While tattoos have become more acceptable over the years, I can’t not secretly judge people that have hand or above the neck line tattoos. Of course the placement, style, and number all play a part in my judgement :) Tattoos on any other body parts don’t trigger me though.

These laws differ widely from state to state and there are different requirements for minors and adults.

One of my most “this isn’t what it looks like” moments? Picture this: it’s dark, I’m in the campus parking lot, and I’m standing next to my truck with a crowbar, trying to break off a locking gas cap. Earlier that day, I’d discovered the lock was stuck and just spun uselessly when I tried to get gas.

For context, I’d bought the locking cap because of a recent string of gas thefts on campus (including from my own truck), so yeah—ironic. Just as I’m mid-pry, campus security pulled up. It looked exactly as bad as you’d imagine. They actually didn’t give me any trouble at all. They asked what I was doing and then went on their way. I suspect it was because I didn’t have any type of fuel container or siphoning gear, I also hadn’t tried to hide what I was doing.

So a little anticlimactic as these types of stories go, but I was relieved when they drove off and the mangled gas cap finally popped off.

I don’t know about it resonating nor was it a single episode, but I still remember the Luke and Laura arc on General Hospital. I don’t know why it intrigued me at the time but I would always stop and watch when they were on the screen.

This is anecdotal, but I put in ceiling LEDs in my kitchen and sun room about 11 years ago. About 16 in all. The lights are turned on and off multiple times a day, every day. I have not had a single one fail. Since then I have probably put in nearly twice that many in other places, but they have only been in place for a few years at most and typically get less use. I have not had a single one of these LEDs go out. My guess is because the circuitry can dissipate the heat and that seems to be what kills the replaceable LED bulbs. Speaking of which, over that same time period I have went through more than three dozen replaceable LED bulbs. I think on average I replace at least one bulb every 2-3 months.

Sounds like fun, but I refuse to call them toots!

I have an inline duct booster fan with a control. I would recommend just putting one in your existing HVAC duct that runs upstairs. Also, if you don’t already, use your HVAC fan on “On” rather than “Auto” whenever there is an unwanted temperature differential. Overall I don’t think your idea about repurposing the chimney with additional duct work to move air is a bad idea. Especially given your description that multiple renovations have been done and perhaps a holistic approach to the HVAC system wasn’t taken. Our HVAC contractor re-routed our gas furnace’s exhaust gasses that had been going from the basement all the way through all the floors to the attack, the newer model just goes out the wall in the basement. The old exhaust was used to add a return from the upper floor to the basement. And of course, always check that you have more than enough insulation.

A better solution in this case would be a split unit to move the heat out of the home envelope completely.

We added a return to our upstairs and added an in line booster fan to our HVAC system to move more air up stairs. This helped a lot, but I have to agree that first I would look into insulation as it is a cheaper solution and closing a few downstairs vents as needed.

I initially had the opposite problem where my uninsulated cinder block basement was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter and my basement didn’t have any HVAC registers or returns. The only air conditioning it got was from a window AC unit and leakage from the HVAC ducts. Over several years I ended up adding 2" foam insulation internally to all the exterior walls, insulating the ceiling to the basement (mostly for sound absorption but it also helped with floor temperatures), and adding returns and registers in the basement. I also added an inline booster fan to help pull air up to a second floor bonus room that was an addition. Now the basement is always comfortable, the second floor is much more comfortable, and the energy costs are about the same. My moisture levels are 30-50% in the summer.

I did a radiant barrier on my rafters to guide heat up from the soffits to the ridge vent and then insulated the joists. Blown in insulation is pretty cheap. While doing other work I also insulated my southern facing garage wall and of course insulated the garage door (and sealed the edges). This made a noticeable difference in the temperature of the garage. I can turn a couple of fans on in the garage and leave the door to the house open and achieve a very reasonable temperature in the garage if I plan on being in there for a length of time. This helps in both summer and winter.

We have one boy and it didn’t really change our life that much. Some time running him to activities and overseeing homework and such, but our hobbies and friends didn’t change.

Not everyone who has kids ends up feeling this way though :(

Milk Shakes at just about any fast food restaurants. The machines always seem to be down! Pulled up to an Arby’s a few months back to order a Jamoca shake and they said their machine was down. I asked them if I had pulled into the McDonald’s drive through by mistake. We all had a big laugh… but that was months ago and they have now put a sticker on the menu that says their shakes are not currently available :(

Went to a Baskin Robins to order a Chocolate Milk shake and they were out of Chocolate ice cream… on multiple occasions. At least they don’t have a machine to break down!

You could try gluing it and clamping but it looks like getting a clamp on it might be hard and I have not had good luck gluing veneer that is peeling away like that. That is cheap and easy to try so I would start there though. Some of the other suggestions to repair it are good as well. I will throw out another, buy a sheet of veneer and cut out a square an inch or so larger than the area that needs to be repaired. Lay the square over the area to be repaired and cut out the bad area in the shape of the repair piece, then glue the repair piece in, a little wood putty and sanding to match might do the trick.

Depending on where it is peeling away, you might try putting on small decorative trim pieces stained or painted in a complementing color. I did this all along the underside of our countertop as decoration and to make some new cabinets blend in with older existing ones.

I have “professional” drywall in my house that doesn’t look that good. Take it as the learning experience it is and rest assured that most people won’t notice it.

I put on an old pair of coveralls, gloves, hat, hood, respirator, old shoes, goggles. I covered the doorway to the room with plastic and setup a fan for ventilation and pre-heated the bottles. Even with all that I was miserable. I was hot and sweaty, had trouble breathing, and couldn’t see out of the goggles. My arms were tired and the foam mixture wasn’t always mixing properly and ended up wasting a lot of the mixture. It was still pretty expensive and time consuming… not sure I would do it again.

I thought ridge vents were all the rage these days. I installed ridge vents and then put up Reflectix Reflective Roll Insulation from the soffits up to 12-18 inches from the ridge. It reduced the heat in the attic by a noticeable amount and wasn’t too expensive or difficult to install. I also blew in additional insulation. I plan on adding additional venting in the soffits in the future. My experience is that fans fail, require maintenance, use energy, and tend to only cool the attic off in certain areas if not well planned out with supporting architecture and venting.

I have a list of of interesting characters, but sticking to pure “fantasy or folklore” I will go with Aasimar.

I back up everything. I use Stablebit Drivepool with duplication for all of my source code, media, photos, documents, music, books, laptop backups, etc. I back that up periodically to a Drobo DAS and 8 Bay USB enclosure setup under Drivepool. I also have off site backup (working on a new NAS which will be accessed over a VPN). I don’t want to spend the time worrying about loosing anything I have put time and effort into. Been there and done that. Drives are relatively inexpensive but can fail without warning.