http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/smarterhighways/

Cat teeth are like pointy needles and they make deep puncture wounds. Puncture wounds usually don't bleed much, and when you wash it, the water can't circulate inside the wound. So what is there to flush foreign matter out of the wound? Nothing.

Which is why the odds of infection from bites like this are very high. The only thing worse if you're the same species as the biter. At least most of the cat's mouth bacteria are adapted to a cat, not a human.

If you google "bite wound" or "puncture wound" there are instructions for what to do; clean it and dress it. See a doctor if it doesn't get better. Everything you already did, more or less.

Personally, and if it didn't bleed profusely or if the biter and the bitten are the same species, I'd presume it to be infected and see a doctor without waiting to see if it looks infected.

If you have constricted drain or sewer pipes, water can slowly empty out of the pipes when not in use, such as overnight or while you're at work. Then as more and more water goes into the drain from various sources, sinks, showers, whatever, the sewer line and the pipes fill up faster than it can exit past the blockage. The water could be filling the lines to the point where it reaches the hole in your shower drain, then leaks out.

Imagine a horizontal pipe with a hole in the top, for example, where water only reaches the hole when the pipe is full but not when a stream of water is flowing along the bottom of the pipe.

That could explain why it doesn't happen all the time. You can test this by running a sink continuously for a while and seeing if the water starts to back up and the drain empties slowly. Then go turn on the shower and see if your leak happens right away. Conversely, if the house has been unoccupied for several hours and nobody has used any water, and then you run the shower and there is no leak, that suggests the pipes were empty and haven't filled up yet.

If that's the case, you might mitigate the problem by having your sewer line cleared. Your leak will still be there, but if the line is not blocked it shouldn't fill up after a lot of usage, and it might then not leak.

But that only puts off the day when you will have no choice but to open up the walls and fix it. Clearing your sewer line is good preventative maintenance anyway, so it wouldn't be a total waste if it doesn't help with the shower leak.

My observation of about a half dozen parents who put their babies in a crib, and tried to put them on a sleep schedule to one degree or another, and another half dozen or so who kept the baby in their bed and didn't try to schedule anything, is that the amount of work, aggravation, frustration, and lost sleep is about equal.

You're either running down the hall to check on a fussy baby or you're rolling over to check on a fussy baby who keeps kicking you in the head. Or you spend a week transitioning your baby to fall asleep at a certain time, enjoy a week of being "on schedule" and then (oddly enough!) you're off the schedule again next week and hard at work trying to get back on schedule.

Whereas if you don't bother trying to schedule them, the baby will fall asleep at your preferred time on their own about one week out of three -- the difference is that you don't spend the other two weeks battling with them to get them back on schedule.

If yours always falls asleep at 9, consider yourself lucky -- at least it's consistent. Just plan around it and don't try to mess with it.

It seems like if you're trying to get them to sleep at a specific time, or in a specific place, then you're constantly strategizing, planning, disciplining yourself, and doing various work. And if you don't, then you're at the mercy of whatever the kids preferences are. Neither is ideal, but based on my admittedly small sample size, it's six of one or a half dozen of the other.

So why bother? Why wrack your brain trying to make the kid do what they don't seem to want to do? I think it's easiest, and less stressful, to hold them when they cry, let them sleep in their preferred place (usually in the parents' bed), and at their preferred time. They'll be insisting on sleeping in their own bed soon enough, so enjoy it while it lasts.

California makes this difficult, and they might actually make it impossible. The reason is that they have more strict emissions standards than the other 49 states, and so with the exception of legally recognized heroes-who-can-do-no-wrong, i.e. military personnel, they don't want non-California vehicles. See Before Buying a Vehicle From Out of State - Be Sure You Can Register It in California FFVR 29.

But she might be allowed to use the Application for Duplicate Title form. Depending on whether that form is only for California cars with a lost title, or for any car with a missing title. And she isn't looking to register 49-state car; only title it so it can be sold. I would read the above, then get on the phone with the California DMV and see what they tell her to do.

I would also get on the phone with the nearest junkyard. They probably know how to deal with this sort of thing. They might be also willing to come get the car and crush it for steel, under the table without a lot of legalistic niceties. I used to be in that business 25 years ago, and you kind of did whatever you could get away with, as long as nobody called the cops. Obviously, they're not going to admit that in writing on their web site or in an email, so speak on the phone or in person.

If that fails, Google up a service that connects drivers with car owners needing to move their cars to another state. Ideally to a state willing to junk the car without a title.

I don't know.

But...

I think appliances tend to be powder coated rather than painted. I would call Seattle Powdercoat in Frelard/Balmont, (206) 297-1029. I called them once with a completely different project and they were extra friendly and helpful.

Donate it to Interconnection. They have various drop off points, or you can mail it in. They also would do a pickup if it was newer working machine. They wipe the hard drive, or destroy it if it doesn't work.

Yes. No. You did verify that you are using the correct bulb, right?

The Buddy 125 is a badge-engineered Yamaha Vino 125 (Rebranded from I don't know what -- it's basically a nice Taiwanese scooter. I have one.), so don't feel like Ducati Seattle is your only choice. Unless it's still under warranty, of course -- then take it back and make them fix it.

The reason it isn't a fuse is that a blown fuse causes an open circuit, i.e., no light. Whereas a burnt out light would be too much voltage at the light, caused probably by either a bad voltage regulator feeding too much voltage to the whole bike, or else a shorted lighting coil resistor. Or perhaps some weird off the wall thing, if it isn't one of those two. But the root cause is not a blown fuse.

Although of course if you have too much voltage (i.e. a bad regulator), you could have other fuses blown, in addition to burning out headlights, so there's no harm in looking at your fuses and seeing if any are blown.

Anyway, a mechanic is your best bet, and you'll likely be charged by the hour for however long it takes to trace the problem, rather than flat rate. So make some phone calls to Duc Sea, Southend Cycle, Seattle Cycle, or a Yamaha Dealer and ask them if they'll take a look, and what their hourly rate is. Come to think of it you could also call Fritz Scooter or Big People Scooters, though I know little about them myself.

Make sure you have a thorough, crystal-clear discussion about what they will do, what they will charge, and that they will call you before the bill exceeds an agreed upon limit. In theory, electrical repairs can take an infinite amount of time to troubleshoot, hence no flat rate. A lot of mechanics are kind of Laconic so make sure you're communicating well before it gets too deep.

Seattle Cycle on 10201 Aurora Ave. N. -- I'm pretty sure they have a larger selection than Aurora and Lake City cycle, though I'd check there too. This HJC a decent choice. You don't need a $400 Shoei, unless you try it on and it truly feels worth that much to your head (my wife wears one of these and she thinks it worth it). More expensive is not safer, as long as it's a real DOT helmet and not some silly skid lid.

Fit is critical. Spend time with the sales guy learning how to know if it fits right.

And get a full face helmet. I've never been down on a motorcycle but I was run off the road on my scooter, and I landed face-down. My full face helmet saved me from having a mashed, road-rashed nose and jaw. In general, if you gear up more like a motorcyclist than a scooterist, you'll be more properly prepared for meeting pavement or car parts. Have you taken the motorcycle safety course, by the way?

Also, consider a helmet with a sun visor inside that flips down. I have a Schuberth helmet with that feature and I love it -- if you wear sunglasses it gets awful dark inside the tunnels.

My grandfather was at the Hormel plant for 40 years. Forty. Years. All he would ever say about it was, "You don't want to know." It was easier to get my dad to talk about the war than to get my granddad to talk about hot dogs.