I wonder if the wheels are starting to slip in the tires? Other than that, I would be peaking at the clutches and shaft w/ fingers crosses it isn't inside the box. Never had one do that!

Who does the cooking, you or your husband? If you do the cooking, then cook some things you like and some things he likes. If he doesn't want to eat them, then too bad. Let him fix a PBJ. I come from the old school where we were poor and we ate a lot of fresh veggies which were cheap or home grown. If he gets hungry enough he will eat whatever is cooked and will soon learn to like it. We raised two kids and two grandkids who eat veggies and love them. Too many people cook veggies such as tasteless boiled yellow squash, boxed plain mashed potatoes. Yuck. Try frying breaded yellow squash with onions. Fried green tomatoes in panko breadcrumbs. Squash croquettes. Serve white rice with milk and browned flour gravy made from the fat of fried pork chops. Mashed or creamed potatoes with the au jus gravy made from a pot roast (floured and browned) cooked with onions, celery and carrots. Green beans seasoned with salt pork or ham hocks. If he has good veggies he will eat them. Go to Foodnetwork and look for Paula Deen veggie recipes. She cooks good, Southern style veggies. If you notice, many of them use a meat of some kind in the cooking process. When I was up North, I got so tired of tasteless boiled veggies. You have to make them taste good.

Avast is a very good Anti virus program but nothing more. I use it on one confuser. For spy wares you should consider AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy and Spywareblaster. These are not the only ones there are others as good but these three generally get all the good comments and are recommended often even on this site. Personally I run all 3 on all 3 of my machines. I look for updates once a week generally unless I see an update notice posted on another site I belong to. If I have been sensibly surfing then I will run them every 6 to 8 weeks. If I have wandered into doubtful sites (looking for free clipart, fonts or other freebies) then I will run them that night to rid myself of the phone home spies that will have inevitably appeared on my computer.

The best answer probably is, "because it's illegal and I could get in trouble". If your state is like mine, kids have to be 13 to be left home alone. Of course, even at 13, it's not a really good idea on a regular basis. Unfortunately, teens without adequate supervision usually find a way to get into some sort of trouble sooner or later. And the homes where kids stay home unsupervised--at least in my neighborhood--seem to turn into the hangouts. I know a couple of mom's who would be very upset and disappointed if they knew exactly what was going on when their children were home alone. And I'm not talking about horrible kids. Even good ones at that age, don't have the sense to always do the right thing. I've actually seen a lot of women giving up their jobs (or rearranging their hours) so they're home during the hours when their teens are home. In some ways, parental supervision is even more vital when they're beginning to flex their wings, and learning to make decisions. Especially considering that teens brains aren't fully mature. Until they reach their mid-20's, they don't usually have the ability to make logical, well-thought out decisions--that's a medical fact. Teens are working on pure emotion--and you know how much trouble that can get one into You're definitely doing the right thing by seeing that she doesn't have too much time on her own, unsupervised. Even though she may complain now, you're the parent, and making sure she stays safe and healthy now will pay off in the longrun.