hey Donna, I know your hurting. As Ken suggested I hope maybe somehow this was the other male and not the pop....but none the less it is a BB loss and always hard. I wont get any popularity votes here for my next statement BUT. This is NOT the cats fault, I understand 100% why you dont want to send it to a kill animal shelter. I had 2 drop off stray last fall killing some birds around my feeders...I took care of that alright...they will never kill my birds again! They will just sit in my lap and purr for the rest of their lives and never step foot outside again. I know not everybody can do that. Sometimes as hard as it seems a ferill cat is better being put down than suffering from disease, attacks from the wild Coyotes and such and cars. That cat could be responsible for many more bird killing cats soon. There are many places that will capture spay/neture and release these cats. i have heard non breeing cats are less likley to hunt for sport than in tact cats, not sure if thats true. Anyway thanks for caring about the cat too. Let me know if I can help get that cat to a shelter or foster home. Good luck on another nesting!

Fence costs are catch-as-catch-can. If the landlord neighbor didn't want to pay for the fence when it was built, nothing you can do about that. You either pay for the fence and make it yours, or don't put it up. If you want a fence that bad, you pay for it. It's certainly not fair to demand payment later when someone else moves in. It's very common to set back fences 6" in my city. I don't know if it's a requirement. I do know it's common for adverse possession to only apply if someone is squatting without permission. IF the fence regulations already require a setback, I can't imagine an adverse possession case getting any traction based on the fact that the fence was built to code. Even if there's no setback requirement, you may still be protected if you specifically allow someone to use YOUR land, as in giving a neighbor permission to use the 6" strip. Or, if you specifically prohibit it. "Squatter's rights" to land usually apply when the neighbor used it and the owner knew about it and did nothing. Our neighbors accidentally put a block wall raised bed a few inches past the line. They moved. The new neighbors brought it to my attention and I said they didn't have to remove the entire wall on my account (it's only 4 feet long anyway). I gave them permission to encroach on my property with their wall. It's still my property and will remain so. Of course, it should really be in writing because if it ever goes to court, there's no documentation, but in my case it's a de minimus condition, and we get along fine with the neighbors.

Reading your story makes me laugh out loud. My husband, bless his heart is not very mechanical. He installed a ceiling fan above our brand new cherry table. Looked great but he didn't attach it to the beam. Needless to say we bought a new table. I do alot of gardening. So I buy mushroom compost by the ton. Hubby set the trailer up for me and said "your all set to go". Went to go pick up the compost (which is about half horse poop), went to leave the parking lot and felt a huge tug on the back of the truck. The trailer was BOUNCING up and down the very busy highway. I thought I blew a tire. NOOOOOOOOOOOO- hubby didn't have a pin for the trailer so he secured it with a STRING. I am not kidding. I ended up spreading 70 feet of horse poop-no wait- stinking horse poop down the one lane of a very busy highway. Cars were sliding in, honking at me, some guy gave me the finger?!?!?! Fines + tickets+new trailer+cost of cleanup = $3500.00 Needless to say I bought a new trailer and it came with a pin on a chain. I laugh now, but I could have killed him. Your father is right. I say if it's not cancer, then it's not worth the worry. Remember, he will rope the moon for you. He could be trying to please someone else instead of you. Don't beat him up over it, he is already doing that to himself. They really do want to be the knight on that white horse. I read "the proper care and feeding of husbands" CHANGED MY LIFE, MY ATTITUDE, MY MARRIAGE. I fully and whole heartly recommend to any married woman who wants to improve their marriage. Get it on cd and listen to it over and over. Be sure to shut off your own internal dialogue, so you can really absorb. I am NO ONE to give advice, but I try to remember this stuff when I want to "verbally smack" him with all of his mistakes. Forgetting to remind him of how absolutly wonderful he is to me. Again, I am no one to give advice. Women think they know everything and WELL WE DO. Men are far less complicated than us. However, they are deeper than we realize. Make him feel like your hero or someone else will. Why risk it?? Your going to spend $$$$ on a kitchen remodel. Spend the $15 on this cd. You will recover 2,000% of your investment on the cd. Maybe 85% on the kitchen. I wish i would have had this book BEFORE i got married. So put on something sexy, make his favorite meal and let him how much he is appreciated.

I hear what many of you are saying (Cheri, Live_wire_oak, Amsunshine) about the website being targeted to the trade. Usually I pick up on that; in this case, I apparently completely missed it. Right now, I'm still waiting to hear back from Formica. I found a phone number for the legal contact. His voice mail last week said that he was out of the office until this week, so it's time to try again. Mitch - If it is an issue for the distributor to resolve, hopefully Formica can facilitate that discussion. Certainly, though, the website is their responsibility, as is their customer service. Adding the -77, as you said, should be very easy. I actually do have a GC, but he didn't have anything to do with the counter. I thought it was a normal purchase, like the faucet or knobs, wysiwyg (or is it wizzywig?). (Thank goodness, live_wire_oak, my faucet came with its handles!) I actually did authorize my carpenter to order another sheet last week, when I first figured out I didn't have the right one. He said he'd just charge me for the material cost, which was a bit over $100. (In the grand scheme of things, that's not much; but, as a good friend says, "only" and "money" don't go together.) He'd peel up the original layer and replace it with the honed sheet. Ironically, he was in a car accident last Thursday, when someone drove into the trailer he uses for his materials and tools. Everyone's okay, but our counter was in the trailer and now has to be completely redone. ------- Holly - I did ask for a manager, got the legal contact. Oh well. That wouldn't have been my preference. The Southern charm advice is good. One of my favorite phrases is "Bless her heart." Took me years to figure out what that really meant. Francy - Thank you. Once I talk to someone who listens, I'll point out that I'm not the only one who finds the site confusing. This shouldn't be the kind of issue to mount a campaign over. Good grief, I just need to talk to someone helpful over there. It's so sweet of you to offer to help. Olga - Done! Alku - I'm glad to hear your problems were resolved, although it sounds frustrating. DH likes to say that the best compromise leaves everyone unhappy. That's all I want! (okay, lol, if I'm going to be unhappy, I want to choose the road) Ci_lantro - Thank you for thinking of me. Kristen - That sounds like a nightmare. I hope everything's okay now and you like the car? Brooke - Thanks for the support. I made room in the budget (don't know how the government possibly can afford these tax breaks, but thank goodness). I know going ahead and ordering another sheet makes any discount problematic; but, as you said, the customer service is just as irksome as the confusing website... I'm thrilled about the green on our walls. It just doesn't come through in pictures the way it does in person. It's got a good vibe...DS will be 4 on June 10th. This week, he's into dragons, along with the everpresent firefighters and trains themes. He's finally learned our address and does some great pretending with calling 911. He's doing some neat social stuff - the other day, he went to our temporary kitchen to get a snack bowl of cereal and came back with 3 bowls of cereal: 1 for him, 1 for DD, and one for me. DD was 2 on March 14th. She's a firecracker, independent, likes the active games and taking care of stuffed animals and dolls. She was diagnosed with asthma in December and is finally responding well to the medications, although she still doesn't sleep well. Last night she only slept about half the night. Add to that, she's obsessed with my DH; so he's the one up with her.