jeskavalentine

I am requesting a toaster oven from my son for my birthday but I want one which will last a while. I also don't want him to spend too much money on it.
So I need some recommendations from any of you who have toaster ovens on the best one to get that hopefully doesn't cost over $50.
I've looked online for a few but well I am still not sure.
I think I want a large one but I guess I will settle for a smaller one.
I really wouldn't use it for toast but more for cooking things like breaded shrimp or pizza. Mostly cooking frozen stuff or reheating leftovers. But it might be nice to broil a small steak or something now and then.
Thanks for your recommendations. Oh - I would also like to know what store you bought yours from. Thanks- BB

Okay, so, first of all I live in BC, Canada. I'm not really sure how to go about this, but I don't know what to do right now and I'm really worried about how the next month is going to go.

I turned 18 in February, applied for college, got accepted, and moved away to be on my own during the summer. I applied for student loans and I was approved for $7000 this semester. I thought this was pretty cool, and most likely enough to live on after I paid my tuition (Which was only $3800 this semester). On top of that, my boyfriend was moving in with me and planning on getting a job to help support me while I attend school.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances, $2000 of my left-over 'living' student loan money was stolen/loaned, and the person only paid back $1000, claiming that was all they took. This person is a family member - really the only family member I have, and they're currently paying for my hydro and internet until I can afford it - so I can't bring myself to do anything about it, or even fight with them over how much they took. The worst part is what they spent it on, but I don't want to divulge that. On top of that my boyfriend, who is currently 20, left his job of his own accord with the intention of moving with me, so he doesn't qualify for Unemployment Insurance. We've been checking all the websites, gone out on numerous occasions to every store that would take a resume handing them out, and emailed quite a few possible employers, but so far we haven't heard back. His resume shouldn't be the problem, since it was done professionally, but we've still tried editing it now and then to get it to sound even better. Still, he can't seem to get a job, and we've been looking for two months (since he moved here).

The problem with this is I've had to pay all the rent ($600 a month) and I'm out of student loans. We're currently $5.00 in the red, and the only reason we have food is because my college has special bursaries set aside for people in financial crisis, so they've given me Superstore gift cards so we can buy food. Unfortunately this doesn't help with my biggest problem right now, and that's December rent.

So, my biggest question right now is... What can we do? I've been so stressed about this that I haven't been able to concentrate on my work (art school, it's kind of hard for me to paint when I'm this stressed) and I'm starting to fail my classes, which would make this entire endeavor a complete failure. What are our options? I'm going to see a school councilor Monday about some options, but I want to know if anyone here knows anything that could help.

Sorry about all this, I didn't know where or who to ask...

I live in Maryland (so if anyone knows specific laws, that'd be rad too!). For clarification person without details we will call Neighbor A & B the married neighbors and neighbor C the sweet neighbor.

A & B Live next door to me (we have townhomes). A&B got into a fight. They have 4 children. A is drunk as hell (like always) and pulls out his gun and points it at his wife. B grabs her kids and runs to Neighbor C's house. She's not in shock. She's calm and collective - but she says she needs help, and so C of course helps. A (in his drunken stage) pounds and threatens to bust in neighbor C's door if they don't let him in. Neighbor C calls the cops because A claims he is going to shoot them with his gun. The 911 dispatcher asks B(The wife) if her husband (A) has a gun - and she says not a handgun, but yes a shotgun.

45 minutes later we hear a gunshot. REALLY FREAKING CLOSE. Then another... by the end there are 4 gunshots. A&B live right next door to us...2 of the shots were IN THERE HOUSE and the other 2 were on our street because A went psycho in his drunken stage and shot neighbor C's car in. The cops came - helicopters came. It was a freaking madhouse.

Regardless - Because no one actually SAW Neighbor A do what he did and now his wife (because we all know how unfortunate domestic situations can be for woman) won't admit that her husband has a gun (because he just got released from prison, can't legally posses a gun - so he could go back to prison for having possession of a gun as well as the damage he created) - the cops can't really do anything (at least at this point...).

Do I have ANY right to tell my leasing office they either need to evict the crazy man or let me out of my lease? I have 2 young children that there room shares the wall with A&B's house. I'm scared. Shots were fired. This is crazy, ridiculus, and obviously not a safe haven... But I can't really afford for a broken lease to be on my credit report (but if it has to be, I will do it - my children's safety is obviously more important). Anyhow, do I have any legal rights?

I've been trying to switch to only natural bath products. So far, I've gone no-poo (baking soda & ACV), have continued using Tom's of Maine toothpaste, and have gotten adjusted to using Tom's of Maine deodorant.

However, my face is and has always been a huge problem.

I tried OCM, but it made my face break out like crazy. I tried getting off the topical prescription medication I have, but my face looked awful.

Right now I'm using Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap at night, prescription cream overnight, and Aveeno natural moisturizing bar in the morning.

My question is: What kind of moisturizer do you guys recommend? I tried using a bit of OCM oil, but it didn't work. All the Burt's Bees stuff at my Walmart costs upwards of 15 dollars. I'm definitely not willing to pay more than 10 dollars for moisturizer. Have any of you tried pure Vitamin E? Before I started trying to go natural, I was using Dove moisturizer, and that worked wonderfully.

This is unrelated: I mentioned Tom's of Maine deodorant. This stuff is wonderful. I've been on prescription antiperspirant for a while, so I was really wary about going off it in favour of a deodorant. I think that since my body isn't having to deal with toxic aluminum, I'm not sweating as much. It's wonderful. My dad even uses it now, and he's always had excessive sweating. Highly recommend it!

Hi there,

I recently found a spot of ringworm on my leg (maybe due to a razor that I left in the shower.) I have been to the doctor and was prescribed prescription strength antifungal cream that I am using. However, I'm also wondering if other ongoing issues that I have been having with my skin, such as severe seborrheic dermatitis, could be tied to an overabundance or imbalance of skin yeast. I'm handwashing like lady MacBeth and using medicated dandruff shampoo as shower gel on top of using what the doctor recommended, as well as hitting the B-complex pretty hard. Is there anything else I can do do to perhaps get things back into balance as far as my skin is concerned?

And do I have to give up coffee and peanut butter? Some of the sites about candida are recommending this, and those are pretty much staples for me. D:

Finally I have a digital camera to take some decent photos of my hair growth. ^.^( Pictures under the cut )
 

I have had platinum blonde hair for about two years now. I love the color, but the maintenance is too much for me and I have decided to dye back to my natural ashy brown. However, I had a whole bunch of veggie dyes hanging around and, yesterday, dyed my hair completely pink (Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink) just as a last hurrah. What's the point in having platinum hair if you aren't going to use it as the blank canvas that it is? I have always used color in streaks or blocks, never the whole deal, so I'm quite pleased with it all being one solid, ridiculous color.

However, the boss gave me a few days' leeway, but would like me to get into a natural color asap. I was planning on just dying the "light ash brown" straight over the pink, but the woman at Sally's told me that I'd have to dye it ORANGE first. What? It's already pink... but she insisted that if I wanted to do an ashy color over this, it would need to be orange first. No way, man. I've spent the last two years of my life running from brass and orange colors. I AIN'T DOIN' IT.

At least not unless the general consensus here is that it must be done. What do you guys think?

I'm looking to buy a Wii since my bf never has money to go anywhere anymore, and I can't always afford to pay for him. So I figured it might be something fun we could do while not having to go anywhere. Watching movies all the time gets boring :P Anyway, a guy in the town I work in is selling one plus the remotes, wires, and 2 games for $190. But I'm so scared of buying it and it being a POS. Any advice for me? He listed it in excellent condition and when I asked why he was selling it is he said he just doesn't use it and wants the money to buy an xbox.

Hey everyone .. I have a question that is often posted here, but with a little variance. I'm sorry if this is redundant. I've been here a little while and haven't posted yet, but have read and commented, and I love this community! Very supportive, kind people here (all very beautiful too!). Anyway, here it goes.

So, I'm growing my hair out. It is very, very curly. Not tiny-ringlet size, but pretty close, with some bigger curls and smaller curls in the mix. The goal is BSL. Right now I'm a little past collar-bone, and I've been taking care of my hair in ways I never have before, all thanks to this community. I've switched to ACV rinse (no 'poo), honey, and olive oil. I will never touch a straightener or hair-dryer (... I hope) again. I plan on performing a very healthy body-art-quality henna experiment on my hair in the next week, mixing a little indigo in there to keep the color close to my natural.

So! That's the background, now here's my question: Every night, I try to braid my hair. I get a rat's nest in the morning. I don't like wearing my hair in a bun because the same thing happens over night! And wearing it down is just a nightmare. Maybe I should just resort to a nightcap. It's not even quite long enough for a truly effective braid.

What do you ladies (or gents) do with long, curly hair overnight?

Oh, and I plan on buying silk pillowcases sometime in the near future. This is my hope, that it'll make a difference.

I just thought I would share a couple of pictures. I love my long hair though it is a chore. I am half-black so it's VERY thick. I have no plans to cut it and my husband LOVES it. So here's a couple...
(  Locks this way... )

I've posted a couple times in the past, and I've had a pretty extensive love/hate relationship with dyes and cuts for some time now. I think I'm coming out of my hate stage, after not dying it for a bit. Two years maybe? I'm ready for something new, but I feel fresh out of ideas (that would look decent on me). I always fall back into reds, but I'm an open mind. Opinions? :)

( Past to present. )

Greetings,

I just ordered and have begun to use hair sticks fashioned by etsy craftsman screaminnorwegian. Specificially, my sticks are a 7 inch-long (3/8" wide) pair made of corian (yes - countertop material).

This pair is perfect for keeping a firm hold on my thick, coarse, curly shoulder length hair - in fact, I really only need 1 of the 2 at any given time. While I've seen wooden and metal sticks, I've not encountered too many made from countertop material!

In comparison, I've had little luck with sticks or forks found in most mainstream establishments. The metals ones inevitably bend (then break), and the (thin) wooden ones just snap in two. Jezzard's chignon pins worked quite well on my hair - however, a bit beyond what I can budget. At $18 + S/H, the corian pair are quite a nice purchase.

Has anyone else tried corian (silestone, marble) sticks? I'd love to compare notes.

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I am 20 weeks pregnant with our first kid and we are very excited!

I have a job that pays some bills and gives me health insurance, but quite honestly if I wasn't pregnant, I would have quit at least two months ago. Basically, regardless of when I do end up leaving to have the baby I have no plans of returning. Maybe to a different department in the same company, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

I am a high risk mama and I literally have twice as many appointments (at least) as the average pregnant lady. I am overweight and have high blood pressure. I'm being monitored by two doctors and everything has been okay so far with the baby and his/her growth and my blood pressure has been well controlled by medication.

I have been having a rough time with morning sickness and getting knocked down by a stomach bug for a couple of weeks and have missed a fair amount of work. My bosses are not pleased with this and think I need to toughen up. That may be the case, and I may look back and think I was being a giant wuss, but right now in the moment I'm just doing the best that I can. I have not worked here long enough to qualify for FMLA but I can take a medical leave of absence or personal leave. With that, I would technically be an employee for up to 38 weeks and would have no changes to health insurance for the first 12 weeks. After that, the health insurance would go away unless I paid into COBRA.

If I'm counting right, I'm one missed day of work away from being fired. As far as I know, I would qualify for unemployment because I have a health condition that would have led me to being fired. We would definitely qualify for food stamps then and although I'm not sure about Medicaid, I would qualify for CHIPS insurance for the rest of my pregnancy so at least prenatal care and delivery would be covered and the baby would be after that.

My question is, do you think it would be better to get fired or to go on medical leave now? I'm due in March, so my insurance would not last until the birth of my baby, but it would get me through the next few months at least. Is having health insurance through my company more important than trying to collect unemployment?

Any thoughts are helpful! Thanks for your time, I totally love this community.

Hey all,
Anyone want to show off their long differently color hair? I'm about 2 inches from waist-length at the moment with pretty wavy hair. I was thinking about dying my hair pink or some other color but I feel like it would look silly and "interesting" colors look better on short hair.

Prove me wrong!
Pictures please?

~*~EDIT~*~
Thanks so much for the quick responses. Moment of weakness I guess, I've been growing my hair out from maybe an inch long (basically buzzed) to the current length for 3 years. Looking into henna or something similar to get a more red hue over my natural brown...

It seems like there are a LOT of picture posts lately.

Which is a good thing, right? Text-only advice is great, but I love to see pictures of everyone else's hair growth and especially pictures of all of you longhairs' hair. It inspires me to keep going!

So hopefully this is inspiring to somebody out there??

I think my hair has JUST BARELY reached BSL. It would have probably been there months ago if I haven't been so crazy with my trimming/dusting. D: I think I'm just going to stop. I've probably cut a good 2-3 inches off in the past couple of months. Eeep.

( June 2008 - November 2009 )