets really damaged and hopefully they will not get much business anymore. Once I go after someone, it's for life. Any additional suggestions or experiences?

and remember for Java you can always simply go to your control panel select the java icon there then go to the update area in that and update from there that way you know it is safe. Extremely important to check and make sure you only have the latest version of Java and none of the old ones that are security risks. Running JavaRa can handle that task. JavaRa Updates and Removes Old and Redundant Java Versions as to all those toolbars and extra crud they try to push on you now, well if you choose to download your apps from ninite you will not have to deal with that they strip it and give you only what you want and need. Here is a link that might be useful: ninite

I agree, it's none of his/our business about her getting married... however, she is the one that has pulled us aside and told us that she was marrying him last August and she is the one that called DH in November. She has discussed her plans, including the wedding theme (butterflies) with SD so that every time SD sees butterfly things, she starts talking about her mom's wedding. The more I think about it, maybe she is hoping we react to it but we haven't. DH could care less and yes, that is great for me. I've never had a doubt that he could care less what she does or that anything she does could make him remotely jealous. My concern has more to do with SD's other problems (everything she's gone through adjusting to her mom leaving) and her counselor is now leaving the state so she is losing her counselor too. I have some worry that SD will act out again when she realizes mom is lying about getting married. I agree that he probably hasn't asked her but then he also told his ex that they were getting married in Spring. I guess the biggest issue is how it affects the kids (on both sides) for them to be telling them and then it doesn't happen. I know that it is ultimately going to be on them to explain to the kids but usually, it comes back to BM blaming everyone else. SD was told it's DH's fault that her mom lost her job. BM finds a way to make it someone else's fault and we end up having to deal with the fallout or feel like we have to defend her accusations. Since SD's counselor is leaving, I was hoping she won't have to find a new one. She's with BM for summer anyway so she won't be here to see a counselor until school starts. If she doesn't have any meltdowns or acting out, we are probably not going to take her back to counseling. The weight thing, for her height, SD should weigh 85-90 lbs. She weighed 85 lbs when she was 5 and I considered her obese or very overweight. She's gotten taller and thinned out so she has been about average for her height.. she looks very healthy. But, with the added weight, it is all in her belly and her pants button pops off. She has broken two new pants (one zipper, one button) in the last few months. I think it's the amount of food she eats (we were having burritos and we give her one, she says she can eat three at her moms) and the type of foods (she says she eats donuts with Mountain Dew for breakfast and usually just fast food. Her mom doesn't cook) She eats a lot there and when she is here, she acts like she's always starving, even if we feed her more than a normal portion size. We'll give her more good snacks like fruit but she wants junk and sweets. I've given up with worrying about what her mom is doing. I told SD that if she overeats and gains a lot of weight, SHE is the one that has to deal with being teased at school (something she cries to us about) and that we have no control over what she eats at her moms so she has to take responsibility, even if her mom lets her eat anything. DH has mentioned it to BM a few times in the past, he always gets denials. SD is getting old enough to make choices about what and how much to eat and I told her that if she is going to eat everything she wants (because she brags to me that her mom lets her have this or have that and I don't) then I don't want to hear her crying later about kids teasing her.

They owe you a dooorbell ring, loud knock and a reasonable time to answer. If they could hear a vacuum running, they sould have waited a minute until it stopped, especially since they were early. They had an appointment, not an unrestricted license to enter your home whenever they felt like it. And your agent is not your agent for booking appointments withouth consulting you unless you have explicitly given them that authority. I might have told them I had not heard from my agent nor given the go ahead on them coming early and they could leave and come back at their apoinment time or not at all. Betting on not at all, but chnaces are that isn't going to be your buyer or go well if it could be anyway. Besides -- I live in Texas and people get shot for far less. You just don't go walking into another person's home unannounced. Period.