musicimprovedme

I am curious about everything. Hassle? Prices? Availability of supplies? Flavors are comparable?

Just tell me how you like using it...it seems a bit of an investment to get started. Would you do it again? What is the big advantage for you?

I want a reasonably priced one, compact for home use. I like the idea of the all in one scanner, copier, printer. I would not use it all the time, but it is handy for working from home etc.

The problem I have is that I don't want a printer where the replacement ink is more costly than the machine. AND I need ink that's going to be dependable, not dried up and gunky when it sits around a while between uses.

I can usually deal with problems like this but I admit I am super stumped.

I use muscle rubs regularly...various sprays, gels, ointments, etc...they all have that Ben-Gay Icy Hot sweet menthol camphor smell. Ironically the worst offender says right on the can "vanishing smell". I use them at night after a shower, and then get into bed. I can always get the smell out of my sheets and blankets, but now it has gotten into the mattress, and I don't know how to neutralize it, so it doesn't quite matter if my sheets smell good or not.

I have tried straight vinegar in a spray bottle, and also about half a bottle of febreze, separately, sprayed on the mattress before putting the sheets back on. Didn't really touch it, just started to mask the odors but not really. Will it wear off?

I am open to suggestions if you know of a muscle product that does the same thing without the stink...or how to protect my mattress once I get the smell out.

Thanks!

with the big tank, I think it is 40 gallon. It sits about 2 feet off the ground. It has no jacket (may be insulated from the inside). The water heater is in my laundry room which forms the back wall of my carport (the plumbing wall is shared with my bathroom if that makes any sense), so technically outside and not climate controlled but not fully exposed to the elements either. The room has a door that I am willing to keep closed but usually do not. Oh yes, I live in Texas. Hot hot summers and mild winters.

The water heater is NEW. It was installed July 2012 when my old one blew out and leaked all over the carport. It has a vacation setting, then low to high to very hot. It is currently set just above low.

I am wanting to turn it up a bit, seeing how I can usually shower with water from the hot tap only and it runs out if I am using a lot of water such as a deep soaking type of bath (not very often, I do like to conserve water). But I kind of like my gas bill where it is.

I wonder how much more does it really cost to run a water heater on a higher setting. Does it double the bill? A few dollars more? Just in general, I am weighing my options. I need hotter water.

Of course if you have a better option instead of just cranking it up and using more gas, I would love to hear it.

Thanks!

Everyone is fine, and it was really rather minor relatively speaking. The only fatality was my weekend. The accident was on private property. The police didn't even come. I am looking for some more info about how everything will proceed tomorrow. My question is about my car. It is a 2003 Toyota Matrix XR Sport, which is technically classified a Corolla Hatchback on my title.

The nose of the other car directly hit my drivers door, couldn't have been more perfectly centered. The car can be driven but the door is obviously not shutting properly. I couldn't even get out the driver's side, I have been having to crawl in and out through the passenger side.

I have turned off the interior lights that are usually on when the door is open. BUT the door ajar indicator is on on the dashboard. I have been starting my car every few hours hoping the battery isn't dying. So far so good. Is this light enough to drain my battery if it keeps lit for a couple more days? And if so, is there any way to disable the light for the time being?

What are your fav things to keep in the house? Versatile, cheap, easy to use? Anything new that I need to try? Any indispensibles?

Keep in mind, I live alone and while cooking isn't a super high priority, I don't live on canned soup and hot pockets either. I know how to cook, and I enjoy it from time to time, although most times, I do like things to be fast...and I do like healthy!

I eat meat daily but honestly it is not the primary element of any meal for me. love veggies, soups, salads, breads, and cheeses. I do not enjoy seafood or fish much at all.

Thanks for any help!

The loop has two lanes going each direction and a left turn lane approaching lights and all on-ramping from the right hand side. Just before you get on you get a yield sign...but I think...shouldn't this be rather seamless? I mean...the person already on the loop should be watching for me to merge in. Traffic is almost never so thick that the person who is blocking my entrance to the loop can't move over to let me in. Is their behavior illegal or just rude?

And why do you like it?

I used to be on the east coast and remember Wegmans, a real feast for the senses. Breathtaking displays of everything food related. Kind of pricey though.

Now I am in Texas...I really like Kroger and HEB. Reasonable prices and great selection.

I bought a flat screen TV a few years ago, a pretty good deal at the time, as it was the last of its generation to NOT be directly internet capable. It is a Panasonic Viera, 42 inch, brilliant picture and still works perfectly and I love having it.

Now I want to connect something to it that can pick up wireless so I can get Netflix. What is the cheapest way to do that? I understand fully that a device like a Wii or a blu-ray player is a vehicle for wireless but I don't also happen to have those, and I don't need video or gaming. Just the wireless. Is there a no frills device (a cable or a box or a gizmo) that can do this without spending a lot of money?

Also I have two TVs. The one I just mentioned, and the one in the back bedroom which is a dinosaur and not even a flat screen. It does have digital controls.

I wonder if I can connect something at the router so that I can use Netflix on both TV or do I need a separate netflix account for each TV?

I am hoping maybe if I have enough selection from Netflix, I can scale way back on my cable.

I have been here at YA for a long time, mostly answering and not asking questions. It used to be that at the bottom of a page of questions, you could scroll back from new to old questions, pages and pages and pages worth of them. Now often times (not always) a refresh button that keeps bringing up the same 10-15 questions but nothing any further back.

Is this a new feature or is there a glitch somewhere? I preferred the other way, to be sure.

I do eat meat. I really love ground beef and turkey...if I could find a veggie alternative I would gladly make a dent in my meat consumption. ESP since meat is getting so dang expensive! Plus of course it is better for ME and better for the animals.

Can anyone offer up some good advice about TVP? Brands/bargains, storing, and working with it? I would most likely use it as a substitute for ground turkey or hamburger in things like tacos or pasta dishes where it is scrambled up.

Does TVP come in different forms? What I am seeing online is mostly dried, it looks kind of like cereal. I have priced the frozen veggie burger and crumbles in the store...they are overpriced IMO.

Is it truly a bargain compared to meat? Hamburger (the healthiest kinds) is upward of 4 dollars a pound, and ground turkey isn't much cheaper...and lately I'm hearing the 2 dollar a pound ground turkey isn't much better than mystery meat. I thought it was better.

Any help would be appreciated.

Excedrin and equivalent pain relievers add caffeine to their medicine and market it for headache. I know that acetaminophen and aspirin are both good for various things but does the caffeine help it work for, say, muscle pain, or earache, or menstrual cramps, or whatever else?

I ask because I wonder if caffeine really helps with pain in of itself, or if it just relieves headache because caffeine withdrawal CAUSES headache.

I have some 2 quart jugs that I take to work for my drinks. They look like this (2 quart on the far right), I bought them from the Dollar General Store:

http://www.arrowplastic.com/store/catalog.asp?item...

I like to switch back and forth between crystal light and iced tea. Unfortunately this last round of crystal light, the smell got stuck in there and now when I use them for tea, I can smell/taste it through the tea. I would like to start fresh with a nice clean and unscented bottle every day.

I have washed them in the dw several times, also by hand in hot dish-soapy water, and I have soaked them for hours in very strong solutions of bleach, vinegar, and baking soda (one chemical at a time!) The fruity smell remains. They aren't stained. I seem to remember someone making a stain booster for this kind of thing, or a special formula of dishwashing liquid. But now that I need it, typical! I can't find any such thing.

Thanks for any help!

I am well aware that there are many out there for children and men. I would like something a little more feminine...also...easy to find, and budget friendly would be appreciated! Thanks!

I already use shampoo occasionally as a body wash.

I have a dishwasher in my duplex and I don't really need to use it, I just wash as I get a small sinkful or after a big cooking project. I recently discovered the dishwasher it is perfect way to get my water bottles cleaned up and sanitized, because it is hard to reach in and clean them, so I use it even though the loads are somewhat small. It is not like I am totally fastidious about my dirty dishes, I still wait for a few to accumulate in the sink and when they start to spread across the counter, then I rinse them off, load and run the dw, making sure that my water bottles are in there so they get nice and clean.

In other news...I used to have a huge cockroach problem...for various reasons. My neighbor has them, I live right beside a wooded area, they came in from the drought last summer, etc. There were bugs, wings, poop everywhere, but mostly in my kitchen and bathroom. Amazingly, I bought a bunch of baits (combat source) that brought things completely under control and then I cleaned up all my cabinets and baseboards, and got rid of their sign. Now I only see a roach every now and then, and almost always they are in or near my dishwasher. Really nothing else has changed about my home situation, although, yes the weather has changed. I haven't had to put out any more baits for months. They just don't appear to be living here anymore...and I am not any tidier than I ever was.

I started using my dishwasher consistently about the time I was treating my apartment for roaches. But I wonder if using it is helping keep them at bay and if I stopped using it would they come back?

I really like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, and the like. Mostly instrumentalists. I like the use of the whammy, the blistering, and the screaming of the guitars, or even twin guitars. Within the metal genre, I know there is a lot of talent, and I am aware that the music can be hard but I prefer my metal (music, not necessarily the players) to be on the pretty side...melodic, technical, well done..any extremely obvious classical influence is a plus. Also, I don't have any interest in satanic or excessively gloomy lyrics.

Thanks for the help!

performing Touching Tongues (the 7th song of his Sex and Religion album). It is one of my fav songs ever. I have seen a bootleg sort of cell phone recording of it at a concert on YouTube but I would like a slick version, well produced with good sound and various camera angles, so I can really enjoy it.

Thanks for any help!

I use Google Chrome...my "about" says it is up to date (v 16.0.912.63 m) for Windows Vista.

I use the tabbed browsing feature and have never been able to set subsequent tabs to open at my designated homepage. Is there a way to do it? It is just an extra click but it seems a reasonable thing to expect your computer to do and I can't select a home page for them. I am pretty handy, and if it is possible, it is a simple thing...if you can just begin at the wrench and show me where the setting for this is, I would appreciate it.

ALSO in the past with other browsers, I have installed the Google toolbar and LOVE LOVE LOVE the highlighter tool. Now with Google Chrome, obv the Google people assume you don't need the Google toolbar because you have the whole dang browser...but the browser doesn't have a highlighter feature on it, that I have found. Is there one OR is there a way to add a highlighter to it? Just to be clear, using the highlighter, you type in a word in the search box and it highlights wherever that word appears on your current webpage. Makes it a lot easier to scan for keywords when I am looking for information.

Thanks for your help!

I work with a girl (consider her a friend) whose cousin died this week in a car accident. She left a husband, 6 kids and 2 grandkids behind, all of whom needed her. I don't know these people but their situation really burdened me...the family was rather poor even with 2 incomes and now down by a whole breadwinner...and losing the mom means that most of the household management has been disrupted. A bunch of us at work all talked about collecting some stuff to give the family. But no one really organized it for several days and I didn't want to press it, because being Christmas time, I knew that most of my coworkers were stretched thin.

I don't make a lot of money but I have simple needs so I can usually do what I want within reason, and it super bothered me that this family was having such a hard time. I also am pretty sure that one of the reasons I have enough is because I continually give some of it away. So I decided to get some things for them on my own without my coworkers. I did big. I couldn't help myself. Everything I saw seemed necessary and I found some excellent bargains. I went to Big Lots and the grocery store and got a bunch of food, toiletries, and laundry detergent...filled the back of my hatchback and took it to my friends house so she could deliver it to her family. I purposely kept work out of it, hoping to keep everything private.

Next thing I know...my friend brags me up to everyone at work, and some of the others are pissed and saying that I have left them no room to help out. But they didn't do anything for days. And this is such a difficult situation that I really didn't make a dent in helping them...there is still plenty to opportunity for everyone to pitch in.

Why is everyone so hateful?