What are his nightmares about? Getting someone who is decent at dream analysis (and by that i dont' mean the quacks on the internet who like to think they can analyse dreams since its on the subconscious and it has very very personal meaning to everyone) but anyway write them down. See if you can find someone who may be pretty good. Umm don't herbalise him on the nighmares. You may be doing more harm then good their espceially if its 4 times a night, i'm thinking repressing them will result in fewer but more intense ones. Write down the dreams and have him and you figure them out to see what is the cause of it. maybe its a fear and if you can see how to deal with the fear it can help. If its something that can't be logically dealt with have you and him make a dream cathcher and have it blessed by whatever religous persona you feel comfy with. I'm not going to say that i'm a good dream analyzer, i don't know but if you want to email me privately i can see if theirs anything that strikes me. i have 3 kids btw. oldest is 5 and youngest is almost two.

Blogs and bloggers don't have the same psychology as forums. When you are a member of an online community that you don't have control over -- meaning responses, comments, readership, *followers* you learn the ropes, the rules. Take lukki and me. In a forum you learn that not everyone *sees* things the same way. You learn to deal with it. i.e. Lukki and I are still friends (pretty sure) and we'll move on but now I know she takes things to heart a lil more dearly than I. So, to play nicely w/her in this sandbox (because I do care) I will remember that tidbit and put forth appropriate effort when I see her. Bloggers have not learned those same kind of lessons. They exist in these strange, very personal, often ego based, self created microcosms. Many filter out reality and use their blogs to spin their own version of the reality they want everyone *out there* to believe. Raw talent is raw talent. Articulate is articulate so it's not like a blog can be a total sham and head-twister because it can't. People are smart and do read between the lines. Like Seth Godin says, "the tribe can smell artifice." Albeit it can take a while in some cases. :) But like PW and the R word many bloggers -I think- get lost and the lines of their spun reality blur into the lines of real reality. That's when you see lapse in judgment. Prejuidiced or ignorant? I dunno maybe some of both? My guess is that PW was very successful in building an influential blog to the point that she herself was influenced and she came to believe that she could say and do almost whatever she wanted to. Up to the point of defining what she's entitled to, what's funny, tasteful, or whatever. Because as a blogger she learned that she can control everything about her online persona and presense so consequences and haters should have been within her supreme blogger authority and control as well. I'd imagine the sprouting of those parody blogs was quite the moment because there is absolutely nothing she can do about 'em. One more major factor of reality with regard to forum vs. a blog is that consequences are served up in real time from real people with giant doses of real honesty and objectivity. And there is no delete button. Trust me, I've looked.

I was perusing my kane county illinois codes and I came across this and thought of this post. Maybe your area has a similar ordinance you can trump up to solve your problems: Codes: (8) a. Notwithstanding any other provision of this code, to operate or permit operation of any sound amplification system in a vehicle or on property, or to perform lawn mowing or utilize power or nonpower tools, or to operate off road vehicles, including, but not limited to, off highway motorcycles, minibikes, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snowmobiles or other like or similar vehicles, on private property where the noise from such vehicle or activity is such as to unreasonably disturb, injure or endanger the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of reasonable persons of ordinary sensitivity; and when after written or verbal warning from law enforcement personnel the owner or operator fails to cease and desist from such operation or activity. The terms "motorcycles", "off road motorcycles", and "all-terrain vehicles" shall have the same meaning as in the Illinois motor vehicle code. "Snowmobile" shall have the same meaning as in the snowmobile registration and safety act. b. To make, continue, create or cause to be made or continued any loud or raucous noise. c. To make, continue, create or cause to be made or continued any noise which is harsh, prolonged, unnatural, or unusual in time or place as to occasion unreasonable discomfort to any persons within the neighborhood from which the noise emanates or as to unreasonably interfere with the peace and comfort of neighbors or their guests or operators or customers in places of business, or as to detrimentally or adversely affect such residences or places of business. d. Factors for determining whether a sound is unreasonably loud or raucous may include, but are not limited to, the following: 1. The proximity of the sound to sleeping facilities, whether residential or commercial; 2. The land use, nature and zoning of the area from which the sound emanates and the area where it is received or perceived; 3. The time of day the sound occurs; 4. The duration of the sound; 5. Whether the sound is recurrent, intermittent, or constant; 6. Any violation of section 12-602 of the Illinois motor vehicle code; 7. Removal or modification of adequate sound suppression equipment as set forth in section 4-1(E) of the snowmobile registration and safety act.

Sorry to hijack, aloha. Hope it's ok. flwrs: We were almost as pleased with our GC as our cabinet maker and I would use him again in a flash. Compared to some of the horror stories I read here, it was smooth sailing for us. But there were some issues, as I suppose every major remodel encounters, but they were smallish. Our GC was Tim Floyd (Home office 303-425-7351 cell 303-881-4104). He has subs for electrical, plumbing, granite/counter tops, and flooring. The subs bid separately directly to you and you pay them, rather than Tim paying them. I liked this arrangement because I preferred to deal directly with them for questions, changes, etc. I loved his electrical and plumbing subs, counter tops was fine and went to great lengths to help me find my granite. I used my own flooring company and that caused some problems with scheduling - they insisted on doing things in a different order than Tim is used to (for example, IIRC, they insisted on a few days between texturing the walls and floor finishing due to the high moisture environment during texturing. They were also concerned about spills during texturing). Tim did not appreciate this and I ended up having to schedule their work myself. I wasn't that happy with them in the end, so if I was to do it over again, I would consider using Tim's flooring sub. Tim insists on pulling permits even for small remodeling jobs. He says it's the rare job that doesn't require it. I interviewed 5 GCs, and 2 said we didn't need permits ("we never pull permits for a job like this") and one said we might be able to get away without permits. We clearly needed permits. We didn't change the layout a whole lot, but we raised the ceiling (and with 2 bathrooms above the kitchen there was a lot of pipe re-jiggering to do!) and of course there was a fair amount of electrical work required on our 1975 house. As far as issues that came up with Tim, the biggest one was the OTR microwave. My DH and I took it out of the box, carefully measured the height at the sides, gave that measurement to the cabinet maker so that the MW sides would be even with the wall cabinets on either side. Then when Tim installed it, he put a piece of filler above the MW so it wasn't even. He had his reasons for doing it, but we went back and forth on removing the filler, and in the end he wouldn't do it. I gave in on that and I find the whole confrontation thing quite stressful, so I didn't feel good about it. Of course, I don't even notice it anymore. Then there was the day he brought a guy with specifically to install the pulls and knobs. This was before the cabinet installation was totally complete. I had bought various sizes with lots of extra pulls because I wasn't sure what I was going to use. So I told him that he would have to wait a day to install them. If you look closely at the picture I posted, there is one crooked pull (left side of frigde, middle drawer, left pull). I didn't notice this until the kitchen work was complete. That's what I get for delaying the pull installation - his brother ended up doing it instead of the guy that he brought specifically for that work. We weren't completely happy with the backsplash installation. The mesh backing shows through on some of the glass pieces. I had told him of this concern before he installed it, and he said that he's using the recommended white thinset (which he did). If my DH and I had done it, we would have cut the backing off of the glass pieces. Also, we had him replace some of the glass pieces with a different color and it doesn't seem random to us. But, as I said, I would use him again. He was excellent at getting back to me promptly when I contacted him, and correcting the things that I pointed out (with the exceptions that I noted). His carpentry work is beautiful. The cabinet guy was really worried about that since they had never worked together before, but after they were installed he told me that Tim did a really beautiful job. And we have had some construction types over since then and they say the same. He took so many calls during the day that I was amazed that anything ever got done, but it did. Also, he wasn't great about telling me if anyone would be at the house (or who would be), and there were days when no one would be, but I think that's normal. I got his name from the cabinet store that I almost ordered cabs from. That is how he usually works (he installs/GCs for several cabinet stores), and that is how he prefers it. I was an unusual case - when he originally bid, I was getting cabs from the store. He told me that I could give his name out but he wasn't sure that he would take non-cabinet store jobs. It depends on how busy he is. He's in Longmont and I'm in the tech center, so sometimes he was late in the morning because of traffic (we tended to meet in the morning to discuss things). He would always call me to let me know if he was delayed. He was really patient with me when I put a stop to the cabinet installation because I was concerned that an aisleway was too narrow. In the end he and the cabinet maker (and a friend that I called over in a panic!) convinced me that the aisle was ok. I agree that the GC decision is a very difficult one. Hope your remodel goes smoothly!