Comment to send to milkbone.com

For quite some time, I have had an issue with the picture on the back of
your products. It shows a person holding a treat with the dog supposedly
looking at the person and the treat. The problem is the eye line of the
dog to the human does not work. If the dog was REALLY looking at the
person and the treat, you'd see the BACK of the dog's head. The
illustration is really annoying on all the boxes this appears. It should
be more with the person holding the treat and have them appearing from
the right side of the box (you don't need to see all of them) and the
dog actually looking right at them. The way it is now, it's really
annoying.

A ray of sunshine...

I get home tonight to find out the guy my older sister had arranged to
do the roof can't get to it for another month.

So mom called one guy she knows and he can get to it TOMORROW. I wish I
had the day off so I could help. But it looks like the roof will finally
get something on it at last...!!!!!

"Read this very carefully, I shall type this only once nyo!"
"There would be little point in typing it twice nyo!!" - 'Allo 'Allo nyo

"They make crayONs; do they make crayOFFs?"

Dancing among the Rafters

Tuesday night this week was horrible for me... T.T

Since my older sister did a half-assed job putting tar paper and No
Shingles on the roof, some of that tar paper on my part of the roof over
My Room blew off during the day. The paper itself was inexpertly applied
and has some holes in it. (Oh no - but oh yes). I'm beginning to think
this was done on purpose.

It leaked like last Tuesday's storms but even worse. I mean Oh my God,
if it hadn't stopped raining when it did, I'd have lost lots of my
possessions and anime goodies. I was flipping out like never before.
There's a reason why I should be investing in more of those plastic tubs
for storage. I bought 4 more this week.

My bed was soaked. I didn't sleep in my bed Tuesday night at all.
Wednesday night it was cold and damp but darnit, it's my bed and I'm
sleeping in my room. The ceiling has more damage than before my sister
tried "fixing" the roof.

I put up with so much.

It's good I had Wednesday off. I went up to Lowe's in Alliance around
9:30 am or so and bought a roll of 10 feet by 100 feet of 4 mil plastic
sheeting.

Now here's where it gets interesting. I had always wanted to get some of
this stuff. I find out plastic sheeting is very affordable and comes
folded up in rolls. I need just under 250 square feet of the stuff (My
room measures about 12 x 17, but I have the attic to cover). This stuff
ranges from thin plastic wrap used in painting to heavy duty 6 mil
that's clear or black and used in construction. In a pinch, 6 mil black
plastic sheeting could be tacked in place on the roof and used as actual
roofing material. 6 mil is Industrial use. Sugoi ne!

The roll I buy is under $40. Cheap! I get some staples for the stapling
gun, and off I go.

I spent about 2 to 3 hours in that attic laying this stuff down and
fixing it in place. This is when I see a hole in the roof, and right
above the plastic storage tub I placed there last year to catch the
leak. Before my older sister came along and ripped things off, I had
this one controlled in my catch and release system. Now this one spot
looks like someone put their foot through the wood. It's a freaking huge
hole!!! That's along with the loads of sunlight pinholes I see between
the wood slats and all.

If noone has mentioned how fun it is laying down plastic sheeting in
their attic, do not let me be the first to say that.

I made a good first effort in getting this stuff down. I'm afraid to say
that while this will handle most of the leaks, there's some at the very
edge of the roof it won't contain. I am not done. I spent Thursday sore
and in pain. It wasn't until I had a beer that most of the pain went
away. I have to go up again to finish the job and to check the wiring
for the one working baseboard heater that for some reason isn't working
right now. (oh no...) I am still feeling a little sore so I probably
will have more beer.

I hope to get this finished before the next time it rains. I may also
take the caulking gun up there and see about sealing some of this from
the inside.

Still nobody has shown up to put any shingles on the roof. I'm
considering talking to an attorney to see if I can sue my landlord. What
she did was WRONG. We get treated so badly by her. She has a PhD and
thinks she knows best, but this time it was clear she should not have
done anything more than one roof at a time. She's done this stuff
before. 7 months in 1995...

Guests and fish smell in 3 days

So... Just a few minutes ago, actually a bit earlier than that, my
sister said one of her first snide comments so far this time.

OK, so the dumpster for throwing away the old shingles arrives, but she
still ends up piling up a bunch of crap in front of the front door. Why
couldn't those have been thrown OVER the roof towards the dumpster
instead of creating more work for someone?

OK, so just now she went downstairs to check on something. Then she
comes up to ask where the heat tape on the pipes was. I tell her I don't
know where to get it plus I don't have the money to get it. She asks me
how much I make. It's none of her business I tell her. Then she says it
is too her business, then asks how much I pay to live here. Well mom
pays the rent, I take care of (usually) the electric. She knows that.
She comes up with some stupid thing like she can't afford to subsidize a
place for me to live.

WHAT THE .... !!!?!

It's NONE of her business what I make, nor what I pay to help out. All I
know is I did work in Apt B and I have not yet been paid for that. I
don't have money to pay for things that I won't be paid back.

I need a lawyer if she's going to try make some stupid case and try to
make me move out. She's hurting mom more than me if she tries that.

YET ANOTHER REASON WHY IT'S BAD FOR MY SISTER TO OWN THE PLACE WE LIVE
IN.

Once again, nobody listened to me...

Ok, so my older sister is up from Florida to work on the house because
of a pressing issue involving my aunt and some money. (long story)

The roof needs replaced - actually, only parts of it leak, but she's
going ahead to do the whole thing. Hopefully in a week's time. Which may
turn out to be a bit longer.

So Sunday she rents a truck and buys the stuff needed for the roof.
Which includes about 58 bundles of shingles that need loaded off the
truck so it can be returned.

After Extreme Makeover Home Edition is done, I spend the next hour or so
helping do just that and we get it done.

Today, she makes some good progress getting the old stuff off, checking
the wood underneath, putting tar paper on it, then shingling it. Only
there were 3 layers of shingles, no original tar paper, and lots of
nails to remove. I don't get up on the roof because I know my limits.
She had one of her friends and they were both up there doing work on the
roof. I'd say about 1/4 of the main roof has new tar paper on it. Which
for the first time since being here, the bit of ceiling at the top of
the stairs in our part of the building doesn't leak anymore.

(I also found out while the property was appraised by the county at $48K
for tax purposes, a recent appraisal netted only $35K for the purposes
of a loan. But the figure might go up after repairs are made, since that
can be considered a capital investment in the property and thus add to
the value.)

OK, so while she's up there, a neighbor across the road from us notices
her up there and asks if she does this as a regular thing since he knows
about 2 trailers with leaking roofs...

Anywho. Around 8 pm we check the local weather outlook, and there's some
nasty weather headed our way. I make sure she knows about this, and she
continues to stay at work on the roof. She asks when it will get here
and I estimate within the hour.

Around 35 or so minutes after that, it starts to lightning and thunder
and rain. I guess she decides maybe to get off the roof now, instead of
when I told her about the storms coming. We find out about this when
there's this sickening thud and stuff falling from the ceiling in the
kitchen. Oh great. As it turns out she slipped off the ladder she had on
the kitchen roof to the other roof above Apt. A and her foot went
through the roof and ceiling in our kitchen. I see she's up and mobile,
and decides to head into Apt. C where she's been sleeping. While we're
watching Heroes, she doesn't make any appearance to see what happened
inside nor to tell us if she's OK in any way, even though she told me
when I ran outside to see what the hell happened that she was OK more or
less.

This has been a pattern of Let's Not Listen To Me as my friends have
noticed. I told her the weather was going to do something, but she just
kept right on and didn't stop when she should have.

After Heroes finishes up, I check on her. I knocked on the door but no
answer. Later I let her dogs out to do their business, and then take
them back up. Let them wake her up. I hope she's OK. At least have the
decency to let us know if she hit her head or something.

At least we know how cheap the ceiling in the kitchen is. There had been
ceiling tiles put up, then it was covered with that stupid textured crap
we hate. While there is a bit more damage to the kitchen roof and
ceiling, it was going to be worked on anyway.

I just want it done in one week.

Why sometimes I don't respect some people...

And in particular some elderly people. I never got respect from my
grandfather, so I don't give it out very often to people that age and
older. And in the job I have now, some of those elderly women, too. They
can be downright crazy. As one friend wisely put it, Those Insane Ohio
Women.

One Sunday, I'm running register. All the time while I'm on register, I
have the screen positioned so I can see what's going on. I need to - I'm
the operator of the terminal. You the customer Don't need to see what's
going on. Don't touch MY screen. At All.

This one elderly woman comes up, and I begin to ring up her purchase. In
the middle, she suddenly freaks out on me - She "needs" to see the
screen as I run her stuff through. I explain to her that if something
gets double-scanned by accident (and as it happened, one of her items
gets the infamous double scan as I explain to her), I need to know what
it is. She freaks out. "Well, stop ringing my order if you're not going
to let me see the screen!!" she screams at me. Good grief. Like we're
the Evil Store, and we're trying to Get One By you by charging something
than what you think you saw on the shelf. I let the witch see the screen
until the end and show her where I corrected a double ring. "Did you
take it off??!" Sadly, yes.

The people who act like that, as if they "need" to see the ring up
screen are people who come to the store with an irrational idea of what
their shopping experience is supposed to be like TO THEM. They will
mis-read the price sticker on the shelf, mis-interpret a message about
something that will happen when they do this, or any number of things
like that. Coupons (It is pronounced "koo pons" and NOT 'cue pons' -
read the freaking word - how is it spelled???) are often misread.
Anywho, these people see the store as Evil while instead they are
incredibly insecure and stupid.

Today was something similar in regard to crazy women. An elderly couple
comes up to the end of the checkout with a cart of stuff. I had just
returned from a break, the light was on, I had the belt on and was
cleaning the general area. The lady asks me "Are you open?" And my reply
innocently enough is "well, the light is on." and then she freaks out at
me, like she was some school teacher (or not) and there's Only One Way
to Answer A Question Like That, and screams at me "That's NOT what I
asked you!" What?? What did you hear me say?

Criminy!! Did I even stand a chance at answering that one right?! Most
(sane) people who got my answer would take that as a welcome to my
register sign and unload their cart. But no, this woman screams at me,
then goes to the next register to check out. I shoot her a really dirty
look, like she's crazy and all. OK, Fine. I didn't want to ring up your
stuff ANYWAY.

Shouldn't people who act like that be in a home? Just my opinion, of
course. I also hate paper bags because the idiots who ask for them are
really stuck up and not very nice. Thanks for helping me to decide what
I thought about paper bags. I hate them. I didn't really care before but
now I have a definite opinion.

Finally an overhead light in my room

It had been bugging me ever since we moved in that there were exposed
wires in the ceiling in 2 rooms upstairs. I somehow had found a light
fixture from somewhere here and 3 wirenuts to attach it. But the problem
was not knowing which wires did what.

The wiring was incredibly crazy but I guess that's how this place was
done when it was originally built. As the wiring went, it allowed for a
ceiling fan to be installed and have the fan and light independently
switchable. I don't need a ceiling fan - in fact, the ceiling here is
way too low to allow me to move around with one without accidentally
damaging it. I think these 2 upstairs rooms had one in each of them. The
former tenants must have been ceiling fan crazy, as the kitchen and one
other room downstairs has them. They're in the other apartments as well.

There should have been only 2 wires to connect a fixture to. There were
3 bunches. !! I had a plan and used a circuit tester to find the live
pair. This thing is basically a little light with 2 metal probes at the
end. It lights up when I find powered wires. What about the other two
bunches?

The electrical socket behind my bed doesn't work. So I'm guessing one
set is supposed to connect to the live pair. And in order to have a
switchable circuit, you have a direct connection to one wire, while you
have the other interrupted by a switch. Using my voltmeter's continuity
tester, I found which pair goes to the switch. Presto.

A little fight with the wirenuts (I needed 3) and I now have an overhead
light I can switch on and see better. I see there's 2 sets in the other
room, so figuring that out and putting in a light there should be
easier.

At some point I might connect the electrical outlet behind my bed. Or at
least put in a grounded 3 prong outlet.

Da battery in Da Car

After 4 times having to deal with a dead battery that's still good, I've
taken a few steps to make sure I have a car battery with a charge.

Since I've kept blaming the cold on the problem - I had the new Duralast
battery for 3 months and then when it got painfully cold the last week
of January 07 it decided it didn't want to work right... I've been
taking the thing out and putting it inside since the weekend. I also
experimented to see if I needed to charge it - I don't. The car manual
for the Kia says to remove the battery if it needed charging. That makes
sense as the week I spent hooking the trickle charger up to it while
still in the car didn't exactly produce consistent results.

So the one Wednesday or Thursday it did its Dead Act, I went to Napa.
One guy there brought out a couple of meter testers. He checked the
charging system and at idle, it was working just fine. Shut off the car,
and he tested the battery with a simulated load for 10 seconds. That
also tested good.

Then he tested the cold cranking amps. The battery is rated at 590, but
the meter said 456. Ah. The guy said it's still pretty good, the battery
isn't that bad where he'd condemn it.

While talking to a few people at the anime club meeting on Saturday, one
guy said there sounds like there's a short somewhere in the electrical.
I kinda doubted that a bit, but then I remembered the test. And Myers
said he wouldn't be surprised if some critter sneaked up into the engine
area while it wasn't being driven and chewed a bit on something. There's
a drain of something like 130 amps it seems (maybe) and perhaps there's
a short in the starter system. It'll do these text book crank and
starts that are not very long and strong, but if it has to crank for a
half second longer than it likes, it acts like it stops and has to
really go again. I hope it's just something simple like a slightly bare
wire and NOT inside the starter. There's also the thing with the fuel
pump. There's times where I had to turn the thing off and on a few times
and also crank a few times before it would catch. One mechanic said you
sometimes have to "wake up" the fuel pump. but then there's times where
after I've ran it a while, it just starts right up no problem, and
probably a strong half second crank...

My mom had no problem for all the time she drove it, then I get the damn
thing and it costs me money and aggravation.

The latest with my sister...

Well, you won't believe the latest.

First of all, info we recently unearthed is public record.

If you go to http://www.landaccess.com/ and go to Carroll County, OH,
then search with the name "Castle" you'll get a list, of which Candice
Castle should be in.

Click on the Details link and you should see another list.

On that, there's the filing for the Quit Claim Deed as mom and my aunt
and my grandfather all signed the property over to my sister.

Then you see my sister filing an Open Mortgage for $40K with Grange
Bank. Mom claims this was not supposed to be 40K, but $16K and plus a
few things my sister asked if she could put on it. My mom should not
have OKed it. I knew about this one for $40K, but apparently mom doesn't
remember it, says it should have been for about $20K or so. This was to
be used to pay off mom's bankruptcy case because they didn't get a good
attorney who could have gotten mom off from paying.

Then about a year later or less, you see my sister extending that to
$75K!!! The previous mortgage is paid off then she's grabbing another
$35K!??? WTF... We're going to find out what she thought she needed $35K
for. As Myers has said, she got the property signed over to her, and saw
nothing but dollar signs as she bilked my mom out of her inheritance.
That New vehicle Myers saw probably came from that. She didn't need
it!!! It was not her money as we all know.

By the end of 2005, the same records show the sale of the house but she
used a Warranty Deed which claims she sold the house for "$1 and other
financial consideration".. Well, Myers has also said and we're saying it
now as well especially my mom and aunt, that Candice has been lording it
over us how she's got this Doctorate and how we're so stupid. She
thought we'd never find out what she did. What the hell is a warranty
deed? It also doesn't tell us exactly how much she got for the house!
She wasn't so smart that we wouldn't catch her absconding with the
money.

The $75K Grange loan is paid off. There's at least $40K she still owes
my mom and my aunt because she used it and was not authorized to do so.

Even though I couldn't figure out how to find the document online, the
Columbiana County recorder does have info to tell us where the sale of
the Bayard Road house is at their office. We found out the house was
bought for just over $17.5K and on a credit card, not the $20K we've
been told all along.

I hope the lawyer my aunt got to handle this case is able to find her
property info in Florida as well.

My younger sister and her family I don't think got any money for helping
out as was promised. And nobody's told Candice of the time when we got
the Amerigas propane tank hooked up how we woke up every morning for a
week with massive headaches because too much propane was flowing into
the furnace, and had I not figured out what was going on and reduced the
flow, that house would have killed us both - with excessive propane
fumes and an explosion. Anerigas could have been sued for not properly
adjusting the flow and as it was we ran out of propane in that week, and
nobody told us it was only 5% full - and it was to be filled up soon
after delivery but wasn't!! They keep also trying to bill mom for rent
on a tank we no longer have at an address we no longer own... I have
helped out and I deserve consideration. I think mom should get her share
of the sale of the house back, and any money she paid on taxes and
insurance. My sister forced my mom to waste her money.

If anything, I hope it gets set up that my Aunt gets the money from the
rent on the apartments here after everything gets fixed up. My aunt got
the letter from Candice after the sale of the house promising what would
be done with the money, so while my dad was offering bad legal advice
(oral agreements mean nothing?), my aunt has this letter ANYWAY.

Only thing is, my sister promised (also) that money my mom paid as rent
(or other money received from the jerkoff who moved out) was going to be
used to fix the place up - well, she's been spending that. Heh.

Hell of a day today

Went out to start the car, and the battery acts like it's dead. Oh
great. Just when I need it. It was painfully cold last night, so I guess
the Autozone Duralast batteries last only when they aren't cold.

So I get AAA to come out. I also put on the charger on the battery -
last week on Thursday it did this thing as well. I had it jumped, took
it to Autozone, the guy tested it, but due to the loose connections,
they couldn't get a good reading. So I put on new tight American
designed top mount battery terminals. Paid a guy $5 to put a $3 part on.
Runs fine afterwards. Even started nice and strong on Tuesday when I
started it to what I hope would charge the battery.

Anywho, Just as the guy from AAA comes to jump, I try the thing again
after the charger was on the 10 amp charge setting for 1 hour and 14
minutes. It starts. Took it to Autozone again, the guy tests it. The
tester says to charge the battery and try again. WTF? But as it does the
test, I see the voltage reading creeping up to 12 Volts. The battery
obviously was cold and didn't want to work. ARGH. Guy tests the charging
system, and again it shows OK. I know the alternator is working because
when I had the terminals changed from the Kia strips of metal to the
significant ones I bought, the guy removed one (it just came straight
off) and the car continued to run OK.

Guy at autozone says if I still have problems, bring it back and they
will change it for sure. I mention the battery charger, and he says
putting the battery on a 2 amp trickle charge isn't a bad idea,
especially with the forecast of it getting damn cold in a few days.

Anywho, I get to work late, but I call to say I'll be late, is 10 to 5
ok? Manager OKs it, I tell this to the HR lady and she'll fix it because
Rick approved the change due to the circumstances.

Get ready to go home, get some water, and the right front tire is flat.

Well, this is the one that I put Fix a Flat in it, and it was working
until today, when I guess when it gets painfully cold and batteries
don't want to work, Fix a Flat stops working too.

Get back to work, try to change it, but the jack is rusted. I borrow
Jean's (she's got a Kia, too), and manage to do the change with the
spare.

Waiting at home is my Passport (less than 4 weeks!), and an order for
MP3 players that are also card readers, one of which I'm trading to a
friend for a 1G SD card.

My refund this year is over $700. If I had earned one penny less, I
would have $6 more in my refund. Instead of tax breaks, why the hell
doesn't someone increase the EIC?? Dammit!

Well, tax breaks would have been nice, too.

So all told, I'd have money for a ticket to Japan, but little else.
Someone said that in spite of credit cards being usable in Japan, it's
still mainly cash only.

I doubt I could receive my refund fast enough to be able to pull this
one off (well, there is electronic filing over the net... I guess with
direct deposit and stuff) or had time in March. Does Narita have that
airport exit tax still?

I'd have enough to go to Japan, shop for 1 or 2 days, then go home.

I'm tired, and I need a pizza and a beer.

ttaku... I'm going to see if I need to put the charger on the battery
over night tonight. It's been forecasted as being in the single digits
or lower for the weekend.... T.T