Yesterday I was getting lunch for myself and glancing out the kitchen window at the Red-winged Blackbirds having their lunch, when a Sharp-shinned Hawk pounced on one of the red-wings. I guess it was lunchtime for everyone. I felt very sorry for the red-wing, but you can see from the hawk's posture that this catch was very important for it. It seemed to be looking around to see if another predator would take the bird away. The hawk soon flew off with the red-wing. I was glad not to have to see the meal. I took twelve photos out my windows before the hawk flew away (I was kind of hoping the red-wing would escape but it didn't). Here are some of the photos, the rest are in my Flickr account - I have a Hawks set now. Claire

I have t-mobile, I called them up to complain, and they helped me online to completely block emails in "my settings". Since I blocked our e-mail, I still get text from my kids, and DH and NO ONE else. Most of the spam text are actually emails according to t-mobile and not text messages. What really bugs me is why the carriers don't send out a letter with the bill and say this is happening and how to stop it! Kathy

Well, I have to give credit when due.... BM did pay me for the dentist tonight. DH thinks she's afraid of me. I'll feign innocence because I don't think I'm intimidating at all. She towers over me and I guess because I don't back down from her and she's told my DH that to do the job I do, you have to be tough, she figures I am not someone she wants to mess with? She's walked all over DH for years, so she knows he's taken it and she continues to walk on him. He's stood up to her mostly since we've been together so she blames me for it, but it's really him. I am supportive and back him but he is tired of her crap.. more than I am, he's put up with it for so long. Whatever it is, she walked SD out to the car tonight and I told her I need the money for the dentist bill. She paused and said, 'do you have change for a hundred?' and of course, I don't carry cash. I told her no, but I'll be happy to go down the road, break it & bring her the change. She went back in the house & came out with $46 in bills (mostly $1's) & $2 in quarters. I don't care, it's cash. She was a dollar short but I was shocked she didn't whine about not having any money. (of course I was thinking... hmmm, she has $48 to give me but what about the $100 she wanted me to break? She promised DH $100 last week) He didn't want to ask her in front of SD I guess. I didn't want to push the issue in front of SD and since DH didn't say anything, I let it go too. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have been dealing with her directly every time I pay for her doctor and I could collect from BM instead of having DH send her the bills/receipts and relying on her to pay him to get my money back. She knows I am the one paying for it... but this is the first time I've asked her to pay her half directly to me. I don't care why she paid, just glad she did and no complaints...

I told you at the beginning that you hired a hack. Nothing has changed my mind about that. It’s just reinforced it. You lied to yourself about the job on the front end. You jumped all over a TANSTAAFL “deal” that was too good to be true. You didn’t even bother to do your due diligence, or you’d have found the lapsed license. And probably a whole lot more. Even if your kitchen is smaller than the average 12x14 space that costs 63K to redo for a mid range project, $6700 is about 20K short of where you should be for labor. That’s another warning sign that you ignored. When something is way to cheap to be real, you’re not getting real. You’re getting the fake Rolex from the guy in the trench coat in the alley. You ignored all the warnings. It’s why you are where you are at now. If the complaint is eligible for small claims court, good. You won’t need to hire a lawyer beyond a couple of hours of a basic consult. But you have zero documentation for anything to consult about. That’s not good. You probably need to chalk this up to a semester of college tuition in What NOT to Do When Hiring a Contractor. If you learn something from it, the tuition wasn’t wasted. If you didn’t learn, and keep trying to find something for nothing, then you’ll just get scammed over and over.