They’re an evolution of the way homes were “sold” to blacks and immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (I don’t remember what the specific mechanism was called but landlords would have people sign “rent to own” contracts on houses and then repossess the house when the tenants couldn’t pay. See Sinclair’s…

Depending on what the wall is supporting and how you want the floor plan to change, the engineer may have had to basically redesign the house. Example, I once worked on the plans for a McMansion where the owner didn’t want any walls to support the double curved stairway in the entry way. That was WAY more complicated…

A pass through isn’t much of an improvement compared with the idea of tearing out the whole load bearing wall. You still have to support that gap somehow, just framing it in with 2x6s generally won’t cut it.

Who brought that piece of nonsense out of the grays because...damn.

I would have punched him in the face after that last quote.

My friend who made one for her wedding knew how heavy it was so we ended up making a throwing bouquet out of the bows and decorations from the bridal shower.

Read the translations of the French, Russian, and Chinese anthems. The French especially.

To be fair, the US anthem is pretty low on the list of most violent anthems.

My thing is that it looks like a Honda in the same way a samsung S2 looked like an iPhone 3G

I know about this solely because it came up that I had terrified my parents a couple of times with croup when I was 2-3 after I read “Anne of Green Gables” and was talking about the Ipecac scene. Apparently there was one marathon session where it wasn’t severe enough for the ER but my parents were trading off keeping…

Perhaps other states will start following suit to get in on this marijuana cash cow.

Are we going to talk about the atrocious lighting the Japanese goalie had for the first half of the game? 3 out of the 4 goals in that half were because the US was shooting from in front of the sun.

Me too. Truth in satire I guess. And another reason to watch that movie soon.

A professor of mine in college was working on the structural design of the propellers for some Navy grants. Some wicked stuff came out of the aerodynamic analysis.

Vaginismus is my problem and thankfully there’s a PT clinic in my area that a) specializes in pelvic floor PT (harder to find than you might think) and b) takes my insurance. I was first clued into this when my gyno had to take a couple of tries to get the speculum in during my pelvic exam when it didn’t use to be a…

I’ve seen her too, and honestly, the reviews have it right. She’s not as expressive as the premier soloists at other companies. The UA campaign was a brilliant PR move on either her part or the ABT as it made ballet relevant for a while. But as a dancer, she’s good but not one of the greats.

How little you know about the state of birds and small mammals in moderately developed areas. Hint, it isn’t something positive. Deer, on the other hand, I wish I could shoot on sight.

I’m ok with having outdoor cats in the city, because rats. But once you have more grass than concrete in your yard, it’s time for kitty to stay indoors as they are destroyers of wildlife.

Similar situation to the email of the week happened in my family too. My parents had a popup trailer and occasionally I set it up in the front yard for sleepovers in the summer. In the trailer was a chemical toilet that you only used if you absolutely had to (with the house being 5 feet away, it never should have been…

True story. I once inspected a bridge where the bridge could carry truck loads just fine but the (as ritzy as you can get in western WV) neighborhood insisted on the bridge being posted for 5 tons so no big trucks would drive through their neighborhoods.