I know. I just couldn't believe it. And after I left and came back to work, I just kept thinking "OMG, what if they had been really injured, what would I have done?" CHILLS! I don't even want to think! Like my aunt said, someone must have been watching out for them.

Ok, yeah, that sounds like aphids. Aphids are little insects that suck on plant juices. They have to suck a lot of it to get the nutrients they need, so they excrete the excess water, sugar, etc. as a sticky liquid called "honeydew." Ants really like to eat honeydew, so they hang around and protect aphids from their natural predators (such as ladybird beetles). Aphids prefer to feed on fresh, succulent new growth, so they often become more of a problem after a plant has been fertilized. Anyway, aphids on a potted plant are easily controlled with soap sprays. You can get Safer Insecticidal Soap (which is formulated to minimize risk of damaging the plant), or make your own. Mix 1 teaspoon of a non-detergent dish soap (such as Ivory dish soap) with a quart of water. Spray the bugs with a trigger sprayer. Soap kills them on contact, but it's not a preventative spray, so you should revisit the plant periodically to see if it needs to be resprayed.

moonshadow- I don't get it. You are more sympathetic of the landlord (who is able to sleep peacefully at night) than of the person who is paying good money for the "quiet enjoyment" of their premises. Have you ever lived beneath someone as noisy as corrinemb's neighbors? First of all, if you're going to quote me, please use all the words I said. Quoting selectively chosen text tends to alter the meaning of the original text. (Although I mentioned vacation, please note I also said the landlady could have been away at a funeral, or tending to a sick parent). Also, you make some really strong assumptions in your posts, dreamgarden. You called the landlord a liar and said she knew about the noise from above all along and that's why the unit is empty. Umm, it's not empty, corrinemb is living in it. And you know the landlord is a liar how? Because you've lived in one of her rentals and dealt with this individual before? "Liar" is a very harsh word. Personally, I despise that word. You've also assumed (and presented as a fact) that the landlord is able to sleep peacefully at night. (Again, you know this how?) So why am I sticking up for her? Because I am a landlord. And if you read that post carefully, you will see there is a bit more going on there. I know exactly how it feels to be 500 miles away (not on vacation) and have all h*ll break loose over a non-emergency. Sure, I can and would make a phone call to disruptive tenants. But phone calls tend to not be taken too seriously and do not create the critically necessary paper trail. As an effective landlord, what I need to do is go over there and check out the situation for myself. I need to make the determination whether the extra person has indeed moved in or was just visiting for the holidays. Then put the transgressions in writing and send it via certified mail to the tenant. Let's say the landlord wasn't away, that she was in town. Let's say landlord drops everything for this situation and made it her utmost priority in life that week. Here's how it would have transpired (and I'm taking these dates directly from corrine's post.) Corrine calls landlady on Sun 12/3. Landlady immediately calls upstairs tenants, gives 24 hours notice that she's doing an inspection. Now it's Monday afternoon, 12/4. Landlord inspects, assess, talks with tenants. Landlord goes home, sits down, and types a letter that same day. By now P.O. is closed, so landlady goes to P.O. first thing Tues morning 12/5, letter goes out that day. Since landlord and tenants are geographically close, letter will probably arrive at tenant's on Wednesday 12/6 or Thursday 12/7. Friday 12/8 rolls around, no results, and corrinemb is going to call again, because she came here and posted very early on the morning of Saturday morning, 12/9. Do you see the illustration here? IF the landlady were in town and IF she acted immediately at every phase of this step, that STILL would only allow 2 1/2 weekdays or so (Wed-Fri or Thurs-Fri) to resolve all the issues at hand. Landlords are people with problems and crises and LIVES, just like everyone else, yet some tenants act as if they can demand the landlord "jump" and landlord will respond with "how high". I have good relationships with all my tenants. If they are not unreasonable demanding, or screaming about their rights, I will do whatever it takes, putting my own appointments and needs aside, to keep them comfortable and happy. If they turn out to be the screaming/demanding type, I pray they bail on their lease before I can legally get them out. They aren't worth it. Just like a homeowner has to address structural issues immediately, I have to do the same for dwellings with tenants in them. If I get a call at 4 a.m. that the furnace is malfunctioning, and it's 20 degrees out, I can't go back to bed and curl up under my warm covers. One time the town broke a water main during work and my elderly tenants had no water. Not my obligation, but I went to the store and purchased several gallons of distilled and drinking water because one of them had a colostomy bag that required purified water several times a day. I didn't have to do that. It was caused by the municipality and was in the street, not any plumbing malfunction inside the dwelling itself. They had money, a car, and the store was 3 blocks away. I did it to be NICE. I have shoveled knee deep snow for those same elderly tenants when they went to Fla for Christmas so the house didn't look vacant and it was not a temptation to break in. Why did I do it? Because the good for nothing grown kids of my tenants were "too busy" and broke the promise they made to their parents to keep an eye on things and maintain snow. I have had to drop everything and rush to a house that had raw sewage running out a pipe and down the driveway. Cost me a bundle, it was a weekend night call. You know what caused it? A washcloth flushed down the toilet. When I conveyed this to the tenant, her response: 'you know how it is when you're dumping your dirty cleaning bucket down the toilet, you don't pay attention to what's in it'. Didn't even get Christmas off this year. Tenant calls me as she's flying to CA on holiday, sewage is backing up and pipe is leaking. That problem didn't happen overnight, she just didn't tell me until she was on a plane.So guess how the plumber and I spent Christmas Eve, because the house was filled with lethal sewer gas and I couldn't let it go. I've had to get out of bed in the middle of the night, cancel my own personal appointments, rearrange my schedule, you name it, to get emergencies taken care of. And I never complain to my tenants because it's my responsibility. However: if someone's going to bug me twice in a week over something that can and should be addressed when I get back in town, it's not going to sit well with me. Get the picture?

I used to work in tech support, and I would say on the face of it, I would have to go with Verizon. There should be no possibility that a dvr or other device could damage a tv - the voltages are very low, in the millivolts really. However, I guess it's possible if there's some sort of line fault or a fault in the dvr that's putting voltage into the 'line output' however, it's very rare. I do recall one instance but it was several hundred volts, and probably due to some line fault outside, or some botched attempt at stealing cable and/or electricity. Most of the time 'voltage' is detected on the line, it's from the tv itself. First thing for you to check is the outlet. Try plugging something else in there and see if it works ok. Try the tv in another outlet, and see if there's some other device you can connect it to, perhaps a vcr or just an aerial? The fact that the tv is turning itself off - lights out, you have to turn it back on? suggests something odd, all right, I would test it like I said, if you have another tv test it in its place. I guess also check the power cords etc for the tv and ensure the power outlet's ok, toggle breaker on/off, test power like I said, and make sure the contacts in the outlet are engaging the plug. Like I said, I never say never, but normally, I would not think the situation could be caused by something plugging into the tv. Sounds like a fault was showing when text wasn't displaying well, and it go worse overnight. Unless the tv was dropped or something, it may have been a coincidence. Have you had any thunderstorms? Another question, has the tv been off for quite a while whilst you were waiting for the install? Electronics sitting idle for extended periods sometimes don't come back on.