I have one of those dads too. Just recently Nickolas was over there and my dad told him he was getting fat. After listening to him critisize me all my life, about my weight, I will NOT let him do that to my son. Just last year he offered to pay for the gastric bypass surgery for me...out of the blue.

Aw, bummer. My dad doesn't get into the personal insults of that nature - particularly since he's responsible for the short and squat portion of my genetic code, but he's super big on penny pinching and I get regular lectures on how I should never go on vacation or buy anything I don't absolutely need. And my place is never clean enough for my folks, no matter what I do. Plus I have to hide all the alcohol or he pouts.

However! A key development in the outlet saga is that I checked it one more time before bed last night and suddenly noticed a small spring on the counter. And I'm betting that spring was supposed to go under the reset button that I already put on there and now can't get off. And possibly that is contributing to my problem?

Yep, that could do it. How is your comfort level at replacing the outlet? There's a decent writeup here. It's not too difficult, if you match the wires to the existing outlet (and verify the power is off), but I can see how some people wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. You can do anything you put your mind to, but for many people, this isn't a high enough priority to invest any time in :) . I'm sorry to hear that your Dad won't fix it without some emotional overhead, in that case maybe hiring an electrician would be wise.

You ever feel like not hitting the brakes or swerving, just letting the idiots on the road hit you to "teach them a lesson"?

I'm pretty sure that's it. The place is only 11 years old and above code requirements, so I doubt there's anything seriously wrong. I probably pulled off the button when I slathered the outlet with painter's tape and just didn't notice earlier.

I'll probably just have dad do it. He'll be up next weekend anyhow to check on my brother. Oooh! If I time it right, I could leave BT alone with my dad and the outlet and take my mom to the super cool yarn store. :evil:

This is BT's philosophy - but the idiots are generally headed toward my side of the car, so I'm not nearly so keen on the idea.

First day of work went swell. It's a fun work environment. Everyone is cool in my office.
:)

Congratulaions on a swell first day!

Yes to both of these. And, what is up about cars that cut in to the spaces you leave for stopping? So I leave a little space ahead of me in case the cars slam on their brakes {going 50mph} and chop chop.

I have so felt recently like hopping out of my car and opening up a can of 'Whup A$$' on some people.

People around here seem to be only concerned on their destination and not other people on the road or the laws.

So I tanked the evidence final, which is not a huge shock. I hate hate hate T/F tests. I will locate every damn abiguity and I won't know which way to read the question. This was a particularly abysmal exam. Don't write T/F questions if you can't write them clearly! Asshat.

But, my A+ awarding legal writing prof will give me a "glowing" (his words) reference for interviews, so screw Mr. Mumbles evidence prof.

In other news, my biotech profs are super cool regular guys who made it quite clear that a tech background was not necessary for their class, and attempted to impress upon me the astounding feats an English major could achieve in patent litigation.

I spent a good portion of time in the career office today so I have school on the brain.